LISTEN: Amir Meludah’s ‘Katak Tersangkut Dalam Perut (VMPRMYTH | KAIN Remix)’

By JUICE Malaysia • 12 May 2014 in News

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VMPRMYTH and Kain’s rework of Amir Meludah’s ‘Katak Tersangkut Dalam Perut’, off their upcoming joint effort Clairvoyants, reinforces what we’ve suspected since the Bahasa wordsmith first collaborated with VMPRMYTH. The two (plus Kain now) are destined for the kind of producer-rapper synergy that birthed classics after classics in the hip hop canon (think Bomb Squad and Ice Cube or recently, El-P and Killer Mike).

Amir’s words are neither strictly adherent to textbook Malay nor colloquial, instead when each syllable is rapped in his staccato delivery, the language transcends both the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka stubbornly static approach to Bahasa and the bastardised, KL Gangster-esque abbreviated Bahasa so popular among Malay rappers today — antithetical to Ahli Fiqir, yet doesn’t go rap pasar either. It’s almost like a different language to the untrained ear, even. The initially minimal acoustic beat amplifies his voice — both Kain and VMPRMYTH know that with a rapper like Amir, you wouldn’t want the beat to be the focal point of the track. But they’re also wise enough to let go of the restraint when needed; the sound of ‘Katak Tersangkut Dalam Perut’ goes appropriately bigger once the vocal samples come in, all without overshadowing his literary rap.