Proto Rap: The Early Years of Rap Music In India
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Hip hop and Rap music have a rich and vibrant history, filled with multiple subgenres, exciting trends and important movements that have come to define pop culture and influence millions of fans across the world. Its strange to think then how far Indian hip hop has come today while still being in its nascency, which makes it all the more important to know its history and roots.
One can’t talk about the history of Indian hip hop without of course talking about the one and only Baba Sehgal. The first rapper to bring hip hop to the mainstream in the 90’s with Thanda Thanda Paani (his rendition of Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby”).
Considering this was a time when no one really knew what hip hop was, this felt like a huge step forward for rap music in India. But while Baba Sehgal’s was responsible for the genre’s commercial success, it was Style Bhai who really molded and transposed the genre into a proper art form. You could tell he had hip hop in his soul, be it in the way he dressed (an attire straight out of the NWA) or in the way he spoke so proudly about his love for Mumbai and how it binds everyone together in his breakthrough song “Style Bhai”. His contribution to the genre would prove to be extremely important in the years to come.
By the 2000’s rap had become pretty popular in India, it was quite common now for songs to have a short rap section, this created a space for many different rappers to exist. Without doubt, the most dynamic out of all of these was Blaaze, the only rapper to have a full Bollywood song to himself, while his flow and rhythm on the BnB remix from Bunty and Babli is unmatched, it is also important to remember “In my father’s words” a haunting, deeply introspective song, which garnered some airplay on channel V.
On the independent side of things Sameer Dada was probably the first to bring gangsta rap and “thug life” attitude into the scene with his song “Darna warna marna”.
All of these artists have in some way small or big, influenced the thriving rap scene that we have today, we have indeed come a long way.
Read more: Tappa: Indian Classical "Rap Music"
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