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FILL-T Do you rap in English or Sinhalese? Both, I do. Mostly I’m doing in English. I did one track in Sinhala for my album. My band’s name is 6th Lane. We’re quite popular. We released our album under Sony Music. The first track what I did was, my producer called Mr. Hat. So we released our album around 4 years time with M Entertainments and Sony Music and we’re about to release our second album in December and I’m on my solo album as well. I’m featured on a lot of records in Sri Lanka. I did one Sinhala track with Iraj and for my new album I’m doing a lot of Sinhala raps. I’m mostly into English rap. I’m hoping to do Tamil rap. I’m trying that because I’m not Tamil, I’m Buddhist so my friend is helping me out with the lyrics and I did some Sinhala raps with 6th Lane. What I did with Iraj is quite popular. It’s underground Sinhala rap. I think it’s really interesting that people are doing it in Sinhala or Tamil. I’ve been in America and there’re millions of excellent rappers. But people are looking for something different. At one time hip hop from the East Coast was the biggest thing, then people got tired of it. Then it was the West Coast, after a while people got tired of that. To come out uniquely as a Sri Lankan artist would be something new. We have to find our own identity and originality. Have you seen that happening? I have seen that happening. First when we were coming up on the stage in the music scene in hip hop we had to follow the people who invented this. Now I did Sinhala rap and once you listen you can understand what I’m telling. The flows and the lyrics are all done by me and the music is all blended. I’m doing a lot of Sinhala rap nowadays. My new album includes around 4 to 5 Sinhala raps, my band album 6th Lane and my solo album as well. How long have you been rapping? I started this in 1996. When I was 14 or 15 I started to rap, while I was in school. How did you get into hip hop at that time? Was there a lot of hip hop going on? What inspired you? Before that happened I was a Michael Jackson fan. I had all the Michael Jackson albums. When I was 12 or 13 I had a few friends from America and the U.K. who came here for vacation, so at that time I heard a Coolio tape with Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” song. After that I was interested in listening to hip hop. The first album that I got was “Doggy Style”. Around the same time I got NWA, “The Most Dangerous Group” and Tupac’s “Strictly 4 My Niggas”. I was like dying for those. I listened to them and I started my career from that. At that time I listened to all the parental advisory albums. I have my own shop over here called Fill-T’s Hip Hop Shop. All the albums you want I can get for you. What I don’t have, I can get it in two days time. I have a bank, a hip hop bank. That’s what I call it. How do you get all the albums? The albums I got from the way I told you. My friends send me and some albums collected by my other friends who are staying here. They have a good collection and my collection, we put together and it’s a big collection. You said you’ve heard about Murder Dog. How did you get Murder Dog in Sri Lanka? My friend who sends me the albums, he sent me Murder Dog and CD’s and DVD’s and stuff. What made you start a hip hop shop? This is the first one in Colombo.
FT: Sure you can never get. Once you go around here and there you can get Xibit, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne. But you can’t get Two Pound, RBX, Cypress Hill, Underground hip hop art is over there. You should check it. Mack 10, Mc eight, E40, Guce. I got it all.
I: What’s exciting for me is that I feel that a lot of the rap that’s in Sri Lanka was influenced really by West Coast rap.
FT: Ah West Coast, that’s what we like. The West Coast is the most dangerous coast.
I: So who makes your beats?
FT: Beats are produced by my 6th Lane leader, called Mr. Hiran. I call him Mr. Hat and Milan and Iraj has given me 2 beats and Slacker one of the good producers, he was at L.A.M.K. here. So he did good beats for me. Then there were a few, beats from Jaya Sri. Jaya Sri is quite popular and they did a beat for me.
I: So originally you are from the Galkissa area?
FT: No I’m from Moratuwa. MRT like CPT we put MRT.
I: So you’re living here now?
FT: Well my shop is here. Basically I’m going here and there because of my shop. Two workers are my friends so I have to come and check my business.
I: Do people know that you have a shop over there?
FT: A lot of people, I go for TV interviews to promote my music scene. So I’m promoting them. You could visit my shop. People who visit my shop start to listen to the good rap and they get like a good knowledge of hip hop culture. It’s a culture. That’s what I call it.
I: What do you call the shop now?
FT: Fill-T Hip Hop Songs.
I: So basically you have all the CD’s there.
FT: I have a lot of CD’s.
I: And clothes and stuff?
FT: And clothes and stuff. But you should visit over there. I haven’t filled it yet but I have completed a lot of stuff.
I: From the time you’ve started have you seen that rap has improved and grown in Sri Lanka?
FT: Yeah obviously. No doubt about that. We started 10 years ago right? So those days people were talking about this and that. What’s this thing man? We don’t understand, people who look into what we do. They are saying bullshit like this thing is killing our culture but now when we do hip hop concerts over there, we had one yesterday also near Mt. Lavinia beach, a huge crowd and such. The things is like now they get to know what it’s kind of like. Like this is the scene it’s blended with this thing and the way we put it internationally, the road is clear. We went through a lot of journeys.
I: When you do a show how do people know that you have a show?
FT: TV trailers, radio trailers and posters but mostly the posters and internet.
I: So basically you have a crowd of people who always come to the shows. So when you have a show you guys put it on the internet saying you have a show.
FT: Yeah we do internet publicity.
I: Normally when you perform, with who do you perform?
FT: It goes as Fill-T and I do performances with 6th Lane. That’s my band when I started. I’m not the leader. I’m the rapper. So I go with 6th Lane, solo promotions as Fill-T, and I featured for K. Sujeeva and the female artist who is in here and Teesha.
I: They’re rappers?
FT: No they don’t do rap. K. Sujeeva did a Tamil rap. It’s a nice one from her new album and Teesha did one rap. And there’s a female artist in our band, 6th Lane. Her name is Lady Shyma. She basically stayed in Malaysia. She came here and now she went back. She came here for her PPL, flying thing. But because of terrorism she had to move back when she was here for her CPL. She couldn’t complete it and now she’s shifting to Australia. She’s a good rapper. I’ll show you.
I: What was her name again?
FT: Lady Shyma. Her name is Shyma, we call her Lady Shy. We did a video which was quite popular, 5 tracks have to come up. We’re putting our new tracks these days and after that we’re putting here tracks. Everybody knows her. Now she’s not here and the thing is she has to go there.
I: What do you think of the beats? Do you think that the beats are getting very original also in Sri Lanka?
FT: We’re blending ethnic sounds like the sitar and yak bera, gata bera and stuff. I’m not saying we have to fill the whole beat with the yak bera and the gata bera and all. We can mix it. That’s what we can do otherwise it’s bullshit.
We really need our own sound. We need the original sound. You like Snoop or the Southern rap or whatever because of the originality. And I think that what we need is originality coming from Sri Lanka. Do you think that it’s important? It’s really important to show our identity. Otherwise we can’t touch the worldwide level. We can touch Sri Lanka, like we do with hip hop in Sri Lanka. We are the artists. What we do, people expect. So when we go to the world market we’ve got to show that we are from Sri Lanka. The way we rap, the way we flow, the way we do lyrics and the beats. Altogether we can do small changes. I don’t ask anyone to do big changes, like small changes in beats and lyrics and flows. Altogether it will be a big change.
I: What about Sri Lankan CD’s do you sell them in your store?
FT: Not yet. I’ll be putting it. I’ve called M Entertainment for Sri Lankan hip hop things and Torana for some other classics and stuff but not yet. I don’t have.
I: Normally if you put out a CD do you have to put your own money and burn the CD or what? Do you have anything out on CD?
FT: My album? I’m going straight for M Entertainments Maharajah Universal. We go under that label. First album we put it up with M Entertainments Universal so I signed up under them for 3 albums under 6th Lane so they know obviously I was in 6th Lane and I did featuring raps for other artists. I showed what I did. I’m completing my album. I’ll be putting it under Universal.
I: Mainly, you have only M Entertainments. You don’t have like in America sort of independent labels. It’s not happening here?
FT: The thing is that M Entertainments, they’re promoting us a lot. They put it in TV trailers on Sirasa TV, Maharajah same company, YFM, they have stations linked. So when we put our album under M Entertainments, they give us a big promotion so first we focus on the marketing.
I: That’s what. There are no competitors for them. For other artists in the mass market when you go to rural areas…..
FT: Torana and them but when we go under M Entertainments, with our stuff it’s more helpful.
I: You get your name out through their media.
FT: Yeah
I: Do you see hip hop happening in different parts of Sri Lanka too or mainly in the Colombo area?
FT: Those days when we started it was only in Colombo. Now we’re doing concerts all over here, every nook and corner in Sri Lanka. Anuradhapura, Galle, Kandy, Chilaw everywhere is the same. I’ll tell you this. If we go to an Anuradhapura concert, everyone’s wearing blings blings, XL, XXL and stuff. That’s not hip hop. That’s what they like about hip hop. When you are a real MC or whatever hip hop fan, you should understand the lyrics and the stuff. Now people are flowing in it so one day they’ll get up with the good knowledge. So that means hip hop is growing.
I: So basically everyone is getting into the clothes and the style?
FT: That’s what you get first, the outfit. Then through that when you wear the hip hop stuff secondarily they will listen to the music and they’ll get to know little by little what hip hop is. That’s what we wanted.
I: Even if you go to a small village you see these young kids wearing baggy pants……..
FT: But as a rapper I’m telling you this. We were wearing this thing and bling blings and studs. They are like Vesak pandols and flower pots. I prefer that practice. It’s good but I’m telling you the West Coast clothes, you know what I mean man. They don’t wear much blings and stuff. I prefer West Coast clothes. New rappers like that try to show by putting grills and stuff. You should come out with reality, what you really do on the street. If you do gansta rap, you should show. I’m a gansta. That’s it. I’m not asking to kill people and stuff like mugging them but the thing is whatever you do you must come up with your livery. That’s the reality man. Don’t lie. Once you lie, you’ll be fake. When you get popular putting bullshit and people are following you, they’ll be coming behind your ass checking out what you do and you’re fake man. That’s what’s gonna be happening.
I: Is there a market here for dancehall like Sister and Capleton and all the Jamaican stuff? Not too much?
FT: Not too much.
I: You guys haven’t heard that music?
FT: I have heard but not that much like you know.
I: It’s not that popular.
FT: But Daddy Yankee, Sean Paul, Yin Yang Twins………
I: Yin Yang Twins yeah. So basically another thing I want to ask you was when you were growing up were there a lot of Sri Lankan people rapping? You’ve talked about how you were influenced by NWA. What about in Sri Lanka was there rap going on?
FT: There were two bands that I’ve heard, Rudeboy Republic and Urban Sounds. I saw them performing and like I was preferring them and what they do and they were quite good. And at that time I didn’t have a producer around me and I was writing my own lyrics and bullshitting everywhere. When I go to Majestic City, when I’m sitting with my friends I’m rapping. I wanted to do my own track but I was helpless. I was like till I get my thing I’m doing my freestyle things over here, what I’ve practiced, covers and all. I did those things and fortunately I’m a producer and I came up with my first track. It’s called “Mal Petthak”. That’s how I got on stage.
I: Do people play rap on the radio here? That is Sri Lankan rap?
FT: Yeah they play. A lot of tracks, they play. The thing is like once you put more filth underground rap they won’t play. Otherwise they play.
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