The rap star of Karachi: ‘My veil cannot take away the talent I have'

[SpiritOf1903]

Eva B, who was brought up in a notorious slum, has become Pakistan’s latest music sensation

She is not just the first female rapper from Pakistan, she is the first veil-wearing female rapper from Pakistan’s Baloch minority. She says her brother had told her if she wanted to rap she had to wear a veil, but that it is now a part of her identity and personality as a musician.

“I don’t feel comfortable or can’t perform well if I don’t wear it. The veil just covers my face; it cannot cover or take away the talent I have.”


Quarantine Baji by Eva B talks about the violence in her home area of Lyari
Her big break came when the 22-year-old was playing with her phone and took a call from the music producer for Coke Studio, a webcast that since 2008 has showcased the country’s biggest musical stars. “Since I didn’t get as many calls as I get now, I picked it up,” chuckles Eva B, in the first interview she has agreed to since that call.


“He introduced himself and asked me if I would like to sing for the franchise – I said who does not want to work with Coke Studio?” Soon after came the track Kana Yaari, which became the top trending YouTube video in Pakistan, with 3.2m views by the third day of its release.

Writing in Urdu and Balochi, the young rapper, who says her name comes from Eve, the first woman, and B for Baloch, touches on a plethora of problems facing society. Her songs include Qalam Bolega (The Pen Shall Speak) and Tera Jism Meri Marzi (My Body, Your Rights).

Eva B’s musical journey began when she got a computer with a folder of songs by Eminem. Not knowing what genre she was listening to, a young Eva B loved the style and rhythm of the music.

Curious, she asked people what this amazing style of music was called. “It is rap, and you have to write your lyrics and sing,” she was told. Teaching herself the basics through the internet, Eva B started rapping in 2014.

Through my rap I wanted people to hear my story and the story of women in Lyari
Eva B
“Through my rap I wanted people to hear my story and the story of women in Lyari. I come from a place where only a few girls got to work and my society doesn’t consider a girl who raps to be respectable – I wanted to challenge that,” says Eva B, while playing with a tattoo on her right hand that reads “mother”.

Her mother was supportive but her brother asked her not to rap, saying it was not appropriate. She said his friends would tease him about his sister being a rapper and every time she uploaded a freestyle rap song to her YouTube channel, fights would erupt in their house.

“Neighbours would come and listen as my brother scolded and fought me,” she says.

As a consequence of her brother’s disapproval, Eva B stopped performing rap from 2015 to 2019. But she kept writing new songs. “I was burning inside and writing about societal restrictions on girls, on Lyari and more,” she says.

In 2019, she was approached by Patari, Pakistan’s largest Pakistani music streaming platform, to write and perform a song. She did not have musical or audio equipment so she recorded it using her mobile phone.

Overnight, she started being known as “Gully Girl”, named after that track – a retelling of the 2019 Bollywood film Gully Boy, about a boy from a ghetto in Mumbai who dreams of making it big in rap.


Gully Girls by Eva B tells the story of young women who want to make it big in hip-hop
But Eva B had to go through a lot of hardships before her time was to come.

“I would have to lie to my brother if I had to go for recordings. I would say I was going to university. Even when I had to rehearse for Kana Yaari in Coke Studio, I lied back home about having to attend a friend’s wedding. I would ask everyone to schedule me before nightfall so I could make an excuse at home more easily,” she says. After recent success, however, her brother no longer disapproves.

Lyari, with a young population of 2.2 million, is best known to the outside world for its violence, gangsters and drugs. Over the course of a decade, hundreds of people were killed and thousands left the town; peace returned in 2017 after police operations. She says Lyari is also famous for its footballers, artists and musicians but “the violence had become our identity, sadly”.

Women in Lyari or across the country, she says, are talented but many consider themselves inferior and dependent upon their male counterparts, their identity restricted to being someone’s daughter, sister or wife, with their every move scrutinised.

As she talks her phone keeps buzzing and she puts it on silent mode. “Women have to work hard to claim their space in society,” she says. “We have to snatch it if it is not given.”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/feb/13/eva-b-the-rap-star-of-karachi-my-veil-cannot-take-away-the-talent-i-have

 

[Itachi]

Well, since SIa is doing it for a logn time, I don't think it can hinder in anything as long as people has talent.

 

[MenInG]

Is she also in Coke Studio song?

[utube]zQDAi8tI-cU[/utube]

 

[MenInG]

Pakistan's breakthrough rapper Eva B has racked up millions of views online, but walking through the labyrinthine streets of her Karachi neighbourhood, she is anonymous.

Her hair covered with a hijab and a veil falling below her eyes, she evades the attention of fans and detractors.

"It’s funny that people don’t recognise me, they play my songs but when I'm in front of them they don't know it’s me," the 22-year-old told AFP from a rooftop overlooking the mega port city of Karachi.

Inspired by American rappers Eminem and Queen Latifah, she started writing lyrics from her bedroom and posting her raps to Facebook where she built up a following.

Afraid of angering her family, she would sneak to music studios to record full tracks with the help of other emerging artists in her neighbourhood, under the pretext of studying.

But when word reached her brother, she received a backlash from her family who considered the genre indecent for a young girl and who feared she would struggle to marry in deeply conservative Pakistan.

"Later they realized that I was quite persistent, so they surrendered. They realised I couldn’t be stopped," she laughed, adding that her mother now supports her in the studio and on set.

Eva B's rise to fame was accelerated this year when Coca-Cola's international music franchise Coke Studios –- one of the most popular television programmes in Pakistan –- invited her collaborate for its 2022 series.

The music video for "Kana Yaari", which features Eva B rapping in a bright orange hijab about the betrayal of a love interest, has more than 16 million views on YouTube.

But unlike other artists in the series, she has shunned a celebrity status.

"It is strange to live two lives. People know me, but at the same time they don’t really know me," she said.

She finds it amusing to nod along to conversations in cafes or at friends' weddings when people talk about the latest track from Eva B.

On rare occasions, she says people recognise her from her eyes, but she always denies her stage identity.

"I'm ok with what I am. I can’t handle everybody," she says of the attention from media and fans she would otherwise attract.

Industry 'astonished' by hijab

Most women wear some form of hijab covering in Muslim-majority Pakistan but there are very few music artists in local pop culture who are veiled.

Turning up to studios for the first time, industry producers and managers were often left "astonished", she said.

"They reacted like 'what is this?'," she said. "But then everything soon became normal."

For Eva B, the hijab has always been a proud part of her Muslim identity -- but it has also defined her image as a rapper.

"These days I wear more stylish clothes for the music videos so I stand out. But even then I always wear my hijab," she said, adding that she sometimes swaps the face veil for a pandemic-era mask.

She has, however, grown weary of the conversation around how she dresses.

"The media has focused on my hijab rather than me... they do it for hype," she said. "It's normal in my society. Don't let it be breaking news."

What she does delight her are the stream of Instagram messages from girls and women thrilled to see a woman in a hijab represented in mainstream media.

"I feel happy that I inspire them... that they feel proud of me," she said.

But as a woman rapper in a hijab, disapproval for not being "a good girl" is never far away, she says.

"There is nothing harmful in what I am doing, I openly sing songs and there is nothing bad in that."

- Straight outta Karachi -

Eva B grew up in Lyari, a Karachi neighbourhood haunted by gang violence and poverty for decades and once considered one of Pakistan’s most dangerous areas, but which inspired a generation of artists and spawned a burgeoning hip hop scene.

With its close proximity to the sea and history of smuggling, the largely ethnic Balochi neighbourhood in Karachi stands apart for its history of violence and lawlessness — even by Pakistan's standards.

But the worst of the violence has abated, and an increase in security has led to flowering creativity.

The embattled neighbourhood now clings fiercely to its reputation for producing top footballers, iron-chinned boxers, and most recently socially conscious rappers.

"We didn’t attend any prestigious music schools, we learned everything ourselves, driven by our passion. So I keep highlighting Lyari and I’m proud of it," she said.

The rise of hip hop in Lyari mirrors the genre's birth decades ago in New York’s Bronx borough, where it largely centred around street performances and featured lyrics that addressed social ills and life in urban ghettos.

Eva B also speaks straightforwardly about the difficulties women face and the disparity in wealth in Pakistan, and even the sensitive issue of local corruption.

Her favourite song, "Bayani Rog", in her native Balochi language, tells the story of her evolution from shy, nervous teenager to the self-assured, frank woman she is today.

"I realized that keeping silent won’t work, so I better speak up," she said.

AFP