ADITI SARAWAGI
THE
MOVEMENT IN INDIA
Hip Hop music or rap music is a genre developed by
African-Americans in the United States circa 1970’s.
The hip-hop culture includes MCing or rapping, DJing,
break dancing and graffiti writing. This genre has
become immensely popular in India and has lately
become mainstream. Indian Hip Hop or Desi hip hop
has become a sub-genre of the hip-hop movement.
It is basically a combination of hip hop and Indian
influences performed by artists of South Asian origins.
The term ‘desi hip hop’ was coined by Bohemia, one of
the most popular hip hop artists in the industry.
Hip hop has been heard in the country since a long time
and few of the earliest performers included Apache
Indian and Baba Sehgal who introduced rap to the
Indian audiences. Yet rap or hip hop had never been
a part of mainstream club music but an underground
music genre until now where hip hop has become the
rage all over the country.
Rappers from across the country are rapping not only
in English but even in their vernacular languages.
Borkung ‘BK’ Hrankhawl from Tripura uses rapping
as a medium to express himself as an Indian. He raps
in English and Hindi as well much to the audience’s
surprise. Rapping in one’s native language is more
popular than you think and Kannada actor Alok Babu
or All.OK as he is popularly known promotes the
Kannada culture and language with his rapping in
Kannada. The commercial hip-hop numbers by the likes
of Badshah, Hard Kaur and Honey Singh are popular
courtesy Bollywood but socially conscious songs
addressing everything from poverty to gender rights are
also gaining momentum thanks to the new age rappers
who credit being influenced by the likes of Tupac and Akala.
Hip hop is turning out to be a powerful form of protest music
in the country amongst the youth leading to its immense
popularity today. The internet has played an important role
in the evolution of hip hop as aspiring rappers got more
access to the pioneers of the genre and even sharing their
work to the world became much easier as audiences warmed
up to consuming global music styles thanks to the world
wide web. Today one can record music without recording
studios simply with online apps and gadgets.
Hip hop is truly multicultural with rappers from all over
the country taking the hip hip hop scene by storm. Mumbai
based Divine and Naezy are the most popular names in the
industry along with Delhi’s Prabh Deep. Khaasi Bloodz from
Shillong is a trio of D-Bok, Big Ri and D-Mon who rap in
their native Khaasi language. Siliguri has its stars in Buki
and Xenon Pheonix. Major C or DJ Chantz has also been
phenomenal in taking Desi hip hop international.
It’s not only the young crowd which has become a fan of the
hip hop artists, but record labels have also started taking
note of the young emerging talent from this genre. Krsna
launched his first album last year with Universal Music and
Bangalore’s Brodha V was signed by Sony Music. MC Divine
was also signed by Sony and was even named by BBC Asian
Network as an artist to watch in 2016. DJ Sa was recently
chosen Best Hip-Hop DJ at the VH1 Sound Nation Awards
and DJ Ishani from Mumbai has a residency at I Bar in the
city. DJ Kani from Hyderabad and DJ Kave from Chennai
are big names in the international hip hop DJing circuit.
Indian Hip Hop has seen a phenomenal rise and had especially
made its mark as serious business in the past two years.
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
17