Indo-French hip-hop duo Citopir – comprising MC Manmeet Kaur and rapper Mister Colfer aka Flavien – are prepping a “particular fruits” of visuals as a part of their efficiency in Mumbai on Jan. 10, 2025. The audio-visual set takes place on the Dice, Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC).
Citopir has it’s origins in 2017 when Kaur met Flavien whereas on her Europe tour, performing in France. Since then, they’ve gone on to carry out and conduct workshops round India and different elements of the world, releasing their debut EP Wabi Sabi in 2023. Kaur says in an e mail interview, “We see our objective past borders and converse to a bigger spectrum of humanity. We interact socially and develop conversations with folks, once we make murals on streets, set up workshops and soundwalks in and round colleges, rope in native panchayats to NGOs for cleanups and plantations. We doc all of those actions with the intention to share the reminiscence with communities concerned and unfold the reality of what we discuss.”
With Wabi Sabi EP got here music movies for songs like “Consumah” and “Sports activities Membership.” Kaur says their Mumbai set will embrace “backdrop visible moods” in addition to footage from music movies and documentaries like Let’s Go Native. She provides, “It’s about supporting the message behind every music greater than spoon-feeding the gang. We’re digging a brand new dwell software program to make it technically attainable.” The visuals additionally embrace English translations of French lyrics for audiences to grasp.
It’s going to quickly be a few years since Citopir have been selling Wabi Sabi and Flavien counts their set at Bharat Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram as one among his favorites earlier than the EP promo tour kicked off, whereas Kaur loved the lingual mixture of French and English introduced to audiences.
In Mumbai, the duo may also carry out unreleased songs from Kaur’s upcoming mission. She says the brand new tracks draw from her method on “sluggish life” and the relation between people and nature. Kaur provides, “This mission is in progress as I attempt to discover my house in a brand new society right here in Kerala, after spending a couple of months exploring forests and cities in France final yr. I’m making an attempt to divulge heart’s contents to the concept of improvising to create songs out of what’s recorded. I’m utilizing area recordings and a few jam classes with buddies in France to supply my soundscapes for these tunes.”
Among the many early wave of Indian hip-hop artists releasing aware rap greater than a decade in the past, Kaur says she’s not “eager to be bracketed inside the restrict of idea labels.” She provides, “Multitudes of artform have to be explored, individually and collectively. We have to perceive how social media, streaming platforms and the (males)onopoly [sic] that guidelines the efficiency trade decides what’s acceptable, and provide you with unpaid causes to alter the identical.”
Citopir desire to let their creative practices and group collaborations do the speaking. “We each are developing with extra solo and customary audio-visual expressions, murals, releases, workshops, live shows representing our sluggish life,” she provides.
Citopir carry out at The Dice, NMACC, Mumbai on Jan. 10, 2025. Get tickets here.
