It would be difficult to find a person who has watched Dead Poets Society and not be influenced by it. The 1989 movie continues to inspire people across the world, and Rupam Jyoti Malakar is no different. Sure, the movie takes place in a fictional, conservative Vermont school in 1959, which has no common ground with Guwahati, but the movie’s message was strong enough to influence and impact Malakar. Dead Poets morphed into bad poets, and poetry picked up its tempo and was reborn as rap. Yes, as we said, there are few, if any, common grounds. Except the love for music.
“One day, a friend of mine sent me this beautiful quote from the film ‘Dead Poets Society’ which says- poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. The quote left a lasting impression on my mind and inspired by it, I chose ‘Bad Poet Society’ as my stage name,” introduces Rupam Jyoti Malakar—freestyle rapper from Guwahati.
Although relatively new to the field of music, Malakar has been in the field of media for working in the directorial team of many notable movies. The film ‘Omanuh’ (in which he had worked as an Assistant Director) got selected for the Royal Stag Barrel Select Short Films. His debut directorial film ‘The Closure’ even got an Official Selection laurel for Second Asia International (Wenzhou) Youth Short Film Exhibition in 2016.
I like experimenting with different things and strongly believe that when you put your heart and soul into things, there’s nothing you cannot achieve. It’s my dream to do something significant in my homeland Assam and tell the unique stories of this region to the world.
On October 20, the artist rolled out his debut rap song Kill Kar Time which has raked up over 1K views in just a week. Malakar was working in Mumbai as a freelance scriptwriter till 2019. “Those days weren’t easy,” he says recounting the experiences. He added, “I knew no one from the industry and had to do everything on my own. Some days felt hopeful and others felt bleak to me. One one such day, a sudden bout of inspiration hit me and I came up with the lyrics of my rap song Kill Kar Time. “It’s also a tribute to my father, who recently left for his heavenly abode,” he added.
A couple of months later, the freestyle rapper had to leave Mumbai permanently and return to Guwahati. “Here I met my wonderful team-Saif Khan (Filmmaker), ‘Nokito’ Pinku Das (Art Direction), Hitesh Boro (Art Direction), Subham Borah (Music Composer) and Rupankar Parashar (Mixing and Mastering). With encouragement flooding in from everywhere, we started working on the video as soon as the lockdown restrictions were lifted and finally the video was released,” he added.
For me, the highlight of my life is from the days when I was still trying to make something out of my life. I do not want to consider myself as a rapper only, because I am into a lot of creative pursuits. Instead, I would like to think of myself as a creator, because creating is all I can think of. I want to create as long as I am here on this planet.
Drawing inspirations from rapper Eminem, Zack de la Rocha from the band ‘Rage Against The Machine’, Dimebag Darrell, the lead guitarist of the band ‘Pantera’ and ‘XXX Tentacion’; ‘Bad Poet’ is an avid lover of hip hop, rock and classical metal music.
The artist is of the view that lyrics or poetry must come from within, adding that he needs to be present in the moment and in sync with his senses. “Once it happens, I usually jot down whatever comes to the mind, polishing it later,” he said. Additionally, Malakar also gave a snippets of the works in his pipeline. “Pre-production of one Assamese feature film is in process. Few indie rap songs are coming shortly. Also, some special projects which cannot be revealed at this moment are in the pipeline.”
