Exclusive: Dee MC On Her Collaboration With Guru Randhawa, Anirudh Ravichander, And What Makes Her ‘Swipe Right’ On Someone

Exclusive: Dee MC On Her Collaboration With Guru Randhawa, Anirudh Ravichander, And What Makes Her ‘Swipe Right’ On Someone

If there is one genre of music that I’m still learning about loving it all the same then it has to be rap. I’m not going to go with the cliché and say that Eminem is my favourite (though he does come pretty close), my favourite is actually an Indian rapper called Brodha V. A friend of mine introduced me to him, and ever since then I not only got hooked to his songs but also the genre of music. The more I listened to songs from this genre, the more I realised that there were not many female artists in rap. So, out of the few female hip-hop/rap artists, I fell in love with the kind of songs that Deepa Unnikrishnan aka Dee MC created. 

Deepa Unnikrishnan, who is popularly known as Dee MC, started a career in rap when she was 19 years old. She is a rebellious and feminist rap singer that inspired a tonne of young women to take up that genre and pursue a career in music. Her songs are something that most Indian women would relate to – ‘Vadhaiyaan’, ‘Rang’, ‘Chaar Logon Ki Baatien’, and many more. And her latest collaboration with Tinder, Guru Randhawa, and Anirudh Ravichander is now getting a lot of attention. Yep, they just came out with a cool new love anthem called #SwipeRightMaterial! 

And so, when I got the opportunity to speak to Dee MC while she was promoting her new song ‘#SwipeRightMaterial’ that is in collaboration with Tinder, Guru Randhawa, and Anirudh Ravichander, I was more than happy to take it.

Before that let me tell you a little about the song, #SwipeRightMaterial. It is a song that encourages being authentic, encourages self-love, and also celebrates unity in diversity. It is all that and much much more. How do I know this? Well, because I’ve heard the song as well as Dee MC, who wrote the lyrics told me so. She opened up about the reason why she resonates with the song, what collaborating with Tinder and other two artists was like, how she perceives online dating, and who according to her makes for the perfect swipe right material. Read on to know the deets. 

Q. How did this collaboration with Tinder, Guru Randhawa, and Anirudh Ravichander come together and what was it like working on it?

Dee MC: I was approached by the Tinder team and they already had this idea of putting me and two other artists together for a song that mainly talks about what it means to be authentic in your life as a person and also of course, as musicians, because all three of us are musicians. So they wanted us to bring our own unique, authentic vibe into the song. And I think that comes together really well – putting three diverse languages together, it’s sounding and flowing so beautifully. It sounds great. And Kartik Shah did a great job with the music as well. So working on this project has been really exciting and I’m also looking forward to more.

Q. Where do you seek inspiration for your lyrics, and especially for this one?

Dee MC: Since the time I’ve started my journey as a hip-hop artist, I’ve derived inspiration from my own life and also from the people around me and the society that I see at large. Even for this song, in the last two, three years, mainly the inspiration was derived from my own journey because I have myself started talking about mental health a lot, like literally becoming an advocate for it, through my songs. So, even in this collaboration, that was the main underlying message – encouraging people to just be comfortable with who they are and have confidence in who they are and, really believe that I’m already a swipe right material. 

Q. How does the #SwipeRightMaterial resonate with you?

Dee MC: In the song, like in my lyrics, all I’m exerting is a lot of self-confidence. So, Tinder’s ‘#SwipeRightMaterial’ is like, you are already saying that I am somebody who’s worth swiping right on. And when you really believe that about yourself, you will attract people of the same energy who will vibrate with you on the same frequency. It is about just first being one with yourself so that you can be one with the person that you want to be.

Q. Have you ever used dating apps yourself? What’s the one thing in someone’s bio that would instantly make you swipe left on them?

Dee MC: I was in a long term relationship for a really long time, I personally have not yet been on any dating platforms a lot, but I have known people around me who have used them – my friends and family have had people who they connected with and have had some great experiences and relationships. That being said, if I have to talk about, things that would make me wanna swipe left instantly, it would obviously be something sexist. I mean, because of the person who I am, because of the type of music that I make, feminism is something that’s very, very close to my heart. So if the bio has anything sexist, it gotta go left. Apart from this, honestly, I would like to say things that would make me wanna go, right. Which would be, if you’re funny, if you already connect with music, if you’re somebody who in any way connected to the art world, then that’s a swipe, right for me, very few things. 

Also Read: Exclusive: Tinder’s Swipe Ride Episode 3 Has Kusha Kapila And Swara Bhasker Talk About Democracy In Dating, Female Desire And More

Q. What’s your take on modern dating and relationships? Love it? Hate it? 

Dee MC: I am in the midst of modern relationships. So I can’t say I hate it, obviously. It comes and goes. I would like to circle back to the answers that I gave before that is before finding anybody out there, you need to find yourself within yourself and know exactly what you need. Otherwise, if you are lost within, then all your efforts that you’re putting outside to find somebody perfect for you is not gonna work out. So the internal clock needs to be fixed. And I think the new generation is really, really doing that. They are turning that table. And they are very open and their vulnerability is something that’s not looked at as a sign of weakness anymore. So being emotional is something that’s encouraged now in the online dating space. So yeah, that’s a very, very big positive note for me.

Q. The Indian rap scene became mainstream once Gully Boy happened. Do you see a lot more female rappers coming on board now? 

Dee MC: Yes. Most definitely. This is something I used to answer in interviews before even Gully Boy released, that I really believe the movie will bridge some sort of gap and that it will just inform people out there especially girls that something like this exists where girls also make music. Since then we have definitely seen a rise in the number of women attending hip-hop shows, listening to hip-hop music, and even joining the industry. Although I wouldn’t say that it’s fully become mainstream because we as artists, whatever music we make, that’s going to become the history of hip-hop in India. But I think all the artists right now, including women making music around me are very, very authentic in what they do and where everybody has their own unique talent that they bring to the stage. So the hip-hop scene is also very diverse right now. I wouldn’t say that it’s mainstream at all.

Q. If you had to choose a song to describe your love life, what would it be?

Dee MC: I don’t know. I mean, this answers both ways because I thought the question was going to be about describing just my life not necessarily my love life. There is a song I have made called ‘Confess’ which I released in 2020. For me, that was the turning point as an artist who was slowly being more vulnerable and more authentic in my vulnerability, through my music. In that song, there’s this one line that goes, “dekha tha pehle ek sapna ab seekha hai khud pe hii hasna” that basically means that everybody sees dreams, and then we kind of break our own hearts when all of those dreams don’t come true, but now I have learned how to laugh at my own journey. So I would say this song describes my life and also my love life. 

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Ritu Sanghvi

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