The State capital has always been heavily inclined towards music. Be it music as the medium of expression, a beat to groove to, or simply for leisure. While Bhopal is familiar with many genres like Rock, Blues, R&B, Classical, Pop etc., Hip Hop and Rap as a genre is never endemically associated with it.
However, the genre has been adopted by a generation of bold and young musicians of the capital city to achieve a two-fold goal: to spread awareness regarding certain socio-political issues and to feed the growing culture of Rap through vernacular. Rappers of Bhopal have been growing – slowly, deliberately – in the underground music space over the past few years. These artists have played many gigs in the past years many of them in Bhopal and also outside the city. Excerpts;
The Rapping Machine
The Rapping Machine aka Amaan Khan is the biggest growing rapper of Bhopal and is rapping since he was just 7. He has a rare style of rapping in Urdu. He has also made up to the top-24 of the reality show ‘Dil hai Hindustani’ season-2. He has performed at various gigs out which one of his biggest show was when he performed at Fairmont, Sharjah. He has recently opened a show for Arjun Kanungo at Indore. His latest track ‘Sach Bata’, a political satire released on Wednesday, says “Behen beti chhedte jo peechey inke baap kaun, vote maangte thhey jo kal aaj poochein aap kaun….”
MP-04
MP-04 is a group of young rappers of Bhopal who were the first to make India’s first 360° rap music video called ‘Manmani’. The three members of this group viz Lalit Mohan Yengal aka Crackhead, Ashutosh Dubey aka Kabeer and Ronit Roy aka Rabbit the Villain formed this group 3 years ago. They talk for youth in their raps. They have performed many gigs in Bhopal, Delhi and Mumbai. They have performed twice with famous Indian rapper-‘Raftaar’. They have also opened for Neha Kakkar and J-star. Their song ‘Everybody knows’ talks about the inequality in the world-“Koi sadko per sota, kisi ko tu kila deta, aadhi thali chakh koi neeche hai gira deta, koi ab hai tarsa har ek nivale ka, upar tu hota toh sabko khila deta….”
Black Dot Productions
“Rapping is hell of a game; we do it to motivate, not for the fame,” said Sameer of Black Dot Production, another group of rappers of Bhopal who aim to motivate people through their rap. The group was made 3 years ago and members of the group are Samraddha Dixit aka Sammy, Ayush Gurung aka IIId (3-D), Aman Kumar aka Kaptaan, Utkarsh Bansal aka Radar and Siddhartha Chaturvedi. Sameer told Free Press that he has opened for an Indian-Pakistani Sufi rock band-‘Raeth Band’ and has also opened for Daler Mehandi at Jhansi. As a group they have performed at many open-mics in Bhopal. Their famous track Hairaan, reveals the true face of society, says “Thekedar dharm ke hum pe kar rahe prahar, insaaniyat ka behta rqt hina anachaar; Roti hai zameen to hansta hai asmaan, yahan pyasa bhookha ladd raha hai Jawaan…..”
Rishabh Kirar
Rishabh Kirar founder of RK Creatives productions is another rapper of Bhopal who loves to write meaningful raps. He has organized ‘Who’s Your Daddy’-first Rap-Battle of Bhopal in which rappers from city and all over the state took part. He has performed many gigs in Bhopal and has written a rap on ‘Save the Girl Child’ which says “Tu bojh nahi sahara, matrabhoomi ko tune sanvara; ladke agar chingari hai, tu bhi jalta angara hai….”
The Shuffler
The Shuffler, AKA Daksh Gurung, is the youngest growing Rapper and music composer of the city. He is currently 14-years-old and has started composing music and writing rap songs since he was 13. He has composed music for a total of 4 rap songs and is currently working with a rapper of Chhattisgarh. He is an expert in producing different kinds of music including Hip-Hop, Dubstep, Trance and EDM.
