GANGTOK, February 11, 2013

Urban Inc, a promising hip-hop two-member band from Gangtok, released a video of its upcoming album ‘Dream High’ on February 10 evening here at Café Live & Loud.

Former minister T Lachungpa, a generous patron of Sikkimese talent, formally released the ‘Dream High’ video in presence of Urban Inc members Thupden Wangchuk ‘Thups’ and Tenzing Lekchola ‘Leks’ and video production team of Padma Tshering Shenga ‘Popolaz’ and Robin Gurung.

The 4 minutes long title song video, shot in Gangtok and Darjeeling, has been uploaded in forums available in the internet and efforts are being made to push it into popular music channels in India and Nepal.

As ‘Thups’ and ‘Leks’ share, the under-process ‘Dream High’ album would have 20 tracks out of which six songs including the title song are ready.

“We are working on six songs and are trying to work with other artistes for remaining eight songs. The album will be ready by the year end”, they said.

Confirmation has come from Nepal based rap singer Yama Buddha and a rap group from Hyderabad to work with Urban Inc in the album.

Along with the title song, the other five tracks recorded so far have been uploaded in the internet by the band.

“We have release our six tracks of Dream High in the internet for promotion. We want the people to know about our music and respond to the album. Remaining songs would be available with the album”, said Thups and Leks, both 24 years of age.

This is the second album of Urban Inc after ‘Rise to the Top’ released in September, 2011. While the debut album was a mixture of English, Hindi and Nepali lyrics, ‘Dream High’ is more of English and desi beats as the band targets a wider audience.

“The title song is about school days and our aim is to motivate the students, especially who are the backbenchers. We want students not to give up in life.

Usually, our songs talk about love, youth struggles and life styles”, said Thups and Leks. The duo founded the band in 2010 and since then, moving ahead step by step.

“Response has been good so far, especially outside Sikkim. Urban Inc gave nine performances in Delhi in these two months out of which three were for charity. We also performed at Kolkata and from this March onwards, we are planning to go college fests with Jamia Millia Islamia extending us an invitation as a special guest band”, said Thups.

The Urban Inc members are focusing on going for more events for generating revenue. “We need to go for more events to generate revenue which can then be used for funding our album. We don’t get sponsors here and we are basically on our own. But so far, the journey has been good and we are getting good recognition for our music”, they said.

Thups holds a degree in computer engineering while Leks is a hotel management graudate. The duo thanked T Lachungpa for his support and Café Live & Loud for providing them a platform to release the ‘Dream High’ video.

Popolaz and Robin spoke about new experimentation done while directing and editing the video. “The video is totally different from what is available at the moment. We have used lot of special effects and green screen technology. The shots are focused on the two artistes and their body actions”, they said.

Popolaz and Robin are known for ‘Lets Pray Campaign’ song and video production. They have tied up Urban Inc for the band’s promotion and videos.

‘Funky Hop Crew’, a dance group of five members led by Sonam Leno also performed during the video release function.

Courtesy: Sikkim Express

 

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