[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":245},["ShallowReactive",2],{"person-en-ranidu-lankage":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"artistId":6,"birthYear":7,"body":8,"born":213,"description":214,"died":213,"era":215,"extension":216,"heroImage":217,"imageCredit":218,"imageLicense":219,"imageSource":220,"meta":221,"navigation":222,"notable":223,"path":224,"roles":225,"seo":229,"sources":230,"stem":243,"translated":222,"url":233,"__hash__":244},"peopleEn\u002Fen\u002Fpeople\u002Franidu-lankage.md","Ranidu Lankage",106,1982,{"type":9,"value":10,"toc":204},"minimark",[11,25,28,33,36,39,43,57,75,79,92,97,121,125,146,190,194,201],[12,13,14,15,19,20,24],"p",{},"In 2000, a Colombo schoolboy who had just sat his A levels handed ",[16,17,18],"strong",{},"Bathiya and Santhush"," a track he had built at home on a keyboard his father had brought back from abroad as an O-level present. The song was ",[21,22,23],"em",{},"Manusathkule",", and it became a hit. It was the first time the Sri Lankan public heard music made by Ranidu Lankage, and he was not on the record.",[12,26,27],{},"Three years later he put his own voice on one, and Sinhala popular music acquired a register it had not had before.",[29,30,32],"h2",{"id":31},"melodica-side-drums-and-a-piano-at-fifteen","Melodica, side drums, and a piano at fifteen",[12,34,35],{},"He was born in Colombo in 1982 and educated at Royal College, where his musical training began about as unglamorously as it could: he joined the western band and learned melodica and side drums under a teacher named Anita Fernando. His mother bought him a piano when he was fifteen. The keyboard from his father followed. He taught himself basic programming from a tutor called Dilup Gabadamudalige and started composing at home, by experiment.",[12,37,38],{},"The rest of the school record is worth noting only because it is so at odds with the career: nine distinctions at O level in 1997, a Royal scholar award, third in the Colombo district at A level in 2000, captain of the school squash team, colours three years running, and an appearance for Sri Lanka at the 1999 Asian Junior Squash Championships. He went from there to Yale, and graduated in economics. In 2002 he directed and composed the music for the opening ceremony of the Asian Athletics Championships in Colombo.",[29,40,42],{"id":41},"oba-magemai","Oba Magemai",[12,44,45,46,49,50,52,53,56],{},"His first single, ",[16,47,48],{},"ඔබ මගෙමයි"," ",[21,51,42],{}," — \"you are mine\" — came out in 2003, recorded with ",[16,54,55],{},"Ashanthi De Alwis",". It did two things at once. Musically it was straightforward contemporary R&B with Sinhala words sitting naturally on it, which had not really been managed before: earlier Sinhala pop had either borrowed western arrangements for very Sinhala melodies or sung in English. And commercially it made Ranidu and Ashanthi the youngest Sri Lankan artists signed to an international label, Sony Music India.",[12,58,59,60,63,64,63,67,70,71,74],{},"The album that carried its name was one of the best-selling records in the country. Four more singles followed it into the local top twenty — ",[21,61,62],{},"Obe Ath Allagena",", ",[21,65,66],{},"Sinasenna",[21,68,69],{},"Kandulen Midee"," and ",[21,72,73],{},"Sadaa",".",[29,76,78],{"id":77},"ahankara-nagare","Ahankara Nagare",[12,80,81,82,85,86,49,89,91],{},"He went back into the studio in the summer of 2003 and made ",[21,83,84],{},"Diviyapura"," (\"All My Life\"), released the following year. Its single was ",[16,87,88],{},"අහංකාර නගරේ",[21,90,78],{},", \"arrogant city\", and it is the song he is identified with. It went to the top of the local charts within days and became the largest original Sri Lankan single in a decade. The video, shot in Colombo in the middle of 2004, spliced together bits of every culture in the city — which was the point of the record: he described it at the time as an attempt to make music that got over the barriers of class and culture.",[12,93,94,96],{},[21,95,78],{}," also crossed onto the BBC's Asian music list. The Sunday Times, reporting on him in 2007, stated it plainly: Ranidu was the first Sinhala artist to be played on BBC Radio 1, and the creator of the first Sinhala single played on MTV, Channel V and Z Music India. The claim is repeated everywhere and is worth attributing rather than treating as settled fact — English Wikipedia carries it with a \"citation needed\" tag — but the Sunday Times is a real source and no one has contested it.",[12,98,99,102,103,63,106,109,110,49,113,116,117,120],{},[21,100,101],{},"Kelle"," followed onto the BBC Asian Network chart. Then came a collaboration with ",[16,104,105],{},"Iraj Weeraratne",[21,107,108],{},"Mata Aloke Genadevi Sansaraye",", which the lyrics databases file simply as ",[16,111,112],{},"සංසාරයේ",[21,114,115],{},"Sansaraye"," — which topped the Sri Lankan charts and was played on Radio 1, the BBC Asian Network and 1Xtra, and picked up by the BBC DJ Nihal for his ",[21,118,119],{},"Bombay Bronx"," compilation. In March 2005 Ranidu performed at the Sydney Opera House with Iraj and his group.",[29,122,124],{"id":123},"the-third-album-and-the-range-of-the-catalogue","The third album, and the range of the catalogue",[12,126,127,128,131,132,49,135,138,139,49,142,145],{},"The self-titled ",[21,129,130],{},"Ranidu",", launched at an open-air concert at Viharamahadevi Park in March 2007, was the hard turn. He had been living in New York, had absorbed the hip hop being made around him, and said at the time that the first two albums were pop and this one was \"my true colours\". He wrote, composed, arranged and produced all fourteen tracks and sang in six languages, though most of it is in Sinhala. Its first official single, ",[16,133,134],{},"පා සළඹ සලා",[21,136,137],{},"Pa Salamba Sala",", recorded with the Trinidadian rapper Anson, went onto the BBC Asian Network's A-list in December 2006 — the first Sinhala single to get there. ",[16,140,141],{},"උන්මාද දෙතොල්",[21,143,144],{},"Unmada Dethol"," was the other track from it to get American airplay. The lyrics on that album came from Bandula Nanayakkarawasam, Chanaka Jayasekera, Kelum Shreemal, Wasantha Dukgannarala and his own school friend Anuradha Uduwage.",[12,147,148,149,49,152,63,155,49,158,63,161,49,164,63,167,49,170,63,173,49,176,63,179,49,182,185,186,189],{},"What the catalogue actually contains is broader than the hip-hop label suggests. Alongside the rap tracks sit ballads that have outlived the hype — ",[16,150,151],{},"නින්ද නොයන හැන්දෑවේ",[21,153,154],{},"Ninda Noyana Handawe",[16,156,157],{},"තරුද නිදන්නී",[21,159,160],{},"Tharuda Nidanni",[16,162,163],{},"මගේ නංගි",[21,165,166],{},"Mage Nangi",[16,168,169],{},"හිනැහෙන්නේ මං",[21,171,172],{},"Hinahenne Mang",[16,174,175],{},"මධුවිතකින්",[21,177,178],{},"Madhuwithakin",[16,180,181],{},"ගලා හැලෙන නිල් නදිය ඔබයි",[21,183,184],{},"Gala Helena Nil Nadiya Obai",". He is also credited with a fusion he named ",[21,187,188],{},"bailatronic"," — baila, the island's Portuguese-descended dance music, run through electronics.",[29,191,193],{"id":192},"what-he-changed","What he changed",[12,195,196,197,200],{},"Sri Lankan hip hop did not begin with Ranidu. Rude Boy Republic and Brown Boogie Nation were making rap in Colombo in the mid-1990s, and the ",[21,198,199],{},"Colombo Tribe Project Vol. 1"," compilation documents it. Roar Media's history of the scene is careful to place him in the generation after that, and to credit Iraj Weeraratne with putting a great many artists including Ranidu in front of mainstream audiences.",[12,202,203],{},"What Ranidu did was narrower and more consequential: he found the setting in which Sinhala words sit comfortably on an R&B or hip hop track, rather than sounding like a translation of one. Almost every Sinhala pop record made since 2003 is working inside a language he helped fix. He continues to record and perform; this entry covers his public work only.",{"title":205,"searchDepth":206,"depth":206,"links":207},"",2,[208,209,210,211,212],{"id":31,"depth":206,"text":32},{"id":41,"depth":206,"text":42},{"id":77,"depth":206,"text":78},{"id":123,"depth":206,"text":124},{"id":192,"depth":206,"text":193},null,"The Royal College schoolboy turned Yale economics student who built the Sinhala R&B idiom out of a bedroom keyboard, and whose 'Ahankara Nagare' put a Sinhala single onto the BBC.","2000s-present","md","\u002Fimages\u002Fpeople\u002Franidu-lankage.webp","Wikimedia Commons user Sanjaya1996","CC BY-SA 4.0","https:\u002F\u002Fcommons.wikimedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FFile:Ranidu_Lankage.png",{},true,false,"\u002Fen\u002Fpeople\u002Franidu-lankage",[226,227,228],"Singer","Composer","Producer",{"title":5,"description":214},[231,234,237,240],{"title":232,"url":233},"Ranidu Lankage — Wikipedia","https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FRanidu_Lankage",{"title":235,"url":236},"Umangi de Mel, 'A pleasant blend of East and West' — Sunday Observer, 29 August 2004","https:\u002F\u002Farchives.sundayobserver.lk\u002F2004\u002F08\u002F29\u002Fmag08.html",{"title":238,"url":239},"Sanath Weerasuriya, 'Dance to the music of Ranidu' — The Sunday Times TV Times, 25 March 2007","http:\u002F\u002Fsundaytimes.lk\u002F070325\u002FTV\u002F000tv.html",{"title":241,"url":242},"Sri Lankan Hip Hop — A Break Down — Roar Media archive","https:\u002F\u002Farchive.roar.media\u002Fenglish\u002Flife\u002Fculture-identities\u002Fsri-lankan-hip-hop-breakdown","en\u002Fpeople\u002Franidu-lankage","f-RENM_iW3XKCYqyErDZBfIIENjud6KIhJJNSr9dyxk",1787999333253]