— — — — — DESI HIPHOP — — — — —

Desi hip hop is a term for music and culture that combines the influences of HIP HOP and the Indian sub-Contienent the term Desi referring to the South Asian diaspora. The term Desi hip hop has also come to be used as an alternative for rap music and even pop music which involves rappers of South Asian origins. Creation of the Genre “desi hip hop” is credited to Bohemia.

Following the launch of Bohemia (rapper) second album Pesa Nasha Pyar (2006) whose tracks such as “Kali Denali”, “Kurti” and “Sahara” became big hits, there were a new-found interest in desi languages during the late 2000s. Even though there were several occasional hits during this period, the desi hip hop scene remained limited largely to the underground, with a very niche loyal audience. Hip-hop culture, including graf3fiti and b-boying, started seeping into the club scene and street culture of big cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

In 2011, Silicon Valley technology executive and Hip-Hop enthusiast Hardik Dave launched DesiHipHop.com to support up and coming South Asian Hip-Hop artists. After the 2015 SXSW Panel session “Hip-Hop In India and Why You Should Care” Hardik Dave’ went on to establish DesiHipHop Inc in 2016 as the first ever lifestyle brand and digital media company dedicated to empowering the revolution of Hip-Hop to the South lifestyle Asian diaspora globally through artist management, record label operations, live events & technology.

Also, 2017 saw a major boost in this genre through the start of Rap battle culture introduced by an entertainment and music production house named 6FU. Rap battles are a culture of western countries, however, India witnessed its first rap battle in regional languages through 6FU’s first event Frontline in Delhi. The label started youtube channel in 2017 has given undergrounder rappers a new hope to be heard and establish rap as a career. 6FU was started by Trouble who hosts rap battles and cipher (freestyling) sessions where more than a dozen rappers perform turn-by-turn on the same stage to see who has the better verses.