PABLO is a rapper, songwriter and music producer from Calcutta, India. The 27-year-old artist raps exclusively in English and aims at representing local culture with a global sound. He started his record label/collective ‘Khaos Kartel’ – a platform for other Indian English rappers across the country and his album debuted at #1 on the iTunes India rap/hip-hop charts. PABLO has performed for major festival brands in India like Sunburn, VH1 Supersonic, Zomaland, Grub Fest, Enchanted Valley Carnival and many more club shows.
On his debut EP ‘Prince’, he bridged the gap between bass music and rap, and on his sophomore EP titled ‘100s’ – he made four songs in four different Indian languages, namely Bengali, Punjabi, Kannada and Gujarati. He has collaborated with some of the biggest artists both across India and across the globe, including Jamaican superstar Mr. Vegas – the voice behind Hardwell’s famous ‘Badam’ song. After 10 years of being a musician and dozens of records later, he is finally ready to release his debut album – titled ‘Pablo’s Gonna Pull Up On You’.
‘Pablo’s Gonna Pull Up On You’ is a storytelling journey of the rapper from being the most underrated artist to one of the biggest in the game – a story told over raging beats and through the most captivating lyrics you have ever heard from PABLO. Largely autobiographical, he dedicates this album to Kolkata – the city that he grew up in. Entirely produced and engineered by the PABLO himself, this project is sonically from the future and has vocal features from some really talented artists.
You don’t need to look any further than the driving, one minute album opener “The Pull Up” to get a crash course of PABLO’s incredible abilities with the mic. Over a thundering beat, PABLO delivers his heavy bars with killer conviction. This confident delivery forms a focal point of the entire album. On the bouncy “Black Suzuki,” he delivers vocal bullets like She asks me Pablo how you been..I’ve been working overtime to make sure that I win.
There is no doubt that PABLO’s talents with the pen are formidable, but his biggest challenge on “Pablo’s Gonna Pull Up On You”, was finding a sound that absolutely works for his aspirations of taking over India’s hip hop scene. It’s safe to say that he succeeds in this effort and listeners will have their hands full with a truckload of fiery bars all over the 27 minutes and 10 seconds of this album’s run time.
Because of the compact nature of the album, it never feels cumbersome or tiring to listen to. It comes, fires its shots, and leaves the scene.
“Pablo’s Gonna Pull Up On You” is definitely a great starting point for bigger things to come. PABLO has all it takes for becoming an undeniable force in the Indian rap game.
Verdict: Flows like a river.
