Break bars: Breaking rap stereotype

Break Bars is a rap battle happening between 16 contestants. The panel of judges in this show includes Easi12, Easeiseasy and DJ Vital. The show plans to add Uniq Poet as a judge for the finale.

The founder of Break bars is Arbin Thapa Magar and the co-founder is Anup Ghimire.

Thapa says, “Before this event, in 2021 January 1st, we were running an event named Break Bar Cypher and uploaded a video on YouTube". "Every individual can take part in live battles or live bars. To promote this, we came up with Break Bars", he adds.

The lyrics used in rap; especially in hip hop music are called bars. So the first word break is taken from break station and second one is bars because in rapping, the line, words, and punch lines used are called bars.

“The main goal of organizing Break Bar Cypher was to build trust and to make people understand about Cypher and Break bars,” adds Thapa.

Break Bars is getting good reactions among their viewers, as they have brought a new format in rap battling. “We are trying to make people understand the actual meaning of lyrics and bars in rap battle and we are getting there ", Thapa explains. "This battle is not about cheap jokes or discrimination, but about the heavy lines of bars.”

This is not an a Capella battle but a beat based 3-rounds battle, a new concept of rap battle in Nepal which the audience can refer to from the movie 8 mile. No opponents are allowed to discriminate against each other. This battle is simply all about showing your lyrical skills and to check your bar level.

The main one is Break station, and Break Bars is a small part of it. There is also another part; Mike station, which is also related to rap.

Break Station stands for the whole street culture and carries all the five elements used in hip hop. It also aims to make it accepted by other genre artists as well.

Break Bars, on the other hand, focuses on letting rappers know that lyrics and bars should be their priorities rather than discrimination and leud language.

It wants to make rapping comfortable for everyone to watch or listen to rap battles in every environment including with their family members.

“Even though it is liked by many people, yet many of them are disliking it too, as it is new for them. Besides that, there are no problems for now,” says Thapa.

"While we are receiving support and love from our viewers, Break Bars isn't everyone's cup of tea", says Thapa. "The changes we are trying to bring are new for a lot of people. They are not liking the change because they are already comfortable with what was being provided", he explains. Thapa believes that someday soon, people who do not support Break Bars will understand their motive.

Thapa adds, “Everyone can give a shot in Break bars cypher by sending their rap demo skills to Break Station.”

Break station plans to upgrade the level of Nepali hip hop scene in the international scene. It promotes the elements like B-boying, Emceeing, DJing, Graffiti, Beatboxing and Knowledge.