Shah Rule on new EP Hooked, collaborating with DIVINE, and using music as a balm to pandemic wounds

Known as the dependable voice who can inject any song with a strong R&B or hip-hop friendly refrain, Shah Rule (Rahul Shahani) has collaborated with Raja Kumari, Raftaar, DIVINE, and several more. So when it came to making his first record to release on a big label like Mass Appeal India, Shah Rule went with the title  Hooked. The artwork of emoji pendants hanging from several gold chains, however, convey a second meaning. He says about the name of the six-track EP, “I’ve been trying to stamp my name as the guy who runs all the hooks in the game, and also it just fit with the concept of us being hooked to our phones.” One of the songs – ‘Memes’ – is produced by ace beatsmith combo Sez on the Beat and Stunnah Beatz, and was created way back in 2017. The half-jokey song just happened to fit right into the theme of  Hooked  – internet facades, escapism, materialism, and phoniness. He says when he started writing the material just before the lockdown last year, he had an online and offline theme in mind for a two-part EP. “One could be online, where it’s just about social media, and one is offline, where it’s about your real life. But as soon as we got into lockdown, and I realised how hooked we were to our phones and our screen time right away,” he explains. It also worked well to also showcase exactly the sound Shah Rule wants to project – smooth R&B-informed hip-hop and pop in Hindi and English. The artist may have grown up in different parts of the world – Moscow, Hong Kong, London – and considers English his first language, but he also wanted to sing in Hindi. Shah Rule says with a chuckle, “Growing up outside, my parents always spoke English to us. They would speak Hindi to make sure we (he and his siblings) wouldn’t understand what they were saying.”  

Songs like the lead single ‘Khara Sona’, ‘Khaas,’ and ‘Clap Clap’ demonstrate just that, with songwriting collaborations including fellow Gully Gang artists D’Evil and Frenzzy, plus MC Heam and and Gravity. Shah Rule says about the process, “We brainstorm the ideas of what exactly we want to write. All the writers I work with, I come to them with English lines, and they help me turn it into Hindi. They will translate it in a way that it reflects exactly what I want to say. At the same time, it’s not the direct translation from Hindi to English, which I’ve tried it many times via Google,” he says with a laugh. While Heam adds backing vocals on ‘Khaas,’ the other star collaborators on  Hooked  EP include DIVINE on ‘Don’t Forgive Me,’  Sikander Kahlon and Frenzzy on the multilingual track  ‘Clap Clap,’ and Shillong rapper-singer Meba Ofilia on the opening title track. With DIVINE, Shah Rule shares a connection in not just being part of his Gully Gang crew, but also providing the choruses on songs like ‘Wallah’ on the former’s 2019 album  Kohinoor.

With the production for ‘Don’t Forgive Me’ coming from Stunnah Beatz, an acoustic guitar melody in the beat led Shah Rule to take an introspective approach to the track. “The beat was actually named ‘Forgive Me,’ which sounds like you’re a repenting person. When you’re on social media, you’re always dealing with people criticising you. I wanted to make this as an unapologetic anthem, and this type of sound was right down DIVINE’s alley. I feel like it’s a classic Vivian verse,” the artist says.  

Whether it is “uncles and aunties on WhatsApp” or Gen-Z and millennials, Shah Rule intends  Hooked  to have a timelessness to it, especially in “a playful, tongue-in-cheek way that doesn’t get people down about it, but makes people aware” of the pitfalls of social media.

He adds, “I just knew that I wanted to touch on a few topics in a way that’s still digestible to be music, that can be played at the gym, in your car, at home, alone, you know, this on your headphones.”   The rapper does concede that he was a bit worried about releasing an album at a time when the country is facing hardships and massive calamity owing to the handling of the pandemic. He recounts a personal anecdote from eight months ago, when he was in the ICU because of pneumonia, and how American rap veteran and Mass Appeal co-founder Nas’ album  King’s Disease  got him through his time in the hospital. “Music has always been a form of escapism for a lot of people. It can influence your mood. In the last one year, music has helped me get through some tough times,” he adds.   He has raised some funds towards COVID-19 relief via charities such as Khalsa Aid and Hemkunt Foundation, but Shah Rule also wants to do more through music. “I feel if I can give some sort of light and some sort of positivity, it would give me happiness."