IndiaPost.com - Chasing the rhymes of the West

India Post News Service

NEW DELHI: Hip-Hop is picking up fast with the Indian Gen-x. But while many vent their frustrations vicariously by listening to mostly African-American performers, a new group of Indian artists is taking the microphone and letting the world hear their version. Chirag Menon aka Chee Malabar, Dum Dum project, the 1shanti, Karmacy, Bohemia, Badmash, 3rd degree.

All this names have collected a fair amount of appreciation for their genre of music, which has its roots in the Hip-Hop. A trend of creative exchange between the west and the east has begun. While some artists from the west are running towards the east to derive inspiration for their music, a large group of Indians still follow the tunes of America.

After some acts of fake rapping from Sukhshinder Shinda, Devang Patel and Baba Sehgal, Bohemia came up with the most awaited album "Paisa Nasha Pyar" which means: money,drugs and love. The Indian audiences actually enjoyed the so-called controversial lyrics of his album.

Following him now is 'the Sikh chick'- Hard Kaur who calls herself Hardcore and considers her music to be Punjabi Rap. With its "gangsta" image this genre of music has conquered almost every part of the world. Siddhant, a twelve year old student who is unaware of Pandit Ravi Shankar's existence, prefers to download Akon's latest numbers and shake a leg at home with his mom.

And he is no exception, Hip-hop has become as vital to the cultural identity of young desis as faith and language were to their parents. Indian artists have also had collaborations with the biggest of names in the rap industry. RDB (Rhythm Dhol Bass), a UK based desi band, for example has had collaborations with Jay Z and is lined up with a new number starring the great Snoop Dogg for a Bollywood movie: Singh is King. Snoop Dogg who has plans of conquering Bollywood thinks that India has great talents lined-up. Let's see if the Indian rappers have anything even close to the real deal to compete with international rap.

Though the South Asian community is not totally familiar with Punjabi Rap, the idea is slowly soaking into their minds that Indians can rap in their own language too. Websites like reverbantion.com, Myspace, Youtube and other social networking sites have helped these budding artists to make space within the minds of their audiences.

College fests, small concerts and shows have also helped them a great deal to mark their existence. And for those who see Hip-Hop culture as guns, girls and drugs, Kabir Sen- son of the nobel laureate Amartya Sen, comes as a revelation. He focuses on message-heavy lyrics away from explicit sex and violence. His rapping style makes him different from the others as he does it for peace.

He and artists such as The 1Shanti, Chee Malabar and D'Lo (a Sri Lankan-American woman featured on the nationally acclaimed Def Poetry Jam) follow groundbreakers Karmacy (the four-man group known for rapping in English, Hindi, Spanish and Gujarati) and the world renowned DJ Rekha, who have been named among the 10 most influential South Asians in America by Newsweek.

Not very far are those days when the world will witness a totally Indian version of Hip-Hop, girls wearing sarees with guys in saffron who will spread peace through music.