Indian hip hop

Apache Indian, UK artist of Indian origin, was the earliest to make an impact on the UK charts with a series of hits during the nineties.[1] Baba Sehgal introduced Hindi rap in the nineties with his albums.[2] His album Thanda Thanda Pani (1992) sold 100,000 copies in three and a half months and brought rap music to the Indian club scene.[3] In the 2000s the desi hop scene remained limited largely to the underground, with a very niche loyal audience.[4] Hip-hop culture, including graffiti and b-boying started seeping into the club scene and street culture of big cities like Delhi and Mumbai.[5]

Ashok Kumar’s recitation of Harindranath Chattopadhyay’s poem Rail Gaadi is considered to be one of the first rap songs in Bollywood. It was featured in the film Aashirwad (1968). In the 1990s rap started getting popular following the success of Baba Sehgal’s album Thanda Thanda Paani. [6]

One of the early moments of Indian hip hop was the Bengali-language underground film Gandu which narrated a story of a rapper and had a soundtrack which mixed rap with alternative rock. Besides Bollywood and commercial rap music, the underground hip-hop scene started shaping. Many emerging rappers, crews started to create a buzz in the underground hip-hop scene. In north India groups like 2 ShadeZ, Desi Beam , while in south Roll Rida, Noel Sean, Machas With Attitude, Hiphop Tamizha, Street Academics pioneered respective vernacular rap music scenes. In Mumbai Mumbai's Finest, Bombay Bassment, Gully Gang became popular.

There was increased interest in the rap genre in India after 2011, with many rappers emerging from across the country.[4] This is largely credited to the success of Yo Yo Honey Singh in India and Bollywood, India's Hindi film industry.[7][8] Following huge success of his album International Villager,[9] Singh went on to release several hits songs both in independently and in Bollywood.[10] In the wake of success of Honey Singh, a new trend was formed in Bollywood with many producers roping in rap artists for their songs.[7] Even some big Bollywood actors like Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar and Varun Dhawan tried their hands at rapping.[11]

Indian hip hop has picked up steam in the suburbs of India's biggest cities creating big names like Divine, KR$NA, Emiway Bantai, Naezy, Muhfaad, Raga & Raftaar who have been picked up by talent management agencies like OML[12] who now have music videos with millions of views on YouTube.

Due to the exposure through Bollywood, rap became a household term and an increased production of rap music was observed, especially in the Punjabi music industry.[13] There is an ongoing debate among the hip-hop community about the contribution of Honey Singh to the genre. While some artists including Badshah,[14] Ikka,[15] Deep Money,[16] Manj Musik and Bohemia[17] have acknowledged his contribution to the industry, others like Raftaar,[17] some Pakistani artists and Imran Khan[18] have openly denied it. There is also a negative sentiment among some followers of hip-hop culture in India regarding the recent commercialization of the genre.[19][20][21] Even though many fans are not happy with the recent commercialization of hip-hop in India, this commercialization has also led to expansion of the underground scene, with independent artists building a name in Indian hip hop. Because of this, the future of hip-hop in India is generally perceived to be positive.[19][22] There are many rappers in India, rapping in different languages like Odia, Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam ,Tamil Telugu,Bhojpuri, Khasi etc.

Telugu hip hop became notable since the early 2000s when artists such as Smita started hip hop culture in the Telugu language. "Hai Rabba" and "Masaka Masaka" are her best hit albums receiving wide acclaim, espescially in the Indian sub-continent.[23] Artists such as Raja Kumari,[24] Roll Rida, Noel Sean, Manisha Eerabathini, Nawab Gang, Om Sripathi any many more started the trend in the new-age Telugu hip hop by including Rap.[25] With the rise of its popularity, these artists started working in Tollywood since the late 2010s.[26][27]

Tamil hip hop is getting popular in India. Artists like Dopeadelicz and Yogi B are known for their acts in Tamil language. Many other south Indian languages like Kannada, and Marathi is also becoming popular among masses in India.[28][29]

Protest hip hop came into limelight after mass protest started all over India against the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019. Since the crackdown in JMI, AMU and JNU, and the 2020 Delhi riots several rappers from all over the country have joined the cause with their own sonic protest. Rappers like Madara, Rapper Shaz, Santhanam Srinivasan Iyer (EPR),[30] and Sumit Roy gained recognition for their protest songs.[31][32]