For decades now, art and media have been wrestling with the representation of communities on the margins of our societies. But the pendulum has mostly swung between perfectly saintly and perfectly sinful characterisations; both extremely vexing. Over the past five years, the queer subject has begun to become a little more complicated, with queer people in positions of authority taking charge of their own representation. Two hip-hop\/rap albums by trans rappers \u2014 Kinari\u2019s\u00a0Kattar Kinnar<\/i>\u00a0and Shehzor\u2019s\u00a0The Girl with Sideburns \u2014<\/i>\u00a0that released earlier this year are brilliantly articulated artistic arguments that show that representation doesn\u2019t have to be tokenistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe queer art and media around me was channelling happiness and pride. But for me, this isn\u2019t the entire truth. The on-ground reality of being a trans woman in this country isn\u2019t all sunshine and rainbows,\u201d says Kinari, the Chennai-born, Delhi-based trans woman rapper, producer and DJ, over an 11 p.m. telephone call. She has a manner of speaking that is matter-of-fact, musical and doesn\u2019t mince words \u2014 much like the rhymes and bars she spits. In her debut album,\u00a0Kattar Kinnar<\/i>, she set out to capture \u201cthis real mood\u201d of making a place for herself in this \u201ccruel, hate-filled world\u201d. The result is an album that\u2019s compositionally lush, lyrically fire, and layered with rich references that speak to India\u2019s homegrown queer pop culture and camp histories.<\/p>\n \nKinari\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n Dialogues and musical samples from the 1988-Rekha-starrer\u00a0Khoon Bhari Maang<\/i>, for example, are peppered throughout the 12-track album. \u201cThis was a very inspiring film for me because it showed me cosmetic surgery for the first time. Also, I identified with Rekha\u2019s character, a woman wronged by society; I feel it is a very trans film,\u201d she says. \u201cThe music cues and sound effects in the film were\u00a0kattar<\/i>\u00a0[dangerous] and that was the mood of the album, too\u201d.<\/p>\n Memories and mundaneness of living are magically mixed in each of these albums. Hyderabad-born and based rapper-producer Shehzor\u2019s debut album,\u00a0The Girl with Sideburns<\/i>, was created in the six months she was \u201cforced to move back in\u201d with her birth family. \u201cI began to play around and make beats on my laptop and watch Bollywood films to snip samples from them.\u201d She would then play these self-produced tracks and \u201cfreestyle the lyrics \u201d to herself while riding her mother\u2019s Scooty through the city, before recording them. \u201cThis is how I developed each of the 11 tracks on my album,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n In the album, besides the sounds of the city thrumming through it, she also has unbridled fun with language. Shehzor performs in Hyderabadi\u00a0dakhini\u00a0<\/i>\u201cbecause I saw Hyderabadi rappers only using this language to do crowd-work or banter with their audiences, but they don\u2019t rap in it\u201d. She thinks \u201cit\u2019s because they\u2019ve internalised that one can\u2019t be serious in\u00a0dakhini<\/i>\u201d. So, for Shehzor, choosing\u00a0dakhini<\/i>\u00a0because of \u201cits inherent humour, playfulness, vulgarity and the fun of it\u201d has opened up fresher ways of telling \u201cthe serious poetry\u201d of her own queer identity and gender journey.<\/p>\n \nShehzor\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n These two albums also completely side-step another niggling shortcoming of representation politics: Kinari and Shehzor refuse to perform the role of victim or good person. Instead, they present complex critiques of their own communities and society at large. Over a musical landscape that brings together the sounds of her present-day life in Delhi\u2019s Khirki Extension, Bollywood beats, and her Tamil influences \u2014 the use of\u00a0parai<\/i>\u00a0drum beats and\u00a0gaan<\/i>-inspired musicality \u2014 Kinari doesn\u2019t let the truth bombs miss anyone. She\u2019s defiant and braggadocious. She talks about her on-again-off-again relationships with men: \u201cYour man\u2019s safe only cause he\u2019s ugly<\/i>\u201d; the double-standards expected from marginalised persons: \u201cMai boli baby jhukne ki zarurat nahi<\/i>\/5 inch heels pe main kaafi tall<\/i>\u201d (Let me tell you baby, there\u2019s no need to bow down\/I look down on you in my 5-inch heels).<\/p>\n While there\u2019s a sexy swagger and danger to Kinari\u2019s tone, Shehzor\u2019s style has a more sinewy storytelling. She pastiches her own personal stories with those from myths and her religious upbringing in her tracks. For example, with \u2018Waat\u2019, she relooks at the story of prophet Ayyub \u201cwho is like Job from the\u00a0Bible<\/i>\u201d. Besides being her \u201cplayful take\u201d on this Islamic fable, it is also her disagreements \u201cwith this idea of\u00a0sabr<\/i>\u00a0or patience, or that all suffering is a test from God\u201d. She succinctly summarises with the line, \u201cSabr ka phal aaya toh zubaan jal gaayi<\/i>\u201d (by the time the sweet fruit of patience arrived, my tongue was already on fire).<\/p>\n The two artists aren\u2019t interested in being pigeonholed either \u2014 they are letting their curiosities define their upcoming projects. Shehzor is still going to be working in Hyderabadi\u00a0dakhini<\/i>, but she\u2019s \u201cmoving to Goa to start a rock band with friends\u201d. She\u2019ll also be popping up in different cities en route to perform tracks from her album, as \u201can unplanned, impromptu mini tour\u201d.<\/p>\n For her next project,\u00a0Pinjre Ke Geet<\/i>, Kinari is shedding swashbuckling self-assurance for melodic meditations. In two tracks, already released \u2014 \u2018Bhakt\u2019 and \u2018Khvab\u2019 \u2014 one can see the imprint of her style, but also a shift. The lyrics are more vulnerable, almost an invitation to her listeners to see beyond her persona.<\/p>\n The author is Bengaluru-based poet and writer.<\/i><\/p>\n![\"Kinari\"](\"https:\/\/th-i.thgim.com\/public\/life-and-style\/y6gpbg\/article68685271.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/Kinari.jpg\" "\\"Kinari\\"")
<\/div>\nFreestyling on a Scooty<\/h4>\n
![\"Shehzor\"](\"https:\/\/th-i.thgim.com\/public\/life-and-style\/lfclpr\/article68685282.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/Shehzor.png\" "\\"Shehzor\\"")
<\/div>\nCuriosity as guide<\/h4>\n