Yelhomie is an independent hip-hop artist from Manipur, northeast India specializing in the field of rapping and hip-hop music. A very famous rapper who is recognized by many famous people from Indian music industry. So here, we are going to dive into Yelhomie’s personal life a bit and of course his music and many more. So why not start from his name! Yelhomie’s real name is Thiyam James Luwang. Well, James has a very interesting and meaningful story behind choosing his stage name as Yelhomie. Yelhomie stands for the indigenous people of Manipur. As born and raised in this beautiful place of Manipur, James decided to keep his stage name as Yelhomie to represent the people of his land and make them proud.
Yelhomie started falling for music when he was in grade 6. From here on he started writing lyrics and was influenced by music. Even though at that time, he could not receive the knowledge about music, classes, and support. He released his first song 7 th. And in his 11th standard, he joined a Manipur music stage featuring three Manipuri rappers who inspired him to go, learn and create music for his audiences. Yelhomie is very passionate with his love for music and trying to give the audience and the music industry some good art throughout the years.
Yelhomie mentioned that his mom is his biggest support. A single parent helping and encouraging her son to achieve his dream and pursue the career he wants. I must add, we need more desi parents like her to support their kids for what they want to do.
Starting from zero and no music lessons Yelhomie now has a studio and a very trustworthy team with him from Manipur. He started an independent record label under him known as Yelhomie Entertainment, the label has more artists in their team. His youtube channel has more than 50k followers and he has over more than 10k followers and supporters of his music.
He shared his experience and inspiration as a rapper with his interview with the Northeastern Chronicle via Author.
He said he is very passionate and hard-working towards music and he prepares his lyrics not only for soft topics but also, whenever he feels like he wants to talk about government, racism, education to his audience or the people, he puts down his thoughts and creates music. He also added that choosing this kind of topic as his music has been very important for him. As he is from Manipur, he noticed that over the years Manipuris don’t have freedom of speech. The citizens are scared of telling the truth and suffering. Instead of being mute and talking about the things that matter, Yelhomie showed some courage to make music on that topic to reach the audience and make people know things and realize the importance of this stuff. He said, “although I am risking my career doing this, this is what I want to do, this is the way I want to create music, and this the way I want to reach my audience and supporters.”
Well, very good for a musician and a rapper to cover issues like this because in today’s world, especially in a country like India we have rarely seen artists talking about topics that are important and worthy to know. We are proud of Yelhomie. Speaking of which, as a rapper from northeastern state Yelhomie has not only made his state proud but also brought the whole northeastern states into the eyes of people. His songs are very popular among the young generation.
His song ‘Nobody from the Northeast’ at once created a huge impact in the music industry and also in the matter Northeast as a whole. The song speaks about the northeast, the struggle of people in the northeast and its existence, and also the rap culture.
He says that the reason behind the song he created was that although he is from the northeast when it comes to representing a state of the 7 sisters and Sikkim, he alone can’t represent them as a whole because his knowledge is based on only Manipur and he doesn’t have much idea about the other states. So he created ‘nobody from the northeast’ as he is a nobody from the northeastern part of the country to share his thought and people thoughts and feelings through his rap. He is quite passionate about his lyrics, he spent his hard work and time and also makes sure he doesn’t spread any incorrect information about anything or from the northeastern states.
He also shared his thoughts on him producing or creating music outside his states specifically in Bollywood. He said that he appreciates and like the song and raps from the artists belonging to Bollywood but at the same time he put his words on him being from the northeast and speaking a different language than Hindi and respecting the population and different languages and cultures of India it is difficult for him to step out of Manipur especially from northeast to create music and join India’s music industry.
He also shared that he is not comfortable rapping in Hindi, he is quite sticking to rapping in English as he wants to. He also understands and says that as the literacy rate of our country is quite low most people won’t understand and connect to his lyrics and songs. He pointed out that systemic racism in our Bollywood music industry and the language barrier will be a tough step for him to overcome coming from Manipur and creating music in Bollywood. Now he wants to give the best to his music and self, come up as a big star to let people know about his music and rap, hip-hop, and understand him. Yelhomie also shared his thoughts with his fans and supporters. He also said,” I won’t call my fans, the audience is my supporter who respects my music and listens to them and tries to communicate with me. They are the constant supporters and well-wishers”.
Yelhomie shared his honest thoughts on rap culture by saying that not everybody makes it out as a rapper and it’s a very difficult path to follow in the music industry. He gave a piece of advice to the people who may want to listen to this, that a backup plan is a must. One needs to be practical in life to achieve something or live a life.
Yelhomie also shared some very practical experiences of his life. How his friends and relatives are not convinced of him and his career in rap and hip-hop. He said in the interview that it doesn’t matter to him as long as his mom is with him and with some special friends and his supporters he will make it through. As we all know the one who cares and supports will stay with you until the very end. Yelhomie thanks his supporters for their support and love for his music. He also said,” I am very grateful for those people in my life who listen to my music and try to understand and appreciate it!”
His latest single has been released recently known as ‘You Never Know’. He is an immense hit and receives love from the audience and His album of the century is one of the major turning points in his career. He performed on many platforms including major cafes and music stages. Also, he doesn’t perform in front of an audience who doesn’t know him and his style of music as he likes to communicate with his music and tries to give his thoughts through rap to his audience. Whenever you can, do listen to his rap.
On the behalf of the team, The Northeastern chronicle, we wish him good luck and well wishes as his next release of a 6-track EP titled “The Vision” is on July 25 named ‘that’s Wassup’.
Visual by: Kunal Kaustav Duwarah
Article by Dimpal Pathak, The North-Eastern Chronicle
