KR$NA | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Krishna Kaul |
Also known as | KR$NA, Krsna, YoungProzpekt, Prozpekt, Dollar Sign |
Genres | Hip hop |
Occupation(s) | Rapper |
Years active | 2006–present |
Labels | Universal, Zee, Kalamkaar |
Krishna Kaul, known mononymously as Krishna (stylised now as KR$NA; previously as Krsna) and formerly as YoungProzpekt, is a rapper from New Delhi, India. [1] [2] He is one of the earliest rappers to emerge in the Indian hip hop scene in the mid-2000s under the stage name Prozpekt. He also briefly featured in the 2019 Bollywood film Gully Boy as himself. [3] [4] He is known for his writing and technical skills as a rapper, along with his infamous beefs in the Desi Hip-Hop scene.
Krishna Kaul was born on 4 October 1987 to a Kashmiri Pandit family in Delhi. He spent a part of his childhood in South London, where he was raised and schooled for a few years. Kaul started rapping at the age of fourteen in an effort to blend in with other children in his school in London. [5]
Kaul started recording and releasing songs on his MySpace page in 2006, by 2008 he had gained a small local fanbase in New Delhi and racked up features with artists in the U.S.A. and Canada. [6] His first shot of success came with the release of the music video for "Kaisa Mera Desh" in 2010, [7] [8] becoming the first Indian hip hop song on YouTube and earning a #2 ranking as one of the most watched music videos in India overnight following its release. [9] He also released a song titled "Vijay" in collaboration with international NGO Save The Children in 2013. [10]
After sporadic underground releases, Kaul switched from Prozpekt to his current stage name KR$NA after signing a record deal with Universal Music in 2013. [11] In May 2014, he released his debut album Sellout, an all-English effort on Universal Music with its lead single "Last Night" peaking at #5 on the Vh1 Music Charts in India. [12] Kaul became the first hip hop artist in India to do a five-city album tour with a band. [2] [1] Following this, the music video for the title song "Sellout" was released but failed to make a large impact due to lacklustre marketing and shrinking label budgets. [13] [14]
After a 2-year hiatus, Kaul made his return in 2016 with his Hindi release "Vyanjan". [15] [16] Following the success of song, he signed to the artist management agency DNH (now KALAMKAAR) Artists in 2017 and became the partner in 2018, whom he is represented by along with the likes of Raftaar and Ankit Khanna.
In 2020, Kaul accused the IPL and Disney+ Hotstar of permitting the plagiarism of his 2017 song "Dekh Kaun Aaya Wapas" when creating the 2020 IPL anthem "Ayenge Hum Wapas", an allegation which was dismissed by composer Pranav Ajayrao Malpe. Kaul responded by stating that "his team[...], will take the legal route and approach Disney+ Hotstar, which commissioned the song". [17] [18]
In the month of January 2021, Kaul was featured on American rapper Hi-Rez's song "Crossroads" along with Royce da 5'9". [19] Later in July, another collaboration with Hi-Rez was released, titled "Playground" which also featured former Slaughterhouse member, KXNG Crooked. His collaboration in Hi-Rez's song "Overdrive", was released in November 2021, featuring A-F-R-O, Joell Ortiz, Bizzy Bone, Tech N9ne and Twista. The music videos were released on Hi-Rez's YouTube channel. [20] As of 2022, he featured in Karan Aujla's song "YKWIM".
Sellout (2014)
Year | Song | Artist(s) | Produced by |
---|---|---|---|
2014 | The Glorious First Step | KR$NA | Bradley Dhawan |
Faded | KR$NA ft. Cory Jones | ||
Sellout | KR$NA | Tony Fadd | |
Getting Away | KR$NA | Breathtaking Beats | |
Last Night | KR$NA | MetroGnome | |
Erryday | KR$NA ft. Sonny Brown | Tony Fadd | |
Tripping | KR$NA | ||
Last Song | KR$NA | Bradley Dhawan |
Still Here (2021)
Year | Song | Artist(s) | Produced by | Note(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
2021 | Still Here (Intro) | KR$NA | Safin | |
What's My Name? | KR$NA | Raftaar | ||
Roll Up | KR$NA ft. Badshah | Josh Petruccio | ||
Villain | KR$NA ft. Karma & IKKA | Depo | ||
Dream | KR$NA | Deep Kalsi | ||
Fall Off (Interlude) | KR$NA | Kapellmaister | An extended verse was added in the music video | |
Saza-E-Maut | KR$NA ft. Raftaar | Rill Beats & Young Grape Beatz | ||
Na Hai Time | KR$NA | J Caspersen | ||
2020 | Living Legend | KR$NA ft. Rashmeet Kaur | Didker |
Year | Track | Artist(s) | Produced by | Note(s) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2006 | I Want it All | Young Prozpekt | Samples Queen's I Want It All | ||
2006 | Bitch Please (Remix) | Big T ft.Young Prozpekt | Remix of Eminem's Bitch Please II | ||
2007 | I Go Go | Young Prozpekt ft. Soldier Hard | |||
2008 | F$ck Wit Us | Pacifik ft. Young Prozpekt | From F1J1 Survivor by Pacifik | ||
2009 | Fancy Gill | Rabbit Sack C & Young Prozpekt | Rabbit Sack C | From BackLog by Rabbit Sack C | |
Thats me/ Shahzaade | Rabbit Sack C, Bluntz, Young Prozpekt & NYCE | ||||
Yellow Taxi | Rabbit Sack C, Young Prozpekt, Big T & Slim Neil | ||||
Naam Toh Pukar/ Get Out Of My Way | Prozpekt | ||||
2010 | Kaisa Mera Desh | Prozpekt | DJ Corbett | ||
Khatarnaak | Prozpekt ft. Sonny Brown | ||||
2011 | Imran Khan – Amped Up (Amplifier Remix) | Rabbit Sack C & Young Prozpekt | Rabbit Sack C | ||
DISCONNECT | Su.1, Prozpekt & Ashish D'souza | Su.1 | |||
Poocho na Yaar Kya Hua – Remix | Rabbit Sack C & Young Prozpekt | ||||
Lokpal Freestyle | Prozpekt | ||||
2012 | Peeche Na Dekh | Rabbit Sack C ft. Prozpekt | Rabbit Sack C | ||
Put Ur Lighters Up | Rabbit Sack C ft. Su.1 & Prozpekt | Rabbit Sack C | |||
Vijay | Prozpekt | DJ Corbett | From BackLog by Rabbit Sack C | ||
2013 | Whatchya Know About It | Rabbit Sack C & Young Prozpekt | Rabbit Sack C | ||
Cold Blooded | Prozpekt ft.Twisted Insane | MetroGnome | |||
How You Like Me Now | Lost Stories ft. Krishna Kaul | Lost Stories | From Music for the # Generation by Lost Stories | ||
2014 | Bang Bang | Rabbit Sack C, Young Prozpekt, Agrim Joshi & Nishit Bhatia | Rabbit Sack C | From BackLog by Rabbit Sack C | |
2015 | NO HASHTAG | KR$NA & Su Real | SU REAL | Released via SoundCloud | |
I'm Back | KR$NA & FuzzCulture | FuzzCulture | |||
Patli Gali | Pankaj Awasthi & KR$NA | From Yahaan Sabki Lagi Hai | |||
Beyond The Matrix | Rabbit Sack C ft. KR$NA | Rabbit Sack C | |||
Shots Fired | MojoJojo & Sound Avtar ft. KR$NA | MojoJojo | From Shots Fired by MojoJojo | ||
Jungle Raj | MojoJojo ft. KR$NA | ||||
2016 | Vyanjan | KR$NA | Insane | ||
Desi Wrap Up 2016 | KR$NA | Insane | |||
Keep It Real | KR$NA | Tony Fadd | |||
2017 | Meri Baari | Kidshot ft. KR$NA | REKOIL | ||
Teri Bas Ki Na Hai | KR$NA | ||||
Dekh Kaun Aaya Wapas | KR$NA | Breathtaking & LAD | |||
Woofer | Deep Kalsi and KR$NA | Deep Kalsi | |||
Mumbai Se Delhi Tak | Emiway Bantai and KR$NA | Insane | |||
I’m Ready | KR$NA ft. Raftaar | Breathtaking & LAD | |||
Alag | KR$NA | J.P | |||
2018 | Hip Hop Holi (MTV) | KR$NA, Deep KalsI & Harjas | Deep Kalsi | Released via Facebook | |
Aakhir Tumhe Aana Hai | Suryaveer ft. KR$NA | Boney John | |||
Delhi Times | KR$NA | Dhruv Ganekar | From Flirt with Your City Rap series, by Times Network | ||
Muqabla | KR$NA | KR$NA | |||
2019 | Voice of the Streets Ep.04 – KR$NA | KR$NA | Siddhant Shirodkar | Voice of the Streets is a capsule series from the movie Gully Boy | |
Solo | KR$NA | Certi | |||
Warm Up | Deep Kalsi, Karma, Harjas, Kidshot, KR$NA & Raftaar | Deep Kalsi | Kidshot later replaced by Raftaar in a live version | ||
Janta Kyun | KR$NA | Deep Kalsi | |||
No No | Deep Kalsi, Harjas & KR$NA | Deep Kalsi | |||
Farak Nahi Padta | KR$NA | JCaspersen | |||
Aadat | KR$NA | JCaspersen | |||
Freeverse Feast (Langar) | KR$NA | Raftaar | A response to Emiway Bantai's Freeverse Feast (Daawat) | ||
Seedha Makeover | KR$NA | Call Me G | Diss track aimed at Emiway Bantai, after his track Seedha Takeover | ||
Dum Hai | KR$NA | Dannyetracks | |||
2020 | Untitled | KR$NA | Dansonn | ||
Maharani | KR$NA | Dansonn | Diss track aimed at Delhi-based rapper, Muhfaad | ||
Sher | Deep Kalsi ft. KR$NA, Harjas & Karma | XPLICIT | |||
Makasam | KR$NA | Deep Kalsi | Second diss track aimed at Muhfaad | ||
Quarantine | Young Stunners & KR$NA | Jokhay | |||
Damn | Raftaar ft. KR$NA | Raftaar | From Mr. Nair by Raftaar | ||
Down | Raftaar ft. KR$NA | ||||
Tokyo Drift Freestyle | KR$NA | The Neptunes | Features the beat of Tokyo Drift by Teriyaki Boyz Released via Instagram | ||
Window Shopper Freestyle | KR$NA | C Styles, Sire | Features the beat of Window Shopper by 50 Cent | ||
Bag | DIVINE ft. KR$NA | NDS, Stunnah Beatz & Progression Music | From DIVINE's SHUTDOWN EP | ||
Chaukanna (Hotstar Specials Hundred) | Raftaar & KR$NA ft. Karan Wahi | Raftaar | From Hotstar Specials’ Hundred | ||
Woofer 2 | Deep Kalsi ft. KR$NA | Deep Kalsi | |||
Gallan | Deep Kalsi, KR$NA, Fateh, Karma & Harjas | Deep Kalsi | |||
No Losses | KR$NA | Roclegion & Danny E.B | |||
Say My Name (Hindi Version) | KR$NA | Call Me G | |||
Say My Name (English Version) | KR$NA | Call Me G | |||
Saath Ya Khilaf | KR$NA & Raftaar | Raftaar | |||
The Key - Freestyle | KR$NA | Deep Kalsi | |||
Baap Se | Fotty Seven ft. KR$NA | Frisk | From Fotty Seven's Asli Independent EP | ||
Bohot Sahi | J Trix, KR$NA & SubSpace | SubSpace | From J Trix's Bohot Sahi EP | ||
2021 | Crossroads | Hi-Rez ft. Royce da 5'9" & KR$NA | Ryan Summer | ||
Khauf Hai | KR$NA | Haji Springer | A collaboration with Realme India | ||
Playground | Hi-Rez ft. KR$NA & KXNG Crooked | Ryan Summer | |||
Zaruri Nahi | Karma ft. KR$NA | Deep Kalsi | From Made You Proud by Karma | ||
Taazi Saans, Taazi Soch | KR$NA | SubSpace | Collaboration with Center Fresh and MTV India | ||
OG | KR$NA | Mandalaz | |||
No Cap | KR$NA | Enigma | |||
Overdrive | Hi-Rez ft. KR$NA, Tech N9ne, A-F-R-O, Joell Ortiz, Twista & Bizzy Bone | Ryan Summer | |||
2022 | YKWIM | Karan Aujla & KR$NA ft. Mehar Vaani | Yeah Proof | ||
Blowing Up | KR$NA | Flexus | |||
HIGH | Deep Kalsi ft. KR$NA | Deep Kalsi | From Deep Kalsi's WINNERSCIRCLE EP | ||
ON | Raja Kumari ft. KR$NA | Nacho Larraza & Karan Pandav | From Raja Kumari's HBIC EP | ||
Lil Bunty | KR$NA | Flamboy | Diss track aimed at Emiway Bantai, after his track Chusamba | ||
Batman | Aghor ft. KR$NA | AShock |
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