A primer for Indian hip-hop | #150
A Very Special Issue 🎉
Hello friends,
Jaspreet Singh (LifeofPaaji@), in one of his recent stand-up sets enthralled his audience with rapper Badshah’s lyrical virtuosity. We learnt that Badshah skipped the usual body parts such as heart, mind and body that feature in most song lyrics and went straight for the anus. Shit got real deep there.
Today, for the milestone 150th edition of our newsletter, we will tell you fun stories of Indian hip-hop through the ages. You might get a special lucky-draw prize if you write to us to tell us your favorite hip-hop track.
Hip-hop has body, hip-hop has soul,
It can make you feel whole, make you lose control,
Beats flow non-stop, verse can make jaws drop,
All you need is love, and a little hip-hop.
Things we learnt this week 🤓
According to the good folks at FilmHistoryPic@, the first known Indian rap song was performed by Ashok Kumar in the movie Aashirwad. In the movie, his character Jogi Thakur moves to Mumbai after facing tragic life circumstances. Jogi makes a living by entertaining children in a park. Rail Gaadi is a delight to watch.
One of the edgiest and raunchiest movies from India - Gandu, was shot in black and white. It had language that could inspire members of Parliament and contained explicit visuals that they would’ve watched with delight instead of voting on bills. Did you know that the entire spiel of the main character in Gandu was that he was curating experiences to write about since he was part of a rap band? Here’s how Rage Against The Machine might’ve sounded if they grew up on rasgullas.
Engineering graduates in India have gone on to do many things besides what they studied, including writing this newsletter for 150 weeks consecutively. No surprise that three engineering college students from Bangalore formed Machas With Attitude (inspired by NWA). Big Nikk, Smokey the Ghost and Brodha V. They performed in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. They even got a bunch of other rappers together in Bangalore and shot a cypher video in a mechanical engineering lab, full with lathe machines and all. First Class with Distinction to these boys.
Bonus: If you need proof undeniable that rap is the purest form of poetry, look no further. In 1609, our buddy Will.i.am Shakespeare composed his immortal sonnet, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”. Rapper Akala performed it at a TEDx event. Try using a backing track on some of the poetry you know, get ready to get your mind blown. We recommend starting with “A psalm of life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Last week on April Fool’s we asked you to identify which of the three facts were fake.
We would like to thank Nikhil Ramesh, Teresala Paul and Mayur Panchamia for attempting to answer last week's challenge. All 3 won and in some ways lost, as all 3 facts were true. Fact is always stranger than fiction.
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❤️ IWTK