After promising to attempt the entire interview in Tamil, American hip hop artiste Emcee Call says Tamil Nadu was love at first sight. “I was fortunate enough to get a scholarship to study in here,” Call says modestly. “I first came to Vellore. I’ve studied a lot of religion, and the kind of harmony I was exposed to at Vellore was something like I’ve never seen before,” he elaborates, switching between Tamil and English. “I learnt so much in my first visit that I knew that I had to give back. So I decided to come back,” says the artiste who was in the city recently to collaborate with a Chennai-based hip hop crew.
Since that first trip, Call, who is known for his album An Emcee Called Call, has travelled to Tamil Nadu as both a musician and a social worker, more than a few times. “The primary influence for my music are the feelings I get, the pictures I take and the people I meet. I can’t think of a single song that hasn’t been influenced by the life I’ve lived. I don’t write about things I don’t understand and have intimate knowledge of,” says Call.
Having said that, Seattle-based Call says that it’s the people in the villages who he gets along with the most. They are the ones who inspire and influence me, he says. “En kudumbam is the malai makkal (My family are the people from the hills),” he smiles. “We’re worlds apart. I’m from 9,000 miles away. But the experiences we’ve had, the way we treat each other, the way we respect our elders, the values and wisdom of our family and the way we invest in the next generation are all very similar,” he explains. “I’ve never seen my home so clearly except when I’m here. I’ve never appreciated my family and origins when I’m so far away and when I can see my family in other people,” he adds before quickly remembering to switch back to Tamil, “Romba santhoshama irrukken (I’m very happy).”
Call definitely has picked up enough Tamil over his many visits here, but it surely mustn’t be sufficient for him to converse with his malai makkal. “I can talk for 10 minutes maybe – just get through the formalities,” he says. “But there’s just something beautiful about the language – even if I don’t understand the words, I know exactly what I am supposed to feel. Tamil is a shakthi mozhi (powerful language), people here are shakthi makkal - irumbu makkal,” he says with the passion of a Tamil philosopher. “And that’s what hip hop does. It transcends beyond the language barriers and the caste barriers.”
He has a special empathy for children here, Call says. “We can dance and beatbox, sing and have an entire conversation without saying a word,” he says. “You don’t need words to communicate. Kids are the best teachers. Chinna vathiyars,” he grins.
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