Hip hop is a cultural phenomenon that originated in African American neighborhoods in New York City. The reason why so many have started liking hip-hop is that it gave them an identity, a new way to express their feelings and new grounds to explore. Just hearing the beat was enough to give us something to break that monotony of western life and give us a sense of identity against the ignoramuses that we still had to put up with.

Hip-Hop in India and its Interest towards the youth

Indians adopted the Rap culture in the late 20th century. It became popular among the youths due to the rhymes and the beats used with the songs. The craze for Rap is seen in most of the Indian Languages. It is a new trend among the youth to take up issues and rap about it. Hindi Rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh had been critically acclaimed for his rapping skills. On the other hand, Mumbai’s rappers named Divine, Emiway Bantai, and Naezy became popular among the netizens. Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt’s film ‘Gully Boy’,  released on mid-Feb, has received a super response. Both the actors were seen in totally different avatars in a story based on Mumbai’s rap culture.

Hip-Hop Culture in Karnataka

In Karnataka, the fashion to start rap culture began through Rakesh Adiga, the first among the Bengaluru rappers who created the Urban Lads band in 2008 along with Alok. The first album which came out of this band received a positive response. The first album which stemmed out of this band was EXPLOSION ONE which received an overwhelming response.

ALL. OK

ALL. OK (Alok babu) has acted in more than twenty-five movies in five different languages and has composed, directed and produced much independent music video’s which has gone viral across Karnataka and India. Many of his productions have been covered by the media. He started his career as lead singer in Kannada’s first hip-hop band & album Urban lads and acted as one of the lead for Kannada super hit movie

Brodha V

Brodha V one of Bengaluru rappers, 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 but garnered him some attention from the hip hop fraternity and the independent music circuit in South India. ScoopWhoop, Buzzfeed, Storypick and other pop culture websites have listed him as one of the top Indian rappers in the country.

MC Bijju

He is the first Kannada rapper to work for more than 50 odd songs in Kannada. MC Bijju started his career through his 1st song “aa hudugi”. He is often referred to as Machine Gun, due to his talent of Fast Rapping. Some of his famous songs like Padabalike, Income, Ivatilla Naale, and College Anthem got a lot of fan base of the Kannada rapper. He has received Best Kannada Indie Artiste at Kannada International Music Awards 2015.

GUBBI

Karthik Sundar Gubbi, better known by his stage name GUBBI, is one of Bengaluru rappers and lyricists well known for rapping predominantly in KANNADA language. He raps in English, Hindi as well. Gubbi is the first Kannada rapper to be using literature Kannada in lyrics. In the year 2012, Gubbi started getting noticed for his first Kannada rap song, “Mungaru”(Monsoon) which went viral because of its unique content, a mixture of Kannada and English rhymes.

Rahul Dit-O

Rahul Dit-0 also appeared in a famous Kannada Song Nan Kannadiga which was considered a hit. One of most popular Bengaluru rappers Rahul is well known for his hit song “Thago” and ” Bro Bro” which gained lots of positive reviews form the people.

Martin YO

Martin Yo’s first Kannada Rap “Jeevana Thallo Gaadi” which went viral in social media gained popularity due to his punchlines. His debut music video “Kannada Free Verse” was nominated for Kannada International Music Video as Best Music Video.

AMMO

Amogh Sankyanas, popularly known as Ammo, the youngest Indian rapper which adds to the feature of our crown. This indicates that the growing trend and a craze has been created among the youths to embrace the rap culture in Bengaluru rappers and accept this as the main genre in the Kannada Music Industry.

AKSA

Girl Kannada Rapper who is famous for her rap song released on mid-2014 “Time to rise”, which was sung and written by herself.

The journey to the world of rap is filled with a lot of hardships. If you do not have a strong reason, chances are more that you will quit midway. Bengaluru’s rappers are an eclectic mix of voices, working hard day and night to bring rap culture to mainstream in Kannada, because of that there are plenty of Kannada rap songs out on the internet which has made so much success.

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