Released in February 2019, Gully Boy was a revelation. Inspired by the lives of rappers DIVINE and Naezy, the Ranveer Singh starrer brought into focus young men and women who were spitting rhymes in the lanes of Dharavi and Andheri, using hip-hop to make sense of both insufficiency and ambition. Singh says, “Gully Boy brought this burgeoning underground culture into the mainstream in a massive way. The hip-hop scene in India gained unprecedented momentum after the success of the film.” Though the actor doesn’t once deny the impetus his film gave Indian hip-hop, he does separate it from IncInk, a hip-hop label which released its first music video, ‘Zeher’, six weeks after Gully Boy.
Singh says it was back in March 2017 that he and his friend Navzar Eranee, an ad filmmaker, had begun talking about the viability of a record label that would feature rappers and their art. Along with Eranee, Singh was then searching for hip-hop talent to feature in a commercial for Jack and Jones, an apparel brand. “It was in the process of that search that the sheer volume and depth of raw talent spread across India revealed itself. Navzar and I recognised that this was a huge cultural explosion waiting to happen, and we decided to embark on this journey,” says Singh.
The idea, says Eranee, was “to touch greatness through art, and our way to do that was to collaborate with talent that wrote of a future beyond what we thought was possible”. The four rappers who sang ‘Don’t Hold Back 2.0’ with Singh in 2017-Kaam Bhaari (Kunal Pandagle), SlowCheeta (Chaitnya Sharma), Spitfire (Nitin Mishra) and Devil the Rhymer (Abhay Prasad)-today make up IncInk’s roster. The songs the label has produced do, of course, showcase their talent, but there are other perks that seem conspicuous, too-sound quality, album artwork, music videos that sometimes feature Singh himself.
While SlowCheeta, 30, talks of IncInk as a “support system” that helps guide an “outsider” like him, Kaam Bhaari, 21, reminds us that “IncInk” is an abbreviation of the words “inclusive” and “inqilab (revolution)”. It was his ‘Zeher’, a song that laid bare the inequities of an exploitative music industry, which set the IncInk ball rolling. He says, “IncInk has been family since the day we met and every member here protects you from the unethical activity you see go on all around.”
IncInk does help provide young artists a financial security that eludes most rappers, but for those like Spitfire, it also gives access to a world that might have otherwise remained foreign. The rapper, 21, grew up in Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh. When he was in Class XI, he wrote rap lyrics with a friend. “My teachers thought it was a crime,” he says. With IncInk having released his second EP, Partein, on January 14, he feels he has been able to engineer a new awareness: “The same people of Chhatarpur who thought rap is bad, now know that it’s poetry.” Like Spitfire, Devil, also 21, thanks IncInk for a novel freedom-to expess himself uncensored.
According to music heads Anushka Manchanda and her brother Shikhar (known to IncInk listeners as ‘Nuka’ and ‘Rakhis’), IncInk was created to help artists break free of restrictions. “We want to push the boundary. This reflects in the writing of the rappers on our roster, and the music sensibilities and aural aesthetic,” says Anushka, who featured Kaam Bhaari in her IncInk song, ‘Ayo Burn’. Released in January last year, the song critiqued everything from sexism to violence.
One hears on tracks like Spitfire’s recently released ‘Zalzala’ and SlowCheeta’s ‘Chal Chal Mere Saath’ similar cries of disaffection. Chief creative officer Eranee firmly believes that social change is an outcome of a more personal revolution. He says, “In a country where class politics functions under layers of modernisation, the common man outnumbers and outworks his entitled counterpart. His struggle and art are true representations of hip-hop.”
Given the impulse to herald change, the world of hip-hop has been divided along predictable lines over the years-raw/ inauthentic, underground/ mainstream. Contrasting commercial artists whose brand of music is “intended for entertainment”, Singh speaks of rappers who represent “the voice of streets-throwing light on the ills of society, offering solutions and insights, inspiring the youth to be informed, responsible citizens, encouraging them to engage in positive social action”. Singh, one sees, is just about as breathless as his rappers.
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