44 Kalliya: Sri Lanka/ by black dog bone

44 Kalliya: Sri Lanka/ interview by black dog bone

maybe its been like 9 or 10 years now from the time I had met when I did the first interview with you for the murder dog magazine. then you were called middle finger and the group was called Dirty 44. what made you change your name to 44 kalliya.

sri lankan culture is different. back in 2005 we used to rap in English and we realized that we cant give the message by rapping in English because our main language is Sinhalese. to give our emotions and to make people understand what real hip hop, we started rapping in Sinhalese. to get to the sri lankan market we actually had to change to a sri lankan name. that how durty 4 four changed to 44 kalliya, kalliya means gang.

sri lankan culture is different. back in 2005 we used to rap in English and we realized that we cant give the message by rapping in English because our main language is Sinhalese. to give our emotions and to make people understand what real hip hop, we started rapping in Sinhalese.

then you had said you had another member who’s name was earthquiker. is that smokio? or was that a different rapper. when I first met with you and k-mac I was real impressed with both of you. and I felt like you were real different from the other rappers had I met in sri lanka. you were like real street and more gangster, real slum like. I was like if anyone is going to do it its going k-mac and middle finger. I felt real hopeful. that why I had told you that the rappers in sri lanka should rap in there own mother tongue. in Sinhala or in Tamil. its strange how we reconnected. when I got back from Africa, from Uganda, I wanted to connect sri lankan hip hop artist with rappers from Uganda so I was looking at the sri lankan you tube videos and when I saw 44 kalliya I was like what? who are they. I mean they were so hot. I was so impressed. I was blown. I didn't know that 44 kalliya was dirty 44 till I had called you and talked to you.

smokio is the new peoples rapper and no that’s not earthquicker. eathquicker left in 2006. smokio joined a few years back. Nothings changed with us we are still the same old crew. just the name changed. and few new members. and thank you for influencing us to rap in Sinhalese black dog bone. now we are the no.1 rap crew in sri lanka.

what Im hearing from the songs I heard its real street and hard core and gangster but its still rooted to our sri lanka culture. I couldn’t believe that 44 kalliya was dirty 44.

now that we have started real street hip hop we educated people about Sinhala rap. in our songs we mostly talk about our life style its not just about sex, drugs and money and still we don’t fit into the sri lankan culture. so its hard to promote our music because media doesn’t support hip hop all we have is the social media.

the music you doing how would you describe it? where do you fit in? or do you fit in at all with other hip hop artist? are there a lot of hip hop groups in sri lanka rapping in Sinhal what about Tamil rappers. Is there a lot of hip hop happening in Jaffna. Do you collaborate with the Tamil rappers.

It has been a trend yeah so there’s a lot of rappers fake and real. and there is not much Tamil rappers there’s only few like ADK a talented Tamil rapper. the main sound is not hip hop but I guaranty in a few years its gonna be hip hop.

who are some producers that real good. do people use traditional sri lankan drum sounds. sri lankan traditional sounds.

the best producer in sri lanka is iraj and G.O.A(44 kalliya) who is making music worldwide, featured with sean kingston, kurupt, bone thugs and harmony, chingy, soulja boy with sri lankan sounds and we really want to thank iraj for helping us taking sri lankan hip hop worldwide. we got pasan liyanage and few more upcoming producers too.

mostly where do you do shows? like from the videos I have seen, a lot of shows happen outside, like in the beach. like Galkissa. are there many clubs that has hip hop shows.

the biggest hip hop concert is organized by izzy iznu (44 kalliya) and its called Sama-J hiphop party where we gather all the hip hop artists and that is what you have seen at Galkissa beach. few clubs they play hip hop.

who are the other members of 44 kalliya? on the videos I see you, k-mac, smokio and che nay, kallu salli. and a few other. how many members are there in 44 kalliya.

izzy, k-mac, g.o.a, smokio, chey nyn, yk, yung murf, durty killa amila, master d, thuthu, spin spitta, nauzy, zhampy.

now that we have started real street hip hop we educated people about Sinhala rap. in our songs we mostly talk about our life style its not just about sex, drugs and money and still we don’t fit into the sri lankan culture.

8/ all the rappers in 44 kallya is real hot. the raps in sinhala are so hot. I mean they are real stars. they got that look. its so cool. Im so hyped. I love 44 kalliya I had send some of the 44 kalliya videos to the hip hop artist in Uganda and and rappers here in America. and they really like 44 kalliya. they keep telling me they want to do songs with 44 kalliya.

Yeah 44 kalliya is the best rap crew we got the dopest rappers the best producer. we got style and swagga we just don’t love hip hop, we live hip hop. and thank you for sharing our music with Uganda and America, we would love work with other artists.

9/ how did it all happen, I mean how did you start getting to be the biggest hip hop group in sri lanka. and when di it all happen? where are you all from.

we worked hard for years and its team work we make the biggest hits and videos. all we are doing is talking the truth. and we have to thank iraj for helping us in songs like Mudukewen eliyata, E kale the biggest hits in sri lanka. and we would like to thank all the fans for supporting us to be the best crew in sri lanka. And when i say fans they not fans they are friends and 44 kalliya is a family.

and as far as sri lanka hip hop is it only coming from Colombo area or is it coming from everywhere.

we got rappers all around the country from Colombo, hill city, Kandy, down south like I said hip hop is a virus. we are from all around we everywhere. every boy wants to be a rapper and every girl wants to be a model.

what music do you listen to? I mean each member from 44 kalliya. how did each of you get in to hip hop.

we only listen to hip hop we are influenced by real hip hop we listen to all international hip hop music. we listen to old school to new school as long as its dope. I like to say hip hop saved my life that’s why we keep it real.

and about the name of the group 44 kalliya, what dose it real mean.

44 means four four beats and we added durty we wanted to make durty sounds and good music so we came up with durty 4 four. and 44 magnum made it sound even cooler. so that’s wassup we 44 kalliya.

our songs sounds dark and suspenseful and we look mysterious because we have gone through a lot and we came from the bottom. but we don’t influence negativity, even if its violence. we are underground. we are not mainstream, so we have to keep up our image. this image is given by the people, they like us more like this. we are trying to keep it real. and yes we are heavy and brutal and and its real violent but we don’t give out negativity. we think that’s what real hip hop does, keep it real.

the sound Im hearing from 44 kalliya is a dark sound. real suspenseful and mysteries. Even the way everyone dresses. there is lot of feeling and emotion in your songs. almost a angry sound. a lot of pain and struggle. the whole atmosphere of the songs are real dark and heavy and brutal. real violent. is that the way you see it.

our songs sounds dark and suspenseful and we look mysterious because we have gone through a lot and we came from the bottom. but we don’t influence negativity, even if its violence. we are underground. we are not mainstream, so we have to keep up our image. this image is given by the people, they like us more like this. we are trying to keep it real. and yes we are heavy and brutal and and its real violent but we don’t give out negativity. we think that’s what real hip hop does, keep it real.

do you have cds out? what are they call? and where can we fid them. how do people get in touch with you.

we are releasing our album hopefully this December. people can get in touch through Facebook, instagram we all have artist pages and 44 kalliya page as well.

who did the 44 kalliya videos. they are real existing and the visuals are real grim and dark, very mysterious.

our videos are directed by iraj production, priyanga, dinuka, sahan, master d, kaniya and indhika. thank for the interview black dog bone. love 44 kalliya.