Divine (rapper)

Divine started his career as an underground rapper in 2011 after discovering Hip Hop on a T-shirt. A friend of his wore a shirt of 50 Cent's first album Get Rich Or Die Tryin' at school. The same friend would give him his first MP3 CD with hip hop music on it which inspired him to start rapping in English.[1] He was part of the hip hop crew called Mumbai's Finest. He often raps about his own life experiences, such as the life of the poor people in Mumbai and his upbringing with a single mother. He cites American rappers such as Nas, Eminem, Big L, Tupac and Rakim as his main inspirations.

Following the release of his song 'Yeh Mera Bombay', Divine obtained the attention of Sony Music India[2] while performing at the Blue Frog Festival 2014 in Mumbai and shortly after signed a contract with them. The song later went on to win the Best Video of the Year award by Rolling Stone India in the same year. He released his breakout single Mere Gully Main featuring Naezy on 16 April 2015. The song went viral and many Bollywood celebrities shared it on social media.[3] He collaborated with Indian DJ Nucleya on Nucleya's album Bass Rani, which helped him gain even more popularity. The song won Best EDM track of the Year in the GIMA Awards in 2015.

On 24 March 2016, his debut solo single Jungli Sher released and it ruled the charts because of its raw depiction of the life of the poor in Mumbai. He took the song to the Breakfast Show ahead of BBC Asian Network Live on 29 April 2016. He appeared on the BBC Asian Network in the Charlie Sloth Show and was the first Hindi-speaking rapper to freestyle on the show and also the first to rap in Hindi with the name-giving host in attendance. He was also featured on Brapp TV.[4]

He again collaborated with Nucleya in another hit track, entitled Scene Kya Hai off Nucleya's album Raja Baja. He was featured on Daru Daru with Deep Jandu and Gangis Khan, his first commercially oriented song, which came out on 10 January 2017. His next solo single Farak released on 16 February 2017 and topped the Indipop charts on iTunes India.[5]

He appeared as a feature on a record called City Slums by Indian-American rapper/singer/songwriter Raja Kumari in May 2017. The song crossed 2 million views on YouTube within 24 hours of its release.[6]

In 2018, Divine terminated his contract with Sony Music India. He released a remix to Lil Pump's Gucci Gang called Gully Gang independently on 18 January 2018. The song was perceived well by both critics and fans and helped him garner more attention. On 5 April 2018, he followed up with One Side produced by Byg Byrd. The video was produced by Red Bull Media House and came out on the rapper's own YouTube channel.

His next single Teesri Manzil earned him a copyright strike from Zee Music Company a few hours after its release and got deleted from his channel. It was eventually re-released on 14 December 2018 with some changes in the lyrics.

He released Junoon, the intro to his upcoming first full-length album on 10 November 2018. The album's name, Kohinoor, was announced on 13 February 2019 on Apple Music's Beats 1 radio show hosted by Ebro Darden. The album release was announced to be somewhen in April 2019 but was finally released later.

In July 2019, Divine released a documentary film about his career so far entitled Gully Life - The story of DIVINE. It first aired on TV on channels such as the Discovery Channel and was released on Divine's YouTube Channel a week later.[7]

On 20 August 2019, Nas' Mass Appeal Records and Universal Music India launched Mass Appeal India and signed Divine. Universal Music Group and Mass Appeal jointly took the step to take global hip-hop artist to India and globalize the Indian hip-hop scene.[8] On 20 August 2019, In an interview with Nas published on Mass Appeal India's YouTube Channel[9] and Universal Music India's Facebook Page,[10] Nas revealed that Divine's debut album Kohinoor is set to release soon. It was released on 9 October 2019 and features all-new tracks recorded specifically for the album.

Divine made his Bollywood debut for the film Mukkabaaz with the song Paintra. The track was another collaboration with Nucleya and came out on 1 December 2017. He collaborated with famous Indian music director and singer Amit Trivedi for the Irrfan Khan Starter film Blackmail on a song Badla which came out on 16 March 2018 via T-Series. He also contributed to the soundtrack for Sacred Games,[11][12] an Indian Netflix Original Series. It features his song Jungli Sher as well Kaam 25 produced by Indo-Canadian producer Phenom which was made specifically for the series. Its music video was released on 14 June 2018 on both Divine's and Netflix's YouTube channels with the version on Netflix featuring English subtitles.

Divine most notably contributed to the soundtrack of the 2019 film Gully Boy by Zoya Akhtar, a film which is inspired by the lives of Naezy and himself, with Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt in the lead roles. Divine and Naezy both helped as consultants to get an authentic representation of the Hip Hop culture for the film. Their song Mere Gully Mein was remade with Ranveer Singh rapping Naezy's lyrics as part of the film. Furthermore, Divine provided additional rap lyrics for Ranveer Singh's character and composed some of the songs for the original soundtrack. A promotional single featuring American artist Nas as well as Naezy, Divine and Ranveer Singh was released on JioSaavn shortly prior to the film's release.

On 20 September 2020 Divine appeared on the international remix of Bando Diaries by UK rapper Dutchavelli alongside OneFour from Australia, Noizy from Albania and Kekra from France. On 23 September 2020 he released his new song and video Punya Paap on Mass Appeal India's YouTube channel. It was announced to be the first single off his sophomore album which is also entitled Punya Paap. On 16 October 2020 he released the Mirchi, the second single from his sophomore album, Punya Paap. The song with its prominent baile funk sound was well received with over 8 million views on YouTube in five days. Another track from the album, Mera Bhai, got its music video launched on 6 November 2020. The animated video portrays a story where one of Divine's childhood friends betrays him out of jealousy, and end with Divine's message to the listeners to trust no one but themselves in today's world.

His second album, 'Punya Paap', was released on 3 December 2020, under the label Mass Appeal India. It consists of 11 tracks, with features from Nas, Cocoa Sarai, Dutchavelli, Stylo G, D' Evil, MC Altaf, Lisa Mishra and Phenom. The album has a blend of old school 808 patterns and new heavy, trap-hop beats with a lot of sampled loops, produced by some of finest producers from the Indian rap scene, like Stunnah Beats, Ill Wayno, Karan Kanchan, and more. The album has an overall ominous theme, and chronicles Divine's struggles and rise to the top in the Indian Hip Hop scnene.

Divine took to Instagram Live to host a listening party of the album's tracks over Spotify, which was attended in large numbers. Divine also teased more music videos that would drop in the subsequent days.

Divine: Working on ‘Mera Bhai’ has been a rewarding experience.[13]

• Kohinoor (2019)

• Punya Paap (2020)

A huge news incoming from NY. On 12th December,2020 - DIVINE becomes the First 'Indian Rapper' to feature on New York Times Square Billboard.