Music is the art of producing, pleasing and expressing tones with melody, rhythm and harmony. Music speaks to us and silences us. It provides parameters that can be used to frame experiences, perceptions, feelings and comportments.
Mantham Prasad, also known as MAG – K, a solicitous and reflective rapper born in Patna, India is the subject of this story. MAG – K has been an underground rapper and stood out from all other kids in school. Being bullied in school and having an introverted personality led him to become a rapper.
He has been an avid follower of Hollywood since a very young age and discovered that he is a fan of Eminem’s music, who is mostly known for his contentious and venomous words of his alter ego Slim Shady. He was greatly moved and motivated by music.
Being academically successful enabled him to significantly increase the quality of his English and vocabulary. He enjoyed spending hours playing video games and reading poetry and other works of literature from his school books. He consistently earned outstanding grades in school.
MAG – K relocated to Pune, Maharashtra in 2015 to pursue B.Tech. After living in Pune for two years, he was drawn to the hip hop culture in Mumbai and Pune. He then considered combining his love of poetry and hip hop with something that could be considered an artistic endeavour. He had to drop out of B.Tech in 2017 due to his intense determination to advance his rapping and rhyming abilities.
As a result of parental pressure to get a degree and a career, MAG-K began studying for BCA in his hometown and was unable to devote much time to music. With the aid of the internet, he also learnt how to record songs and use DAW software in addition to his BCA. He had trouble finding an audience because most of them complained that they couldn’t understand his lyrics due to his accent. Because of this, MAG-K decided not to release any songs because he was affirmative that he couldn’t appeal to an Indian audience.
To pursue MBA post graduation, learn business basics and how to apply them to music, he moved to Kolkata – The City of Joy. Funded by his savings, his debut album, “The Prolegomenon EP,” which was recorded on a mic in one take distributed through TuneCore on July 24, 2022. With over 15000 streams and 115 monthly listeners on Spotify, it produced results which were quite pleasing. He was able to accomplish this by investing many hours in digital marketing courses, demographically targeting listeners and launching advertising campaigns. TuneCore welcomed MAG – K’s album “Who the King” to the Billions Club.
He stumbled across Oil Temper Beats UK’s advertisement of securing a feature with Joell Ortiz, a former member of the slaughterhouse group which was formed by Eminem back in 2008. Consequently, he borrowed money, set up a studio and a record label in his dorm room to assist other rappers and artists in college and in India in releasing their music independently, keeping 100% of the music royalties for themselves and achieving high music sales through digital marketing tools.
Despite the hardships and complications encountered, MAG – K took a position for himself and decided to promote other vocal artists, too. He is on the verge of establishing his own empire and is now assisting others in doing the same.
MAG – K’s songs are available on all platforms.