As rappers and beatboxers descend on a rooftop café at Kothapet, the otherwise quiet space comes alive, their beats echoing far beyond the venue.
Once inside, you find yourself in the world of the young, jamming to new tracks by artistes such as Hanumankind, MC Stans, DG IMMORTALS or Nitin Randhawa: It’s easy to see how much Hyderabad’s hiphop scene has grown.
As the world celebrates the 51st anniversary of global hip-hop this August — a cultural movement born on the streets of the Bronx in New York — it is impossible to ignore the seismic impact the genre has had on the Indian music industry. Especially after the release of 2019’s Gully Boy, desi hip-hop has found its own place on the global radar.
Emerging artistes assemble
Hyderabad’s scene is no slouch either. Self-taught and self-styled youngsters are taking the city’s hip-hop scene to a new level and a community called Hyderabad Street Culture (HSC) has been leading the way. Founded in 2023, HSC began by performing in public spaces such as parks, Necklace Road and metro stations. “At that time, many underground artistes didn’t get a stage to express their talent or views. HSC brought these artistes together and gave them a platform,” said Mohammed Hidayath, known as Hob, who is also one of the co-founders of HSC.
However, it was not an easy start. “We used to cypher regularly at Krishna Kanth Park in Yousufguda and the response from the crowd was very weak. But things changed over time. Not long after, kids there started asking us why we stopped cyphering,” said Hob.
Apart from cyphering and rapping, the community is also into other elements of hip-hop culture, including beatboxing, graffiti, skateboarding and DJing.
Hyderabad hops onto the Hip-Hop train
Another Hyderabadi hip-hop artiste, Faraz (aka Faraz OG), whose introduction to the music world was via Eminem and Kanye West, also received a “not-so-great” response when he released his first song in 2021. But things eventually changed.
Hyderabad meri jaan
In 2016, Abdul Moeed and Moiz Shujaee released ‘Hyderabadi Kiraak Gaana’ and ‘Hyderabad Meri Jaan’ as part of the hip-hop group DeathRap. The rapper duo became one of the first significant groups to foray into desi hip-hop in Hyderabad.
Moiz, who hails from the Old City, says their intention was to capture the Hyderabadi culture. “Initially, the response from the crowd was one of surprise. I used to rap in English, which didn’t seem to resonate with the crowd.
So, I switched to expressing my views in Dakhni,” says Moiz. Besides Dakhni and English, Moiz also raps in Arabic, Urdu and now Farsi.
Moiz, who first heard hip-hop as a child, said: “Hip-hop is something you can’t learn. It is poetry. It boils down to lyrical magic.”
Hustling to success
With hip-hop gaining traction, several artistes and groups are now making their mark on Hyderabad’s rap scene. The city’s multilingual hip-hop rap crew Nawab Gang is one of them. The group’s journey started with just Pramod Roy aka Asura and Chaitanya Sorakayala aka MWaker during their engineering days. Soon, they started using hip-hop to address socio-political issues.
Pramod, in his quest to find likeminded rappers, started attending cypher events across the city and found the entire crew of the Nawab gang, a 16-member group that includes two beatboxers, 11 rappers and three beat producers.
In 2019, the gang officially started releasing songs every Friday for four months. As the band grew, its members began to discover their own voices. Now the gang is down to seven members.
The members also speak of their tough journey. Asura said: “I thought we had written a crazy song. It took me eight months to write the track because I thought the students would be able to relate to it. But we got a bad response. I even thought about quitting. But I love music. So, it is what it is. I continued with my dream, I continued to make music. Hip-hop is freedom for me. I can express my views to the world. I took a year off and started spending time learning how to write better and play with words.”
Speaking about when they created a track for Sunrisers Hyderabad, Asura said it this was phenomenal and everyone in the team was so supportive.
The Journey ahead
The hip-hop movement has now gone mainstream, providing a platform for diverse voices and stories. But some hip-hop artistes like Faraz say it will take years for Hyderabad to earn a permanent and much-coveted spot on the global scene.
However, speaking about the rap scene in Hyderabad, Asura said there is a huge difference from when he started. “We have come a long way. The quality of lyrics you can find now is great, and I’m glad I get to listen to these tracks because that wasn’t the scene in 2019. I’m excited to see where things go,” he said.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
