Music
Story behind the song: ‘Torrie Wilson’ by Paal Dabba x Sez On The Beat
The first song from Red Bull 64 Bars season 2 brings quickfire bars and childhood nostalgia from the Tamil MC.
I decided I wanted to do Red Bull 64 Bars because it’s not so much about the music as it is about the lyrics. I wanted to throw the words out there, and that was the process.
With the main theme of this song, I’m trying to say, “You can’t skip things in life.” This is about the things you can’t skip in life, including me. I’m unskipp-able, like a Torrie Wilson entry.
In the song, I say, “Skip panna mudiyala,” which means I can’t skip. The track is a little bit serious and about my life, specifically the things that happened to me in my music – the betrayals, the good things, and people who showed their real selves. These are things that I cannot skip.
I also say, “Naa sonamaari vangitan bro Prada la ipo watch uh” in this song. In every song I talk about Prada, because I love the brand. I’ve told Sange [Wangchuk, my manager] many times that I want to own something by Prada. So in this song, I’m saying I’ve got a Prada watch, but actually it doesn’t exist.
Then, I shoutout representing Tamil hip-hop, and in particular shoutout to Vysarpadi, Chennai – 39, that’s the pin code. You can find this reference in all my songs.
Paal Dabba in the Red Bull 64 Bars studio
© Focus Sports
I’m talking to a girl after that, and I tell her that I’m sipping Zincovita tonic. This is the first time I’ve mentioned it in a song. It’s my favourite; it’s a vitamin tonic that I like to drink. In my school days, without telling my parents, I would drink a lot of the tonic. I needed to put this in the song, because I tasted this tonic a lot in my life.
One of my lyrics is also “Shit fuckin organical scene.” I wanted to keep that term organical scene for the double meaning and also because it rhymes with “meen”. Meen is the Tamil word for fish. And in that rhyme, I’m basically saying that the fish is my target and I have a “vala potu”, which means net.
After that I talk about how I spent so much money on education, but I think it was a waste. I actually believe that and wanted to make the lyrics real, which is why I said it.
I say, “Naa morning saapta seymiya,” – which means ‘I eat in the morning’ – because food is always a constant theme in my lyrics. Food is the reason I have the name Paal Dabba as well.
There’s a reference to Sirippoli, which is one of the biggest Tamil comedy channels alongside Adithya channel. With this mention of Sirippoli, I’m basically telling someone that they are a piece of comedy.
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Then there’s a very cool Afro-switch in the music from Sez. I use that part to reference [Tamil superstar] Rajinikanth. I say, I’m so organic like Rajini, because he has his own organic style. There are so many movie stars in Tamil cinema, but they all have Rajinikanth as a reference when it comes to being a hero in Tamil Nadu. I’m basically saying that I’m exactly like Rajinikanth, specifically his character Manik Baashha; it’s one of his most famous characters from the movie Baashha (1995).
I reference Ghajini [Tamil movie from 2005] and how the character writes everything on his body because he has memory loss and needs notes as cues to remember things. With the reference in my lyrics, I’m basically saying that I’ve made a note of all the scams you’ve pulled on me so I remember and one day I will get back at you.
Sez on the Beat and Paal Dabba work in the studio
© Focus Sports
There’s another lyric I like where I’m talking about chatting and posting things online. “Information gather panni post podra time ila.” In that section, I’m saying that I have my neighbourhood in the palm of my hand and I know it inside out, so I don’t have time to post and spread misinformation. I also mention that I write all my songs at night, so I stay busy instead of spending time chatting online.
There’s a reference to the chocolate drink mix Bournvita: “Stop panni sip panra two glass of Bourn-v.” This is a reference that I put into all my songs. And right after that lyric, I say if you give me a pencil, I feel like John Wick. Except that I mean to say that while John Wick kills people with a gun in the movies, I write my bars to eliminate the competition.
I also make a reference to the actress Janhvi Kapoor. I say that I won’t be able to look away if Janhvi walks by. In this same section, I’m talking to a girl, and I bring up multiple ideas, like asking her if she wants to go to the beach. And I also boast to her that I will bring home a Grammy award, which I believe I will do one day.
The reason I wanted to come back to the hook in this track – even though I’ve seen the previous Red Bull 64 Bars episodes and I know they don’t have a hook – is because I wanted to do it as a song as well as achieving the goal of rapping 64 bars.