Malaysian rap star Yogi B talks about Kollywood and releasing the first ever Tamil hip-hop song
He may be Malaysia’s biggest rap star, the man who released the first ever multilingual album and creator of the first Tamil hip-hop song, but Yogeswaran Veerasingam is down to earth and appreciative of his success
For a man famed as a Malaysian hip-hop pioneer who rubs shoulders with the leading lights of Kollywood – the Tamil film industry in South India – Yogeswaran Veerasingam is very down to earth.
In contrast to the designer labels and bling sported by many hip-hop artists, Yogi B dresses simply in T-shirts and baggy jeans, and always wears sandalwood paste and vermilion on his forehead, a common practice in Hinduism, so much so that it has become his signature style.
The latest work from the artist better known as Yogi B is the rap track Surviva from the movie Vivegam starring South Indian actor Ajith Kumar – the song received three million views on YouTube within just five days of its release and. He is now working on a track for the upcoming movie Kaala featuring Indian superstar Rajinikanth.
His interest in spirituality and Hinduism led to his stage name – he once wanted to become a yogi. But how did he end up as a hip-hop artist?
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Yogi B believes it was fate that brought him into the entertainment industry, and his role as a pioneer of Tamil hip-hop in Malaysia started with the song Vallavan in 1998.
His interest in hip-hop started in the early 1990s when he was 14 years old. “The first time I heard hip-hop was during a camping trip at school. One of the scout leaders bought a boom box and he was playing songs by American rappers group Run-DMC. I was instantly attracted to it and it piqued my interest to explore more.”