Curry Daddy’s in da house I

By MAHESH RADHAKRISHNAN

n the quiet streets of Double Bay, worlds away from Harris Park, I previewed the latest offering in the world of Aussie Indian dance and hip-hop, an artist who calls himself ‘Curry Puff Daddy’. His soon-to-be released DVD clip Driving in my Taxi and audio track Harris Park about the recent Indian international student unrest, provide a loud entrance for this enigmatic local artist.

In both tracks, the artist takes on the voice (and guise) of several characters, the main character being the hip-hop gangsta ‘Curry Puff Daddy’ dressed in a pink suit with bleach-blonde short spiky hair. Other characters played by the artist include the turbaned ‘Curry Puff Pappa’ who drives a taxi with the slogan ‘Taxis Mumbained’ and the female character ‘Curry Puff Mama’ dressed in traditional sari!

Driving in my Taxi, a tongue-in-cheek song about Indian taxi-drivers like Curry Puff Pappa in places like Sydney taking in perhaps a bit too much of the local nightlife, makes a good introduction to the range of ‘Curry Puff’ characters played by the artist. The artist switches between the more American rap accents to intentionally overdone Indian accents. The colourful clip (to be released on DVD in October) comes across as a collision of the worlds of R&B dance and gangsta-rap machismo, Bollywood-style glamour (and humour) with retro overtones. It’s not my cup of tea, but it’s catchy and I could certainly see it pumping out of someone’s car, or even taxi.

Hip-hop, for me, is a music genre of resistance and is at its most powerful when it draws attention to injustices. Curry Puff Daddy’s Harris Park anthem is a hardhitting expression of solidarity with Indian international students. It does without the glam of Driving in my Taxi and instead has this almost heavy metal-like edge with distorting guitars evoking the rap metal kings Rage against the Machine. The opening of the song features Curry Puff Daddy screaming “So much bull**** going on, I can’t take anymore!” over distorted guitars. While the overdone Indian accents persist, it doesn’t take away from the serious energy of the song: I might be a Curry but I want to fight back, I’m sick of your bull**** and your f***ing attacks

All I want to do is study and go home, But you take my laptop and my mobile phone

The song then vents the plight of Indian students here being treated as “second grade” and questions whether local police can be trusted. It borders on an aggressive call to arms before the final verse in which Curry Puff Daddy’s Australianism comes out (Please don’t blame my Australian home) followed by a pacifying note: But as Gandhi said, violence is not the way We don’t need more Gang Wars in Austraili-aye…

Carling Capital Entertainment Group (CCEG), a subsidiary of Carling Capital Partners, helped to secure a venture capital deal for the artist by purchasing Curry Puff Daddy as a brand. I spoke to Jane King, Curry Puff Daddy’s Manager and Media contact with CCEG. She has had a working relationship with the man who calls himself Curry Puff Daddy for about

7 years, when he worked as an audiovisual technician for her and was a “wannabe rapper”. While CCEG are not yet revealing Curry Puff Daddy’s real identity as part of their branding strategy, King tells me that the mystery man is “about 30 years old, of Indian background, grew up in Australia” and added that he is “a really communityminded family man”. His passion and talent for hip-hop apparently comes from years spent DJing at various clubs and dance parties.

King said that the overall plan for Curry Puff Daddy is release individual tracks and film clips which will be threaded together into a Sacha Baron Cohen-style film featuring his many characters to be released sometime in the next two years. Apparently his next track will have a humorous, iconic and sexy Bondi Beach to Bollywood theme.

I am actually quite intrigued (and worried!) about how much over-the-top Australiana will get a look in, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, Curry Puff Daddy is sure to turn a few heads and is worth checking out. The video clip for Harris Park will be released on YouTube in October with the DVD release Driving in my Taxi to follow.