Hip-hop producer Ankith Gupta is set to release a sample-heavy magnum opus, Time Machine which features a mammoth 27 tracks and 51 artists on it.
Released on August 19, the multi-lingual album – it has songs in seven languages, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Dakhini, Bangla and Nepali apart from English – will be distributed by maajja globally.
His 100th release, Time Machine is also Ankith’s most ambitious project till date. The producer, who has previously released two albums, 6 EPs and nearly 50 singles, turned to Stephen Hawking and a multitude of genres – from trap to lo-fi and drill, and a host of experimental sounds – for the album that also features exciting, up-and-coming rappers like A-Gan, Deon, Joshua Kirubagaran, Kainto and many more.
“I like doing things which most artists won’t do, and this album is a reflection of that,” says Ankith. “With Time Machine, I’ve tried to amalgamate old and new schools of multiple genres ranging from trap, boom bap, lofi, hyperpop, drill, chill hip-hop and many more
experimental genres,” he adds.
For this album Ankith listened to over 500 film songs – from the 80s to recent 2021 releases – looking for just the perfect samples to use in the tracks. Samples were also a way for him to pay homage to the artists of yesteryears, another reason for him to title his album, Time Machine, which also doffs a hat to theoretical physicist Hawking.
Spanning a spectrum of sounds and a roster of talent from Southern India, tracks of note on the album include the Bangla-English ‘Red Light Green Light’ that samples an already iconic hip-hop sample, ‘Thoda Resham Lagta Hai’ and features rappers Shonnashi, GxP, Crtitical Mahmood, UHR, Crown Engine, Lazy Panda and co-produced by Larzish; Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal’s ‘Pal’ serves as the backdrop for the melodic ‘Pooyo Nee’ that features the Malayalam artist, Deon; the Lata Mangeshkar-classic ‘Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi’ is manipulated and runs through the entire length of ‘Tere Bina’, a drill track featuring rappers SKIVINNIE and Yung Chaaku from Dubai.
The album artwork – designed by Neil Pipin – references Hawking’s infamous Time Travellers party. “The party was held on 28/06/2009 at the University of Cambridge, but the twist is no one was present at the party as he sent out the invite after the party had ended,” says Ankith.
The setting had three trays of food sitting uneaten, and flutes filled with champagne untouched. Balloons decorated the walls, and a giant banner displayed the words “Welcome, Time Travelers.”
A similar recreation can be seen in the artwork of Time Machine. Apart from these, few pieces of art can be seen hanging on the wall, paying homage to iconic hip-hop names like Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G, Nipsey Hussle and J Dilla.
“In a video released with the invite of the Time Travelers party Hawking said, “I’m hoping copies of [the invitation], in one form or another, will survive for many thousands of years. And that’s when I realised so will the artwork for the album,” he adds.
Hawking’s voice has also been sampled on the album intro, titled ‘Time Machine’.
Time Machine will be available on all streaming platforms on August 19.
