Sure, you’ve heard Santhanam Srinivasan Iyer aka EPR’s voice on audio streaming platforms with his band Underground Authority or ADIACOT. But on June 12 a new milestone was achieved. The 31-year-old rapper launched his first audio streaming album, Protest Poetry, on Spotify with a total of 17 originals. While some are from his performances at MTV Hustle, others are a melange of old and new songs by the artiste. The album also features artistes like Nikhita Gandhi, Karma and Void because Srini believes that “no hip-hop album is complete without collaborations”. A chat with the protest poet.

How long did it take you to put the 17-song album together?

One year. Some of them are from (MTV) Hustle and some are tracks I had done before and two songs are completely new.

Why did you make an album instead of smaller releases?

I had a separate release for every track on this album before, barring the two new songs — Rastafari and Into The Unknown. So each has its own set of fans. Basically, what happens when you drop 17 new songs, it fails to make an impact. Why? Because every song needs attention. With this model, it’s rather easy to promote your single than to promote your whole album. So what I did was release them as singles on YouTube and on the other hand I never had an audio streaming impact. I had no presence on Spotify or iTunes because I kept them on hold because I wanted to release all of them at one go… with an album. Once I was ready with the compilation, I changed a couple of things, like rearranged some of the musical parts and remastered something and then put it on this audio streaming platform and called it Protest Poetry!

You take a very strong stand when it comes to politics and 17 songs have 17 different ideas but what does the album stand for as a whole?

The album stands for something. Like hip-hop is more than just talking about cars, boasting, flexing and stuff like that. There are so many issues in the country that need to be addressed. I am taking a step forward to talk about issues that I strongly feel about and the whole motive is such that you inspire other people to do the same. Talk about the issues in your state or about the issues in your surroundings… it’s a way to inspire people to write as well.

A few months ago you spoke about a few collabs with Nucleya and Raftaar. How is that coming along?

So I have ticked one of them. My collaboration with Karma is already there on the album. The next track I’m working on is with Raftaar. He has given me all the responsibilities to start the process. So I’m taking my time on this and within a few months you will see something for sure. There is also an international collaboration on the way with

L-Fresh. I am also working on this new song; I have no title for it… but I’m just writing… and that’s going to come out soon.

Let’s talk about the lockdown. Has your workflow been affected?

There have been no live shows and live shows are the lifeline for every artiste. But where there’s a will there’s a way. I spent a lot of time during the lockdown compiling the album and then releasing it. I have releases with Underground Authority or ADIACOT on Spotify and iTunes. But as a solo performer, I never had that presence on audio streaming platforms where you can actually make money from your own music. I also distributed it through my own label, which means that all the money that I made from my music comes to me and there’s no middleman. But it’s still not the same as performing live. The album is doing fairly well and I got about 100,000 streams in a week. I’m making money through YouTube as well because my YouTube team has become strong. I’ve also been doing a few jingles; I did two ads for MTV.

What are your views about going live?

Yeah, I hate going live. What this lockdown has taught me is that people have started with interviews and talk shows and musicians are performing online, which is fine, but if they keep performing for free and doing these live sessions, it’s going to hurt them because all sources of income get cut. I don’t go live much and I’m not keen on
doing it.