Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, better known by his stage name Nas, is an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop, he is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time. The son of jazz musician Olu Dara, Nas began his musical career in 1989 under the moniker "Nasty Nas", and recorded demos for fellow East Coast rapper Large Professor. He was later featured on the 1991 song "Live at the Barbeque" by his group, Main Source.
Indian hip hop is a genre of popular music developed in India. Desi hip hop is a term given by Bohemia for music and culture which combines the influences of hip hop and the Indian subcontinent; the term desi referring to the South Asian diaspora. The term has also come to be used as an alternative for rap music and even pop music which involves rappers of South Asian origins.
Zoya Akhtar is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. Born to Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani, she completed a diploma in filmmaking from NYU and assisted directors Mira Nair, Tony Gerber and Dev Benegal, before becoming an independent writer and director. She is the recipient of several accolades, including four Filmfare Awards. Akhtar, along with Reema Kagti, founded Tiger Baby Films, a film and web studio in October 2015.
Illmatic is the debut studio album by American rapper Nas. It was released on April 19, 1994, by Columbia Records. After signing with the label with the help of MC Serch, Nas recorded the album in 1992 and 1993 at Chung King Studios, D&D Recording, Battery Studios, and Unique Recording Studios in New York City. The album's production was handled by DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, L.E.S., and Nas himself. Styled as a hardcore hip hop album, Illmatic features multi-syllabic internal rhymes and inner-city narratives based on Nas' experiences growing up in the Queensbridge Houses in Queens, New York City.
Ranveer Singh Bhavnani is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He is the recipient of several awards, including five Filmfare Awards. He is among the highest-paid Indian actors and has been featured in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list since 2012.
ishQ Bector is an Indo Canadian composer, music producer, singer, songwriter, actor, director and Hip Hop artist. He is best known for his hit song "Aye Hip-Hopper" in which he collaborated with Sunidhi Chauhan. Recently, ishQ has composed and featured in the song "Har Gham Mein Khushi Hai" from the Bollywood film "Gully Boy". He's got full-length albums, corporate campaigns with "Amazon", "Netflix", "Flipkart" and "McDowells", background scores, commercials and Bollywood tracks to back-up his career thus far. He has featured in many Bollywood music videos such as "Karle Gunna - Ugly Aur Pagli", and "Harrys not a Bramachari - Shaadi ke side effects”.
Desi hip hop is a term for music and culture which combines the influences of hip hop and the Indian subcontinent; the term desi referring to the South Asian diaspora. The term has also come to be used as an alternative for rap music and even pop music which involves rappers of South Asian origins.
Vibha Saraf is an Indian singer-songwriter and Bollywood playback singer. She performs folk songs and writes and performs music for soundtracks, primarily Kashmiri folk-inspired songs. Her work has been featured on the soundtracks for the films Raazi, which went to win Best Film in the 64th Filmfare Awards, and Gully Boy, the fourth highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2019. In 2019, she was jointly nominated with Harshdeep Kaur for Best Female Playback Singer for the 65th Filmfare Awards and Best Female Playback Singer for the 20th International Indian Film Academy Awards for the song Dilbaro, from the 2018 drama thriller Raazi.
Mass Appeal Records is an American independent record label founded in 2014. The label is the music division of the Mass Appeal Media Group. In May 2014, it was announced that American rapper Nas was launching an indie label with Mass Appeal with Peter Bittenbender of company Decon. The label's current roster includes artists such as: Nas, DJ Shadow, Mannie Fresh, Dave East, Fashawn, Black Milk, and Keyon Harrold.
Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia, professionally known as Badshah, is an Indian rapper, singer-songwriter, music producer, filmmaker, businessman, philanthropist and fashion designer. Badshah's music style is diverse encompassing Indian pop, hip-hop, rap, synthwave, underground rap, pop rap and hardcore rap music. He has his songs in Hindi, English, Punjabi and Harayanvi languages. He is currently signed with Universal Music Group. He has contributed to several Bollywood movies including Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, Veere Di Wedding, Bala, Namaste England, Kapoor and Sons, Crew, Good Newz and Khoobsurat.
Gully Boy is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language musical drama film directed by Zoya Akhtar, and written by Akhtar and Reema Kagti. The film was produced by Ritesh Sidhwani, Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar under the banners of Tiger Baby Films and Excel Entertainment productions, with American rapper Nas as an executive producer. It stars Ranveer Singh in the title role alongside Alia Bhatt, Kalki Koechlin, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Vijay Varma, Amruta Subhash and Vijay Raaz in supporting roles. Inspired by the lives of Indian street rappers DIVINE and Naezy, the film is a coming-of-age story about aspiring street rapper Murad Ahmed (Singh), from the Dharavi slums of Mumbai.
Vighnesh Shivanand, better known by his stage name Brodha V, is an Indian hip-hop artist, lyricist, rapper and music producer. Born in Kanchipuram, the Tamil Nadu-based artist started rapping at the age of 18 and took part in online rap battles on Orkut. As an independent artist, Brodha V released a mixtape called Deathpunch which had a limited release and which garnered him some attention from the hip hop fraternity and the independent music circuit in South India.
Udyan Sagar, better known by his stage name Nucleya, is an Indian electronic music producer.
Krishna Kaul, known mononymously as Krishna is an Indian rapper. He was one of the earliest rappers to emerge in the Indian hip hop scene in the mid-2000s under the stage name Prozpekt. He was briefly featured in the 2019 Bollywood film Gully Boy as himself. He is widely acknowledged within the Desi Hip Hop community for pioneering a lyrical revolution in the genre, infusing a new wave of poetic depth and lyrical complexity into hip hop's narrative.
Naved Shaikh, better known by his stage name Naezy, is an Indian rapper from Mumbai, Maharashtra, who first broke into mainstream rap with the song "Mere Gully Mein" featuring fellow rapper DIVINE. A fictional version of his character has been portrayed by Ranveer Singh in the Zoya Akhtar-directed 2019 musical film Gully Boy. He made his film debut with the hit song "Birju" from the 2015 film Hey Bro, the music video for which featured celebrated Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn, as well as choreographer Prabhu Deva, with the film's lead actor Ganesh Acharya.
The 12th Smule Mirchi Music Awards or simply Mirchi Music Awards 2020, was the 12th edition of the Mirchi Music Awards and took place on 19 February 2020. The award ceremony was hosted by Aparshakti Khurana, Neeti Mohan, and Shekhar Ravjiani at Yash Raj Studios, Mumbai. The title sponsor was Smule, replacing Pepsi.
Deep Jandu is a Canadian record producer, rapper, and singer associated with Punjabi music. He is founder of record label Royal Music Gang, along with its manager Parma Music. Jandu released his debut album Nach in 2011. His song "Daru Daru" was well received by the audience. He was also nominated for Filmfare Awards Punjabi Best Music Album category for Channa Mereya (2017), along Gold Boy, Jaidev Kumar, and Sonu Ramgarhia.
Gully Boy is the soundtrack album for the 2019 film of the same name directed by Zoya Akhtar. The 18-song soundtrack includes work by DIVINE, Naezy, Sez on the Beat, Rishi Rich, Dub Sharma, Jasleen Royal, Ace, Ishq Bector, MC Altaf, MC TodFod, 100RBH, Maharya, Noxious D, Viveick Rajagopalan, and others. The soundtrack album had been composed by hip hop artists, rather than a traditional Bolywood composer.
Nathan Joseph Mendes known professionally as Tsumyoki, is an Indian rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He gained popularity from his single track release, "White Tee" (2019), "Daboij" album (2021), maiden EP release, "Way Too Messy" (2021), featuring fellow Goan rapper, Kidd Mange and "Pink Blue" (2022), featuring Bharg. His stage name defines "vision, productivity and a positive mindset".
Gully rap is an emerging genre of hip-hop music that originated from Mumbai. It has since spread across India. Inspired by American rappers like Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G. and Nas the music discusses the street life in distinct Hindu-Urdu rhythm and cadence. Gully means "narrow lane" in Hindi. DIVINE and Naezy are artists that are considered at the forefront of the genre. It stands in contrast to mainstream desi rap or Bollywood which focus on more superficial aspects of life. By contrast, gully rap has a socio-political emphasis.
