New Delhi, (IANS)| Singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan rose to fame with the song ‘Breathless’ in 1998. The song, which lasted for three minutes and five seconds, was recorded as if it was sung without breath and break. If the song does not fall into the category of rap, it bears a resemblance to that style of music, meaning that rap requires continuous singing, almost without breaks.
Mahadevan has never taken rap as a defining choice in his long and illustrious musical career, but he firmly believes that the genre is a very important form of music.The 54-year-old musician told IANS: “Rap is a very important form of contemporary music and music. People should know that this is the origin of black culture. I have a lot of respect for freestyle rap. More people coming on stage Rappers who rap freestyle are amazing.”
Apart from creating solo compositions, Shankar is also a part of the Bollywood trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy along with Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa. He recently composed the music for the web series ‘Bandish Bandits’, which was well received by the young audience.Mahadevan said “I believe Indian youth understand good music. We underestimated the youth of this country by saying that if the music is loud, only then they like it. Just because they listen to rap doesn’t mean it. It’s not that they don’t listen to different types of music. They cling to all kinds of music.”
Till now Mahadevan has composed music for around 70 films. His son Siddharth Mahadevan is also a playback singer.He concluded “Our youth are the most intelligent group of people. Therefore, it is very wrong to judge and say that it is for the youth and it is not for the youth.”