“I feel fucking inspired,” a person screamed in my face throughout Divine’s efficiency on the sold-out Mumbai leg of his 2021 Punya Paap tour. “This guy is a fucking king. He has changed the face of the Indian music industry.” Honestly, that man wasn’t improper. One identify that everybody in Mumbai is aware of is Vivian Wilson Fernandes, aka Divine, the rapper who spent most of his childhood coping with trauma from dwelling within the poorest elements of Mumbai, who’s now “one of the best” rappers within the nation.
When Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh and director Zoya Akhtar launched their 2019 movie Gully Boy — which is closely influenced by the lifetime of Divine and rapper Naezy — the entire nation felt impressed. The movie follows the story of a coming-of-age rapper from the Dharavi slums, who discovered love for hip-hop and used his “gully raps” to focus on inequalities in life.
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Ever since its launch, Mumbai’s hip-hop scene has grown extra recognizable. People started appreciating these “gully rappers” and considered one of India’s most celebrated multi-genre music producer Karan Kanchan even credited Divine and Naezy’s monitor “Mere Gully Mein” with inspiring him with falling in love with the trade. “This was the first time I was listening to something meaningful,” he says. “I was listening to something very intelligent and relatable rather than usual verses about fancy cars and women.” It was revolutionary; one thing that Mumbai didn’t realize it required, which turned out to be probably the greatest finds for the tradition of town.
“Mumbai’s rap scene, like the city itself, is a melting pot of culture, style and global influence,” Aniket Rajgarhia says, the senior rights supervisor at Outdustry. “[In this city], artists from various backgrounds with varying degrees of exposure give rise to multiple perspectives about the worlds they inhabit.” Over right here, hip-hop is, and at all times has been a illustration of the hustle tradition inside the metropolis, which is dubbed a “grand display of the desire to rise out of adversity” and a solution to make one thing of your self in a fast-paced and sometimes unforgiving world. Additionally, the hip-hop trade in Mumbai can be represented by the languages on show — not solely Hindi, English and Marathi but additionally Tamil, Malayalam and Gujarati, to call just a few.
Similar to Divine, 100RBH, aka Saurabh Abhyankar, an up-and-coming bilingual rapper from Amravati, has aimed to name out the double requirements of society and spotlight the hypocrisy that individuals in India see each day. “Laakhon maasumon ki awaaz mein akela bolta/I speak on behalf of a hundred thousand innocent souls,” 100RBH raps in “Zanjeer,” the place he goals to be a catalyst for breaking down limitations. Likewise, Dharavi’s MC Altaf, born Altaf Shaikh, has additionally taken over town by storm by rapping about social causes and his life within the hood. In truth, Altaf was the man who taught the native “Bambaiya” accent (Mumbai Hindi) to Singh whereas he was capturing Gully Boy.
“Hip-hop as a genre is rooted in activism and politics,” Aranyaka Verma says, General Manager of Gully Gang Entertainment. “Across the globe, it is a medium for artists for social commentary.” From Tupac to Cardi B, you will discover music lyrics that talk of the problems round them — typically straight, and typically implicitly. Similarly, in India, artists equivalent to 100RBH, Swadesi, MC Altaf and Divine successfully make socially cognizant music. “I think music is one of the most accessible mediums to reach people with a message,” Verma says, and actually, I don’t suppose any nation has been doing acutely aware rap higher than Indians.
Agreeing with Verma’s level, Mumbai-based rapper Adi provides: “Hip-hop started with activism in its truest form.” Discussing his 2020 monitor “Cop Car,” which was launched across the time when media homes have been continuously reporting about America’s protests in opposition to police brutality, little did the world know that Indians have been confronting related, and in reality “extremely grave,” police brutality and corruption points as nicely. At that time, 24-year-old Adi determined to collaborate with Kashmiri rapper Ahmer and curated a bilingual monitor the place Adi rapped about police brutality within the U.S., whereas Ahmer rapped about police brutality in India. “That song landed really well as it came out as a global approach to [police brutality], as it’s an endemic issue in most systems.”
It’s established that hip-hop in Mumbai is about illustration. While native rappers do craft hype tracks involving verses about ladies, alcohol and automobiles, that’s solely 40% of it. The remainder of our rappers “advocate on behalf of their local groups and interests [in addition to creating] music to spread awareness about wider social issues,” Rajgarhia says, recalling the time when he visited a block occasion within the Dharavi — one of many world’s largest slums — in Mumbai.
“I visited a block party in Dharavi just before the pandemic struck,” the skilled shares. “That was pretty surreal, as there were multiple groups of kids — ages four and up — rapping and dancing to reggae, dub and breakbeats.” That occasion was the place Rajgarhia noticed a efficiency by Swadesi, Indian hip-hop’s solely “socio-political group” that constantly goal to result in change by way of artwork and music. So, assuming that such artists are those these kids are rising up listening to, it’s apparent to foretell the current and way forward for the hip-hop scene in Mumbai.
India has skilled horrible issues — inner and exterior — which have impacted all 1.41 billion folks. In current years, with the discharge of sure movies equivalent to Gully Boy, rise in social media presence and an impending woke tradition, the hip-hop trade — particularly in Mumbai — has in some way offered a secure haven for all.
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