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BONE KILLA What is going on in Sri Lanka with Rap is very exciting to me. I hear a certain style and a sound, a tribal ethnic flavor. Like our own Sri Lankan rap is taking shape. We could say that we are coming into a different style, but still we are not trying to do something new. When it comes out of Sri Lanka it’s new naturally. Let’s say Sri Lanka was hardly influenced by hip hop. We had to make an effort in order to get hip hop here. The thing is that it didn’t come to us. Now that it comes out of Sri Lanka the thing is, we’ve got something new, something that other people don’t have. We have some ethnic music here already and when you mix that with hip hop you already have a different sound. What you are saying is that even though you don’t try too hard to be different, because it’s coming from Sri Lankan it’s different. That’s what I’m trying to say. We aren’t trying to create something extraordinary. We’re just part of the hip hop culture. But when it comes out of Sri Lanka it’s a new thing. We are a totally different country. We are a totally different culture, we have a lot of primitive roots. So when we bring that culture into us it comes out in a different way. We aren’t trying to do something extraordinary, but it’s coming out extraordinary. How did you get into rap music? I don’t really know how I got into rap. I can’t say it’s an accident, but I just got into rap when I was really small. I liked the way the African American rappers presented themselves. Not only that, the thing I like about rap music is the lyrics MC’s come out with, because they relate to your life. It’s not that I’m disrespecting other types of music, but other types of music doesn’t always talk about what life really is. Most of the time it talks about a lot of happy stuff. Hip-hop music talks about what people really go through, what’s really going on in the world. People are against it cause the rappers are talking about guns and about killing people and all that, but I can say that that’s what's going on. That’s what’s on the news and any TV channel you click you see people bombing each other. I think hip-hop is the only music that talks about it. That’s what’s going on in the world. Yeah. In Sri Lanka our country has been in war for the past 20-25 years and that’s all we hear every day. Every day we hear that somebody got shot, got killed, or a bomb exploded and 40 people got killed. Hip hop music MC’s, they talk about what’s going on, and that’s the main reason that hip hop got into me. I am living in a country with a continuous war going on. In a country like this where people are killing each other. I know it is a sad story, but that’s where hip hop got into me. People always take it in the wrong way. They think they are talking violence to promote violence, but that’s not what it is. They are talking about violence for people to get out of it. Why are you doing this? That’s when I started getting into hip hop or say when hip hop got into me. That’s when I was growing up, when I was not supposed to listen to it. But still I listened cause they were talking about what’s going on. When did you first hear rap music? I used to watch a lot of basketball tapes. The thing with Sri Lankan TV is that it had no basketball going on, but I used to get these tapes and I used to like basketball. My dad would bring me tapes and in the back I would hear a lot of music cause lots of African Americans play basketball. Every time a game is over you got the credits and shit and you hear some rapper talking about a lot of stuff. I am like, “Damn! This is what it is; this is a great style.” From that point onwards I started doing what they did. Put a couple of words together, trying to say them, and I started writing lyrics. I used to write poems and short stories when I was small, so it was easy for me for me to make it into rap. That’s my twist. As a rapper are you more concerned about the lyrics or the music side? The music has to be good. Basically if you go to say only the lyrics you wouldn’t want somebody talking about something for five minutes. If somebody’s trying to talk about war you’ll find it boring. You don’t want to listen to it; sometimes you won’t get half of what they say cause it’s boring. When it comes with the beat, you want to listen to it, cause the beat’s gonna keep you pumping. Were you in a group before or were you always solo? I was not in a group, but I was working with Iraj’s crew, a group called Ill Noise. When I was working with Iraj he had a crew so I backed him up. Iraj is a producer also; he’s probably the best hip hop producer in Sri Lanka. He was influenced by a lot of hip-hop music ever since he was a kid. He’s the best. He’s got a studio at his home. Do you work in his studio? I go there. I just started working on my album last year and I finished it. I did all my records in another studio called Audio Lab, so I didn’t do much recording at his place, but I still go there. We go there and hang out. Even now before coming here I was at Iraj’s studio. Do you produce music? I don’t produce music. I did produce one track in my album. That was the first track I produced ever. I didn’t produce anything after that either. I’m planning to produce music in the future. Maybe in my second album. How old were you when you really began? I was probably seventeen, about 5 years ago. That’s when I got to know a lot of people. I met Iraj, he was a music producer and he took me to his place and he was playing his keyboards and scratching on his pad and doing these crazy beats. So I got together with Iraj like, let’s do something. We slowly started working together, and he helped me to put my album out. What do your parents say about you doing rap? Are they supporting you? They are really supportive. My dad and my mom really like what I do because I try to talk about a lot of things that are going on around us, problems people have. They think I've got a good gift that a lot of people don’t have. They really support me and what I'm doing. Especially cause it’s from Sri Lanka and a lot of people don’t have what I got. You got a gift and you got to do what you got to do. It’s good that your parents are backing you up because a lot of parents don’t. All parents always want their kids to go to office with a tie. Not my parents, they are all good, my whole family supports me. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Nuwara Eliya. It’s the Upcountry, the center of Sri Lanka with a lot of mountains. And I was schooled in a place called Banadarawela. I was in the hostel and basically I was growing up with a lot of kids. A lot of friends you know. Even those guys were totally into it cause it’s always about the brotherhood. You got to look after each other. When I was growing up everybody felt that you got to look after each other. So they were into rap as well. You know you got to be on the same track. When I started rapping back at school there were a lot of rappers. All these guys who were hanging around me, everybody raps. Some of them had parent problems. So when they got out of school their parents didn’t want them to do what they wanted to do. They were like, music is not going to take you nowhere and this is not a good type of music in the first place. You know drugs and killing people and all that. And I was like, I got to do what I got to do. I grew up with this shit so I’m not going to give it up. Is most of your record already done? My album is done. It was produced by Yohan, he’s another hip hop producer. He’s not really a hip hop producer, he’s into all kinds of music, but he does good work. He’s another guy on the top, like the other best producer when it comes to making hip hop. So there’s Iraj and there’s Yohan. He’s also from the Colombo area? He’s from the Colombo area. He’s not here right now he’s in South Africa doing his studies and all that. He might be coming back in December. He did my production and there is another guy called DJ Scorpio who did a couple of tracks for me and Rukshan Mark did one track. Ranga Dassanayake was the one doing my recording. The sound engineering and mixing and mastering was done by another guy called Nisal at Audio Lab. There are a lot of studios, a lot of producers, and I can see that there are a lot of rappers now. In a couple of years it’s going to be really exciting. There’s a lot of good vibes, a lot of action going on. There’s going to be a lot of rappers, a lot of competition. A couple of years back there weren’t so many rappers, only handful, but now there’s a lot. The only thing in Sri Lanka is there’s a lot of hip hop music going on but it’s really hard for them to get to the next level. It’s really hard to get it out of the country. A lot of people don’t know what is going on in here. I don’t think 90% of the world knows what’s going on in Sri Lanka when it comes to music. They don’t know that we have so much amazing music in Sri Lanka. All the music from the beginning, from the tribal music to the folk music there’s so much original music. There’s a whole lot of music and a lot of people don’t know what’s going on. That’s the only part where it’s going to be hard for everybody. We do a lot of music, but a lot of people don’t hear it. Hopefully we can get some exposure outside of Sri Lanka and show them what we got. I really respect what you are doing. A big shout out to Murder Dog. You are doing a great thing. Murder Dog is always interested in something different. It was East Coast, West Coast the Bay Area, the South, and now it will be Sri Lanka. I was talking to Anil, the program director at the TNL radio station, and maybe one day we can bring some rappers to perform in Sri Lanka.
Rappers from the States really need to come down here. They really need to see what’s going on in Sri Lanka. Then we’ll be proud of it. Who are some of your favorite artists in Rap? There a lot of favorite artists I got. From the East Coast, West Coast, from everywhere. I like 2 Pac. He’s a legend; everybody talks about him. I like Biggie Smalls, Nas, KRS 1. I like the whole Wu Tang Clan, they talk about a lot of shit. I like the whole Aftermath crew, you know Dr Dre, Kurupt, Snoop, Daz Dillinger. I like Eric B and Rakim that was amazing shit, classic. I love NWA. Everybody Ice Cube, Eazy E. I love E-40, back in the day he was crazy. When I first saw you I thought you were like a little E-40, a younger version. Big shout out to E-40. We love E-40 here in Sri Lanka. We get to hear all types of rappers from all sides of the States. I mean everywhere—people like Master P was really major you know a couple of years back with TRU, 504 Boys, C Murder, Silk the Shocker. And a lot of East Coast rappers like Mobb Deep, a lot of love for people like 50 Cent. Dr. Dre is major in Sri Lanka and I love DMX. All over Sri Lanka people like him. Whoever listens to hip hop music likes DMX cause there’s a lot of spirit in him. I can’t name them all, there’s a big list. Do you perform a lot? Are there a lot of shows happening? I did perform a lot, but for the last six or seven months I've not been doing shows. I was doing my album and so I haven’t been out on stage. Maybe I’ll start performing when I come out with my album. Who is releasing your album? Are you doing it on your own? I’m going to release it on my own label. My album is the first hip hop album to come out of Sri Lanka independent—the real one, the real deal, a full length hip hop album. So I called my album “Real” cause it’s the real deal. Not a lot of labels here in Sri Lanka. When you take the masses hip hop is not the music here. There are a lot of other types of music going on. So I’m going to put my album under my own label. It’s called Die a Tribe Entertainment. My album will be the first to come under that label, and after that I’ve got a couple of other artists signed. We’ve got Dinesh, he’s doing R&B and maybe his album is going to come out on that label. You can always sign with another label for distribution. We haven’t come up with a good distribution deal yet. That’s what I’ve been waiting to hear, that the rappers in Sri Lanka are starting their own independent labels without waiting for anyone. From the first day I started doing my album I thought I got to do it in my own way. That’s a good name for your label. I like the tribal thing. I got to keep the tribal because where we are from. Sri Lanka is all about tribal. When you have your own label you have the total freedom to do everything the way you want. And at end of the day it’s not about the money you make, it’s just about you get to do what you love to do. When the album comes out on my own label I'm totally satisfied. I do everything the way I want. Nobody tells me what I got to do. Right now I’m going through a hard time, but I love it. Sometimes there are a lot of major things I got to take care of. It’s hard, but I’m happy cause I’m doing my own thing. I know some day my label could blow up. It could be one of the biggest rap labels cause here in Sri Lanka in another 5 years there’s going to be a lot of rappers. I could sign some of them up onto my label. Someone’s got to do it and not be scared. Just walk through the water and fire. There are a lot of artists who sign up to other labels and they always talk about how it’s really hard to do it on your own. You ain't going to get no time on TV to advertise your CD’s and all that. I really don’t care about that. It’s not about the publicity that I’m going to get. Hip hop didn’t start major, they started off on the streets selling their own CD’s. Big respect Dr. Dre. He’s the biggest producer right now. Dr. Dre sold his tapes when NWA came out of his trunk, so why can’t the other rappers do it? E-40 and everybody in the Bay did it like that too. Almost every artist before they signed up with a big label was selling mixed tapes out of the trunk. You could be buying gas or walking down the street and rappers would come and try to sell you a CD. That’s what I’m trying to do. A lot of people don’t want to take that risk. A lot of people think that’s bad. There are a lot of rappers coming out. I’ve been getting calls every day from rappers who want to be included in this article for Murder Dog. A lot of new rappers. A lot of people talk about Bone Killa also. How did you get that name? I don’t really know how I got it. I don’t know how this name really came up to me. The thing is this, because I’m fat when I was in school they started calling me Bone. Cause I’m fat they can’t see my bones. So I adopted that to be my name. Sri Lankan people seem to like the word bone. I’m Black Dog Bone and this other guy is called Big Bone from Naughty Coast. The sound of the word bone has some dark mysterious feel to it. It’s a good name. Who is doing the artwork on your CD? I told you there another artist on my label, Dinesh. He’s the one who’s doing my artwork; he’s a graphic designer. He’s got a lot of designs. My CD covers and after the photo shoot and every thing you know he took some pictures and I was like you didn’t take much time. He calls me up and he’s like check the color out and I went to his place and he’s like man I got a real surprise for you I’m like damn! That was one of the best covers I’ve seen! He’s really talented in that way. He’s basically a singer and designs stuff on the side. The thing is I’m trying my best to get my music outside of Sri Lanka. Any place, it doesn’t matter. As long as people get to hear the music.
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