Creator Jesus Mehta reveals what makes content more relatable and scalable

New Delhi: The land of musical content creation is wildly expanding, with remixes becoming a popular choice of content each passing day. While the content may be templatised and adopted from existing songs, the dash of creativity and connecting with the audience is a miss-and-hit play, with musical creators experimenting with each reel.  

Jesus Mehta, a beatboxer and rapper, confided in BuzzInContent.com that his journey has been a direct result of maintaining an emotional connection with his audience and understanding where they come from.   

Mehta started beatboxing in 2015, at a time when the concept was pretty new in his native city of Gujarat. He formed a beatboxing group and then started performing live. 

The desire to escape the 9-5 cycle of work brought Mehta to the content creation scene, where he now has a 2 million-strong audience.  

Watch the full interview here: 

Beating the popular allegations of beatboxing being a hip-hop asset, Mehta started incorporating Indian beats, including Garba music, south Indian music, etc., into his art, which he simultaneously published on YouTube and Instagram. 

“Two opposites of a person are unveiled while creating content for both of these platforms,” Mehta warned as he spoke about the diversity of the audience and, consequently, the content on YouTube and Instagram.  

He also dabbled with raps for video games like BGMI, PUBG, Free Fire, and Minecraft.  

The content wave was going through an evolution from long-form content to short-form content, gaining prominence, and Mehta capitalised on it. 

The titular moment that gained his content virality was the PubG ban that upset Indians all over. He researched the ban and made a tribute reel to the game that shot to fame with 1.2 million views.  

Talking about his learnings from the same, Mehta said, “It made me realise the importance of having an emotional connection with my audience.” 

Process of remoulding Bollywood songs with hip-hop 

Mehta shed light on his creative process and elaborated on the steps he takes to remould a Bollywood song in the language of his audience with hip-hop beats.  

Step 1: Pick a song and take out the meaning of the song. 

Step 2: Rewrite it in a language your audience understands.  

He stated the instance of his Khalasi video, which is originally a Gujarati song that he translated for his audience to understand and vibe with.  

https://youtube.com/shorts/EWuDqKt7G-k?feature=shared  

He added, “I know what the singer is saying, but people don't know what he's saying. So, I rewrote its lyrics in Hindi. It is informative and it is also entertaining.” 

Focal points for content creators 

Shedding light on his journey, Mehta shared a few focal points that aspiring and upcoming content creators need to pay attention to.  

1. Inclusivity: Mehta created content using various languages, including Gujarati and Marathi, to connect with an audience of the entire nation. 
2. Emotional connect and relatability: Mehta capitalised on the universal grief that the audience felt towards the PUBG ban. He also added that a touch of personal experience is required to deliver your content. “In this case, I played PUBG myself to understand the game better,” he added. 
3. Authenticity: Mehta emphasised how different content creators may have different focal points but it all boils down to how your audience sees you—if they see the real you without the filters and the overexplanations or underexplanations. 
4. Quality over quantity: Mehta values well-researched quality over quantity as the secret sauce for furthering reach, engagement, and following.  

Paid partnerships as a musical content creator  

Mehta lays out his ‘funda’ for dealing with brand deals as a musical content creator. He emphasised that, from his audience’s perspective, they are seeking a ‘break’ from their monotony and, hence, are scrolling through social media. Achieving his attention via entertainment or information is crucial when creating content synthetically for brand deals.  

“Making your content brand-friendly is the best way to go about this. If you make that musical content brand-friendly, then you can earn money. Otherwise, it will just be a way to show talent,” he added.  

For the lack of online brand collaborations, Mehta also suggested performing offline and scouting for collaborations in real life. 

Talking more about making content ‘brand-friendly,’ Mehta added that making content that suits one’s audience and tailoring it to fit the brand naturally works like a charm.  

He elucidated his reel that promoted ‘Bold Care’ and explained that the creative flexibility that brands give creators is crucial. 

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A post shared by Jesus Mehta (@jesusmehta)

He talked about the brand’s perspective on ‘brand-friendly’ content and added, “The brand is getting something from me. The brand is getting an audience. The brand is getting a piece, which they can use themselves. And the brand is also being presented in such a way that more people can reach out to it.” 

If the brands put flexibility on the table, the content creator naturally brings relatability, creativity, and audience. The hybridization of content being ‘entertaining ads’ will garner the audience to watch more.  

The ‘Team’ factor 

Mehta spotlighted the often overlooked aspect of a content creator’s success: a team.  

He shed light on how his team helped him pick brand deals that resonate with his profile and his audience and how, at some point, he needs a team that keeps them focused on their creation. 

“As creators, we get a lot of attention. A good team helps you to focus on your creativity more than the noise.” 

He also walked through the brand deal process that his team handles, which includes brand scouting, reaching out, researching the brand and product, making a deal, outlining deliverables, and bagging the payment.  

Picking an agency 

For budding creators, Mehta also shed light on how to pick an agency to back their journey.  

Focal points for picking an agency:

• Background of the agency and its operating personnel
• Meeting them personally
• Explain your goals and look for goal alignment. 
• Have a personal connection with the team you pick. 

“Remixing a song is a double-edged sword,” Mehta added as he talked about the personal attachment people have to songs. 

As a musical content creator, he believes it’s important to understand the emotions behind the song before remixing it and to give the ‘natural’ factor the edge over the ‘glamour’ factor by keeping it real. He shared the example of his viral creation of Khalasi by Coke Studio.