Dubai Rapper PAV4N Teams Up with Benny L on Face-Melting D&B Track

Want to scare your neighbours? Hit play on Benny L and PAV4N’s new track Grim and crank up the volume. Dubai-based rapper PAV4N teams up with drum & bass powerhouse Benny L and the result is a sick slice of face-melting d&b pressure. PAV4N describes Grim as “an absolute beefcake of a riddim”. That’s putting it mildly.

Grim is a tale of the streets, with PAV4N’s spitfire rhymes intercepted by ominous foghorn sounds capable of waking the dead. Out now on AudioPorn Records, the track is lifted from Benny L’s soon-come debut album Reactions. Shot in London and Dubai, the video for Grim is tripped-out weirdness of the highest order. Check out the track and the video below.

Living Art

Yes, PAV4N is blue. Following an 18-year-career with now defunct hip-hop crew Foreign Beggars, PAV4N is striking out on his own. As a solo rap artist, he’s pushing his aesthetic boundaries as a living art project while tapping into his Indian heritage.

“We live in such a heavy visual kind of world now,” said PAV4N during a recent STR8UP Podcast. “I just thought, ‘How can I push the boundaries with this visual aesthetic but tell a story?’” The Blue Man, says PAV4N, allows him to introduce aspects of Hindu mythology into his solo career. It encapsulates who he is as a person along with his principles as a Hindu. “I’m not necessarily devoutly religious but it’s in line with what I am. Bringing those together in a way that nobody’s done before, it was like, ‘Alright, cool, let’s get blue’.”

Authentic

One of the first Indian rappers to enjoy a successful career, PAV4N says the hip-hop scene in India is really opening up and becoming more authentic. “I can actually go back now and I don’t have to water it down. I don’t have to get some cheesy chorus, I don’t have to dress a certain way, I can just do me.”

Photo: Tamir Ali

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