Music
This Is My Hood: 7Bantai’Z
We explore the world of one of the youngest rap groups in Mumbai. Yoku BIG of 7Bantai’Z takes us through the start of the crew’s journey in hip-hop and the locations that created their identity.
We are six people in the group; Crackpot (Aditya Vhatkar), Yoku BIG (Yogesh Kurme), Lil Damn (Siddesh Jammi), Bonz n Ribz (Nishant Mohite), Mr Scam (David Klyton), and Beat Slayer (Abhishek Kurme). We call ourselves 7Bantai’Z not because of the number seven (saat in Hindi) but because we are always together (saath in Hindi). We all stay very close to each other, so we have always been together. Since we were kids, we were all in the same school together. We studied in the same class in Sadhana Vidyalaya.
It’s difficult to actually say exactly how and when we started because we were so young then; we don’t remember every detail. But I remember that the earliest hip-hop we knew about was when music videos of Akon’s songs and Sean Paul’s 'Temperature' would play on TV. At the time, we would think “What is this nonsense?”
But later on, we realised that there were hip-hop groups in our area in Dharavi. We saw Dopeadelicz perform for the first time during Ganesh Chaturthi in 2013 and we thought it was great. So we spoke to them and built a rapport. That was also when we realised that hip-hop had spread widely around Dharavi, so we thought that we should also become part of the scene; that’s when we formed 7Bantai’Z in 2014. With Dopeadelicz and other crews, we form a bigger group called Dharavi United.
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When we started rapping, we started listening to everything. We listened to Tupac, Biggie, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, G-Eazy, and many more, to understand about rapping. We started to research and learnt what hip-hop is and what isn’t. We learnt that there are four main elements of hip-hop; rapping, DJing, b-boying and graffiti. That’s how our journey in hip-hop began.
We rap in Marathi, Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu. We decided to rap in our mother tongues because it came naturally to us. We knew that if we rapped in Hindi instead of English, we would reach more people who can understand our music. But we also wanted it to be real for us so people could understand who we are. If it was natural for one of us to rap in Tamil, then it was better that he raps in Tamil so he can tell his story properly.
Dharavi has every kind of person from India living in the same community. We are part of that community in Dharavi, and we are all of those people put together in one rap group. That’s why we rap in our own languages.
We write our own lyrics. We write about our own life incidents which happen in and around Dharavi. We don’t want to rap about what we have, what we want to have, and how big we want to become. We just want to show people who we are and the reality of where we come from, and we do that through hip-hop.
The main road for 7Bantai'Z
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This is 90 Feet Road, the main road where the group meets up near Kamraj School. Each member of 7Bantai’Z lives within five minutes of each other, and usually meets on this street when they get together.
Their first chill spot
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This is Siddhivinayak Building which houses plenty of shops, both opened and permanently shut. The group would hang out on the steps at the entrance of Siddhivinayak Building when they were younger. It isn’t the quietest spot with people making them shift back and forth while they walk by, but it was where the friends would sit and chat every day.
An area near their homes
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This was clicked in Transit Camp of Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, one of the well-known localities of Dharavi which also houses a municipal school.
The darkest lane they go through
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This lane in Block No 12 never seems to have any light, but the 7Bantai’Z know this path very well as they take it often on their way to the Dhobi Ghat.
Other lanes they frequent
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The group has now rented out a workspace near their homes so they can write their lyrics and practice together.
The people they represent
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Each member raps in their own mother tongue and they try to represent the mixed communities of Dharavi as best as they can.
The yellow steps where they learnt to rap
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The 7Bantai’Z studied in Sadhana Vidyalaya in Sion. These steps near the Sion BEST Garden are just a road away from their school. They would sit at these steps every day after school to discuss hip hop and their passion for rap music.
And wrote lyrics for their first songs
© Archit Rege
These steps near Sion Circle was their birthplace as artists. If one of the gang had heard a new song the previous night, they would sit here and explain the rapper’s style to the others. They also wrote lyrics to many of their songs here.
Public transport has been close to heart
© Archit Rege
The famed Sion BEST bus depot was an important stop on their journey. The group travelled by bus to and from school quite often. Public transport is still a way for them to reminisce how they started their hip hop journey.
All images in this article were captured by Archit Rege as part of Click It. Click It is an ongoing, multi-layered photography programme that aims to support and showcase the work of photographers from all walks of life. If you would like to contribute to Click It and have your photographs showcased on RedBull.com, mail clickit@redbull.com for details.
