Mission hip-hop

Gurnaaz Kaur

New Delhi rappers Abhijay Negi (stage name Encore ABJ) and Siddhant Sharma (stage name Calm), together called Seedhe Maut, are working to rev up the hip-hop scene in the country. They are known for their rapid-fire bilingual rap and trap leanings. This duo was invited to perform in Chandigarh by #ICON, a monthly initiative by SOCIAL that aims to showcase the icons of the Indian hip-hop community. This maybe their first time at SOCIAL but they have had a chance to perform in the city before. All in two and a half years, these emcees have made a place for themselves in the underground music scene. “We have done gigs not only in Delhi but also in Kashmir and Mumbai. It just shows that India is catching up with the need to support independent artistes,” they tell. Seedhe Maut, a slang that Calm would use with his brother to convey chilling out or nailed it, became a catchy name for their union. Having rapped on various themes and touched issues around politics, society, education system- even emotions such as happiness, sorrow, guilt, it all mostly comes out of their personal experiences. And their USP they say is, “We haven’t just focused on tune or music; ours is lyrical rap and that two in two languages. That makes us stand out. Words make a lot of difference and we make all the effort to do justice with them. Somewhere we got into this genre of music because of rappers like Eminem and Jay-Z who are majorly into lyrical hip-hop,” Encore ABJ tells.

This hip-hop rap duo rather stays underground than join the mainstream music and their reason is, “The process of making commercial music is quite formulated. You have to see what sells; there are keywords and tunes to stick to. On the other hand, as independent artistes we have 100 per cent creative freedom.” 

But they agree that it is not all that easy to sustain on this path. “Abroad, the underground music has a pretty decent following. There is quite a buzz around independent artistes and people are ready to spend money on them. Plus the live scene is also great in those countries; there are many platforms, festivals to showcase your talent. Here it’s mostly about TV and movies. Maybe that’s also the reason why people are consuming the same kind of music over and over again- without creativity or experimentation. But thankfully, a lot has changed in the last few years. The movement is picking up.”

Even when these two boys are right out of college, career to them means doing what they want to do and not what the society thinks is right. “We believe in living on our own terms and have a vision, which is to popularise the hip-hop culture. There may not be much money in it now, but we’ll get there.”

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