The Balle’s in Ady’s court

Cavan Punjabi hip-hop artist releases album

The spoken word of Irish hip-hop has, if anything, grown louder and much prouder in recent years as the youth of today continually search for a voice, especially in these darkened times.

Those attempting to “make shapes” in the music industry, as Cavan-born Punjabi singer-songwriter Ady Saj puts it, are a generation whose formative years were already debilitated by the economic turmoil of a decade ago.

They’re a generation too for whom cultural spaces briefly became an endangered habitat, and where reward for creativity can be seized by those quickest to rack-up the ‘Likes’ counter online.

Irish hip-hop has therefore travelled an incredible journey since the early ‘90s era of Scary Eire and through the emergence of Maverick Sabre et al more recently.

Ady (21), who views his music in the same genre as hip-hop/pop cross-over artists like Drake or The Weeknd, independently released his debut album, ‘Wavez’, towards the end of last year.

“You have to move quick to stay current,” explains Ady, a first-generation Irish of Pakistani decent.

The final year student in Economics and Finance at TUI Dublin, who lives in Swellan, says: “There is so much music out there now, so many people doing incredible things right from their own bedrooms, and so many ways to share it, that you have to really stand-out if you want to make a name for yourself.”

Ady has always expressed a love of music, blending detailed lyricism with urban sounds and world music-inspired pop elements to develop a distinct aesthetic.

‘Wavez’ was a year in the making, with Ady tinkering tirelessly in his Dublin-based home studio between studies, recording, producing, and finally mastering each of the album’s eight tracks before their release.

Schooled at St Patrick’s College before progressing to Third Level, the potential trappings of stardom were there to see at young age. Ady, then only in his mid-teens, bravely starred in his own segment on Pat’s Factor. He remembers those times fondly.

“I had a great time going to school there. I was a very talkative guy. Music is something I’ve always had a unique connection with.”

With that memory etched in his mind’s rearview mirror, Ady focussed on honing his vocal stylings and how that interacts with the playful two-step rhythm that so neatly criss-crosses between the traditional hip-hop sound and Punjabi influence.On the album Ady sings with a mixture of English and Punjabi, something novel on the Irish hip-hop scene.

The cross-cultural influence is clear. On the track ‘Quixotic’ Ady even cheekily samples for effect the dramatic and famous train scene from Bollywood’s ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ featuring Indian film star Shah Rukh Khan. Love of his inherited Asian culture draws him to encompassing such unique and silky sounds.

Growing up working in his father’s and then uncle’s restaurants, he says music was always playing. The hours were often “long”, but Ady says tuning into the music helped the clock tick that much faster.

“With my dad there was always music playing like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Pakistani vocalist, musician). My father would always have music on the TV but I think the main music influences for me were the likes of Bilal Saeed (Pakistani singer-songwriter) and Imran Khan (Dutch-Pakistani Punjabi singer and songwriter). So I had that influence constantly around me.”

Growing up in a “strict” household, which frowned on folly, Ady admits to setting aside his dreams of making music to concentrate instead on his studies. He has no regrets. Ady is hugely pragmatic. While music is not something that has ever left him, he openly acknowledges the huge odds against becoming famous.

But Ady hopes to make his mark, one way or another, citing ex-Strypes’ guitarist Josh McClorey as an inspiration in that regard.

“I see Josh, who lives not far from me, and what he did with the band. It shows you what can be done, what he’s doing now, that it’s not impossible for someone from a small town like Cavan to make it big and make great music. [Josh] was great when I mentioned my music to him, he said to go for it and I’m thankful for that,” recalls Ady who hopes he can be similarly inspirational to other young musicians of Asian descent.

“It’s become so much easier for new artists to get their music out there, more than it was maybe five, even 10 years ago. Crazy artists have been discovered over the likes of Tik Tok, like [Indian singer, songwriter] AP Dhillon, he’s just crazy blown up. He dropped a song called ‘Brown Munde’, or ‘Brown Boys’ and it blew up at levels I’ve not seen ever before. So there are opportunities. Even if you look at YouTube, the number of streams, artists like him are making a solid income from even just that.”

While appeal for Punjabi-inspired hip-hop may still be limited in Ireland, the English market remains “huge” says Ady.

“I have a lot of friends who are artists who have put their whole lives into what they’re doing. I’m a young guy, very ambitious. So for me making music is a love in itself. If it becomes something more, that would be amazing.”

He adds, when asked if he’d like to produce Irish hip-hop artists rapping Punjabi: “Absolutely it’s something I like to do. Make music, produce music. There are a lot of things I want to achieve in life. Some in music, and also outside of it. I see a lot of people in my community, being a brown kid from a small town in Ireland, making music, they’re looking up to me now. A lot of people have come to know me this past year through my music and I want to make music for them, and make them proud of what I can do.”