Album Review: Tabia by Prabh Deep.

Tabia: a trip down the road of finding peace and self-realization.

Prabh Deep is a Delhi-based rapper and producer, who is known for his lyrical abilities and his experimentation with a wide variety of instrumentals. Tabia, Prabh Deep’s second full-length studio album, is all about him experimenting with sounds not heard of in the desi hip-hop scene. The literal meaning of the word ‘Tabia’ is a move that a person makes while playing chess and here it means the moves made by Prabh Deep to reach his best potential both as an artist and as a human being. This record is his inner exploration, trying to find peace amongst chaos and be one with himself and his surroundings. The album is divided into two parts. The first part details Prabh Deep’s struggles with the outside world and the worldly pleasures which dictates his behavior and the choices that he makes. The second part however is him realising that all his efforts were in vain because he has no power over nature or the world and all he can do is tackle his own demons in order to lead a life of contentment and peace. The saga is beautifully portrayed with the choice of production that evades the traditional hip hop sounds and goes into more experimental, genre-bending sound. The writing on this one is typical Prabh Deep with bar heavy rapping and unmatched wordplay. Prabh Deep seems to be in command of his abilities as an artist and displays flamboyance throughout the record.

Here’s a look at my favorite songs from this project:

• Tabia: the titular track is Prabh taking us into a dream sequence with very wavy, spaced-out synths. The percussion sounds are taken from folk/tribal music. This track lets us know that this album is going to be a concept-driven project and nothing like what we’ve seen or heard before. The title track does exactly what it’s intended to do, take us on a euphoric journey.

• Qafir: the song seems to be very upbeat and happy but the bass makes sure that you feel the emotions behind what Prabh saying. The synths are again spacey and euphoric while Prabh Deep is very introspective and talks about the adverse effects of fame and follows the ‘grass is greener on the other side’ narrative.

• Paapi: the guitar in this song feels like it’s out of some big-budget soundtrack, it’s beautiful and brilliantly mixed with the heavy drums. Prabh Deep creates an environment of false positivity for himself and says that love is not important as long as he has fame and money. The false positivity is highlighted by the triumphant horns section at the end of this cut.

• Preet: Preet is the love ballad in Tabia. It’s him releasing that love is equally if not more important than all the materialistic pleasures of the world. Prabh Deep continues his experimentation on the beat and his rapping styles as he adopts a more melodic, sing-song, autotuned delivery for this track and it works perfectly with the mid-tempo beat.

• Taqat: the power you think you possess is only in your mind, in reality, it’s the situations and the consequences that define how powerful you are. That’s Taqat in a nutshell. Prabh Deep goes back to a more braggadocio delivery over a trap deliver with hard drums and rattling hi-hats that’s co-produced by IDEK? and himself. This is reminiscent of the old Prabh Deep sounds and comes at the perfect time in the record.

• Alope: this song is a production masterpiece with as many as 4 producers involved for one beat and the small details in the beat is a testimonial to it being produced to perfection. Alope is about disappearing and leaving the limelight. It’s about working towards your end goal and not being followed and seen. A compelling hook from Zan Twoshadez and ernest rapping from Prabh Deep give this song the substance that it needed. The part with the reverbed vocal is one of the most intense and satisfying bits of this record.

• Antar: the song keeps switching its energy from intense to chill to introspective and back to mellow, describing a distorted state of mind. Richard Craker is one of the most talented producers that I’ve come across thanks to this album. The beat creates a mysterious aura that’s backed by Prabh Deep switching his flows according to the mood of the beat.

• Abaad: SYPS’s hook sends you straight into a trance with the way the vocals are mixed with the beautiful instrumental and the reverb adds to the dreamy wave that it’s trying to create. Abaad is one of the most sonically fulfilling cuts on this project that goes deep into existentialism.

• Qaabu: this is the Interlude that takes us into the other half of the album, the part where Prabh is releasing the power of nature. The production backs this up with sounds of birds and waves mixed into the very experimental musical arrangement. It’s insane that a 15 year old producer, Lambo Drive, has produced this Prabh Deep. Just close your eyes and listen to this to feel what it means and you won’t be disappointed.

• Huqum: the beat is reminiscent of dancehall music with very upbeat synths and fast-paced drums. Prabh Deep raps about following him into the journey towards enlightenment as he knows where he’s going. The spaced-out section at the end is transcendental and you’ll wish that the song lasted a while longer.

• Babur: on Babur Prabh raps about not knowing anything and being delusional about having knowledge of the workings of this world and enlightenment. The production on this is derived from the drum and bass scene with high octane drums and immense energy throughout. The unrest in the narrative is perfectly shown through the craziness of the beat.

• Waqaf: in the search for your true self you often realize that nature or the universe has the supreme power and you have no control over it. Prabh takes the spacey synth route towards this realization through this cut. The bass lines and the production creates a vibe that’s meant to be felt. Special shoutout to Hashbass. He is one of the baddest bassist in the country right now, he elevates this cut to another level with his groovy, fat bassline.

• Gyani: the song Gyani is about relishing the peace that Prabh has found over the years. He’s ready to trade anything in a second for the peace because he’s found his peace in life, he’s no longer chasing material happiness but is now after internal satisfaction. Like all the other songs the instrumental and the rapping solidify what he’s trying to convey.

• Sthir: the word Sthir means stability and that’s what the song is all about. Finding peace amongst chaos and holding onto that newfound stability is what Prabh Deep is trying to do on this cut. The instrumental is another example of his experimentation and the wide range of instruments he has used on this record.

• Safar: the journey towards self-discovery is a tedious, tiring, and long process. You keep uncovering new things on the path. Somedays you feel you know everything and on others, you feel like you know nothing. The Safar(journey) is a relentless pursuit towards finding the ultimate happiness. That’s Safar for you. Prabh concludes this project with a beautiful outro about not knowing anything yet knowing a lot. I got lost in trance with that gorgeous synth outro followed by the somber horns and, in my opinion, he couldn’t have closed this album any better.

Tabia is a special project. It’s by far the best album that I’ve heard in the Desi Hip Hop scene. Prabh Deep chose the path of going the unconventional way. You can see him creating a storytelling masterpiece here. The rapping and the production both go hand in hand. He uses several different flows and production styles in this project but finds a way to make them connect and flow effortlessly. There is no banger or solo hit on this record. It requires you to sit down and listen from start to finish, which is what makes this album even more amazing. Tabia is Prabh’s journey into a different realm and he’s taking you onto it with this record. There are long outro’s, the gorgeous instrumental section along with introspective rapping which stands out as an outstanding performance from Prabh Deep. This is the album that the Desi Hip Hop scene needed. Here’s a link to the album.