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Swadesi, from the streets of Mumbai.It has been a little over one year since hip-hop label Azadi Records was set up, and it has flipped the scene with the range and quality of artistes it manages. It first came into the limelight when Delhi rapper Prabh Deeps debut album, Class Sikh, became a hit last year. The rapper, who had his music produced by Delhi boy Sez on the Beat, was also the first Indian hip-hop artiste to have his music released by Apple. The journey that begun with four people — Uday Kapur, Mo Joshi, Prabh Deep and Sez — is now a family of many artistes.
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Siri, one of thefew women in the scene.
“The focus of the album was on Prabhs story and community of Delhis Tilak Nagar, which hasnt really been told before. It gets lost in politics of the 1984 riots, but no one really talks about the effect it had on the people, at least in popular culture. It became a story which we really wanted to explore and tell and thats how Class Sikh came about,” says Kapur. It was his stint at the talent management company, Only Much Louder (OML), that got introduced him to the budding hip-hop artistes of the country, while Chandigarh-based Mo Joshi was a part of Desi Hip-Hop, a digital company putting south Asian hip-hop on the world map. They connected over their common interest for the music and soon the label was created in 2017. While Kapur looks into the creatives, Joshi takes care of the business aspect.
The label made a different kind of news recently when it became the first to pull out its showcase from the Pune edition of NH7 Weekender, which concluded on Sunday. Their decision followed a media investigative piece how OML, the company that produces the festival, doesnt offer a safe workspace to its women staff. Azadi records had six acts that were scheduled to perform — Seedhe Maut, Triangles, Tienas, Siri, Swadesi and Rak — who were asked to vote, and the majority favoured withdrawing.
A look at the showcase throws light on why Azadi Records is a blessing for the burgeoning hip-hop scene of India. Swadesi, a multilingual crew of emcee producers, DJs and graffiti artists, from the streets of Mumbai, rap on sociopolitical issues of the country in Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam and Hindi, while Bengaluru-rapper Siri raps in English, Kanadda and Hindi, and is one of the few women in the scene. There is also bilingual rapper duo from Delhi, Seedhe Maut — Encore ABJ and Calm — who are said to be following in the footsteps of international hip-hop collectives such as Run The Jewels, Clipse and Black Hippy. Their debut mixtape, 2 Ka Pahada, which released in 2017, received much fanfare and their album, Bayaan, will release soon. In the gully rap-dominated Mumbai, Tienas, brings to the forefront a Nujabes-inspired sonic aesthetic. “He sounded initially like Eminem and I knew he would get killed in the comparison. He has a massive stutter when he speaks but he raps flawlessly. He wrote four albums and about 70 songs in a year, and you could see the improvement, and his passion,” says Kapur. There is Raj Rock Rak, too, who is considered an outlier in the Tamil hip-hop scene, for he dabbles with horrorcore and dubstep influenced sounds, explored by the likes of Danny Brown, Death Grips and others.
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“The idea is to form a holistic cultural idea of India. Independent music in India is bound by class. Hindi cinema caters to the upper-and middle-class and, at pubs, bars and venues like these, Prabh and Seedhe Maut are the only artistes who can play vernacular music. I was thinking about who are we talking to, what are we doing, is someone looking at Indian and alternative culture, and is it an accurate portrayal?” says Kapur.
“Even if we have love songs, it needs to belong to communities we dont usually hear,”says Kapur, introducing us to Sharan Jayan aka So Fire, from Kerala, who started as a studio boy in Tollywood. He is ready to release his debut project, titled Triangles, in collaboration with Rolex Rasathi and Boka, this year. “It is our first foray outside hip-hop, with the record exploring modern-day jazz and R&B sounds,” he says. They will soon introduce Shashwat Bulusu from Baroda, who is writing music on growing up during the 2002 riots. Azadi Records mailboxes are filled with pitches and demos by budding artistes, “but it all comes down to the story,” says Kapur.
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The Indian Express
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