Music
10 Indian rappers you should be listening to
Red Bull Spotlight is a cross-country competition to find the best young rappers from around India. Here are the top 10 who made it to the final leg of the competition.
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Red Bull Spotlight – a unique hunt to discover India’s top emerging rappers – hosted its national final in June. The top 10 rappers who made it past the qualifying rounds in their respective cities, performed at the event for a shot at the title and an opportunity to record a full album at a professional music studio, get a slick music video and dive headfirst into the world of Indian hip-hop.
The 10 qualifying artists were given a chance to record one original song and music video for the voting phase of the competition.
At the finals, each artist performed a set of original songs for the audience and a panel of judges comprising Seedhe Maut, Swadesi and Dopeadelicz. The panel of judges, along with the online voting scores, determined the winner of Red Bull Spotlight 2019.
Check out some of India's best young rappers below.
UNOS
4 min
UNOS music video
Filmed as part of Red Bull Spotlight, check out a performance from Hyderabad-based rapper UNOS.
Rohit Deval, aka UNOS, is an 18-year-old rapper, songwriter, beatboxer and music producer. He started writing songs five years ago and began rapping a year later. He raps in English, Hindi and Telugu. He performs around his home city of Hyderabad with several other artists and runs a community called Downtown Culture, which helps upcoming artists find their feet. Check out his music here.
Faqeersky56
3 min
Faqeersky56 music video
Delhi-based rapper Faqeersky56 performs exclusively for Red Bull Spotlight.
Sunil Kumar Yadav, aka Faqeersky56, is a 20-year-old rapper from Delhi. He studies in Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College and raps in Hindi. He had been writing poetry for two years and heard rap music towards the end of 2018 which inspired him to start writing. For six months, he wrote lyrics and recorded songs at home before he attempted to rap on stage in 2019. Check out his music here.
Rocky Glock
3 min
Rocky Glock music video
Guwahati-based rapper Rocky Glock performs exclusively for Red Bull Spotlight.
Partha Pratim Das, aka Rocky Glock, is a 23-year-old rapper from Guwahati. He's been rapping for three years and also DJs on a part-time basis. His high-energy sets have a distinct sound because he consciously includes melodies into his rap when most rappers around him are only focused on dropping bars. His music is a reflection of his experiences. His EPs, Too Young Too Damaged and Bad Boys Don’t Cry, tell the story of what it’s like to grow up in a middle-class family and how getting swayed by drugs and alcohol as a teenager can make life complicated. Check out more of his music here.
MC Dodo
3 min
MC Dodo music video
Pune-based rapper MC Dodo performs exclusively for Red Bull Spotlight.
Ashutosh Rokde, aka MC Dodo, is a 21-year-old junior college student from Pune. His earliest introduction to rap music was when he heard Yo Yo Honey Singh songs in Bollywood movies. He started rapping four years ago when he met a fellow artist who would write poetry and recite it; she explained to him that rap is rhythm-and-poetry, after which he decided to start rapping in Hindi and Marathi. Check out his music here.
Dil Fake
2 min
Dil Fake music video
Kolkata-based rapper Dil Fake performs exclusively for Red Bull Spotlight.
Saurabh Chaturvedi, aka Dil Fake, is a 21-year-old rapper studying in Bhawanipur Gujarati Education Society College in Kolkata. He used to be a poet until he heard the music of Bohemia and Eminem. He started putting beats to the words he would write and began rapping in Hindi six years ago. He likes to write about his life and the things he observes in his surroundings. Check out his music here.
Warboy X DEVM
5 min
Warboy x DEVM music video
Chandigarh-based artists Warboy and DEVM perform exclusively for Red Bull Spotlight.
Ashutosh Rai, aka Warboy, is a 19-year-old student who is originally from Dharamsala. He has been rapping since the age of 12. He currently specialises in music production in the Bachelor in Performing Arts degree programme at Asian Academy of Film and Television, Noida, where he met his music producer, Devam Pandey, aka DEVM. Devam hails from Mumbai and has been producing beats for four years and has collaborated with hip-hop groups like Bombay Lokal. The two met in August 2018 and have been working together since. Check out DEVM's music here.
Loud Silence
3 min
Loud Silence music video
Bengaluru-based rapper Loud Silence performs exclusively for Red Bull Spotlight.
Shubhankar Das, aka Loud Silence, is a recent Bachelor of Commerce graduate from Bengaluru. He's been rapping for five years now, mainly in English and Hindi. When he started rapping, he initially trained himself to rap as fast as possible; he did a live show where he rapped 750 words in a minute. But over time, he started focusing on what he was rapping about more than how fast he was rapping. Check out more of his music here.
Swaggy
3 min
Swaggy music video
Ahmedabad-based rapper Swaggy performs exclusively for Red Bull Spotlight.
Sandeep Prajapati, aka Swaggy, is a 22-year-old full-time rapper from Ahmedabad. He started his journey in rap music about three years ago when he first saw the video for Raftaar’s Swag Mera Desi. He practised rapping and then started writing his own lyrics. He noticed that a lot of his peers were rapping in Hindi, but he decided to rap in his mother tongue, Gujarati. After his first song, Life Ni To Laagi Gai received a lot of views, many local rappers followed his example and switched to Gujarati. Check out more of his music here.
Y-ash
3 min
Y-ash music video
Mumbai-based rapper Y-ash performs exclusively for Red Bull Spotlight.
Yash Marchande, aka Y-ash, is a 20-year-old pursuing a diploma in graphics design in Mumbai. He likes to rap in Hindi, which he has been doing for three years now. He's also part of a local collective called Feat Boyz Crew. Check out his music here.
Somani
3 min
Somani music video
Chennai-based rapper Somani performs exclusively for Red Bull Spotlight.
Vaibhav Somani is a 20-year-old rapper from Haridwar, currently pursuing a degree in computer science from SRM University. He moved to Chennai three years ago and found himself isolated in a new city. He felt his communication skills weren’t great, so he decided to write down what he felt and used rhymes to express himself. His earliest recollection of rap was Mike Shinoda’s bars in the song In The End by Linkin Park. He soon discovered Machine Gun Kelly and was influenced by his flow and style, eventually taking up rap and going by the stage name Somani. Check out his music here.
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