Rap Culture in Mumbai

Rap has always been an integral part of music industry in the foregin particularly USA . Me as a child was always hooked onto music. I still remember the first Rap artist i heard was Yo yo honey singh it wasn’t particularly a rap song but a hip hop track called brown rang. Soon after i built a keen interest towards the hip hop culture and started exploring more artists who were with Honey Singh at that time thats where i got introduced to other rappers Raftaar,Ikka,Badshah. They had a rap crew mafia mundeer. That was me discovering the rap scene. And becoming a hardcore fan of hip hop music. Soon it occurred to me that i am from Mumbai why dont I explore rappers from Mumbai. Thats when I introduced myself to rappers like Divine,Emiway and Nazey. They qualify as the pioneers of Mumbai Underground rap scene. Their famous rap songs like Mere gully mein, Aafat and #Sadak are ones that all the youngsters that have atleast heard once in their life. Mere gully mein was the song that laid the foundation of rappers collaborating with each other in Mumbai as both the pioneers of Mumbai rap Divine and Nazey featured in the song making it a commercial hit. Mumbai’s rap got bollowyood recognition from the movie gully boy which was based on the life of rappers Divine and Naezy and featured almost every underground rappers of Mumbai such as Emiway, MC altaf,Devil,Slowcheeta,Kaambhari and so on.

I was pretty amazed as how my child hood favourites have become a global name and even progressed in the business space by opening their own Music labels. Divine formed gully gang records. Emiway laid the foundation for Bantai records. They have atleast 15 young rappers signed under their label. It doesnt end here. Divine is the first rapper from India to partner with the Legendary hip hop star of USA Nas to form mass appeal india . Mass appeal is a music label in USA owned by Nas. The contribution of Mumbai to rap music and hip hop doest end here. Mumbai is a place where most amount of rap cyphers and battle take place. Dharavi the slum in India contributes most to the hip hop scene. As there is a dedicated school for hip hop The Dharavi Dream Project. That teaches kids how to beatbox,do graffiti and rap.Rappers that how come out of the hood from Dharavi and gained global recognition are 7bantaiz, Dopedalicz a music duo,Mc altaf. Mc Altaf is also signed under gully gang records. The artist from Mumbai also have paved the way for themselves globally as both Emiway and Divine featured at the billboards of New york Times square. They also top the charts on Spotify and Youtube. By: Ryan Mendonca 🇮🇳