Badshah is carving out his own niche in the rap and hip-hop worlds. His swag has set him apart from the other performers, and why not? He is now regarded as one of India’s top rappers. This week, the virtuoso speaks to The Pioneer’s Tejal Sinha about the idea that ‘Bollywood meets the gully of hip-hop’, the popularity of hip-hop, and more.
Just as his name embodies when we say he’s the ‘King of Rapping’, why not? He has undoubtedly been one of the rappers, who have made us all go crazy and fall in love with the genre in its purest form.
Badshah has come a long way. Just like the Badshah of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, it took time for the Badshah of rapping to make his impact in an industry that a few people were aware of. Back then, the only Indian reference to rapping was Baba Sehgal, which again was not very convincing. And then people began to recognise rap after seemingly Yo Yo Honey Singh’s Brown Rang had gone viral.
Badshah has had his share of struggles, and today he is here, becoming one of the top rappers in India. In fact, several websites have listed him as the second top rapper in India, after Yo Yo Honey Singh.
After years of working hard in a not-so-well-established industry back then, it was in 2015 when his song DJ Waley Babu turned out to be a massive superhit, which in fact got him into the picture and thus began his journey of creating a niche. His songs or collabs, be they Mercy, Baaki Baatein Peene Baad, Buzz, or She Move It Like, to name a few, are still among the most popular tunes, capable of lifting your spirits and making you groove at any time. With the Varun Dhawan-Alia Bhatt-starrer Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania, Badshah made his Bollywood debut. And then he went on to give some amazing filmy hits like Kar Gayi Chull, Bolo Har Har, Tareefan, Tere Naal Nachna, and Aao Kabhi Haveli Pe, to name a few. Not just that, he had also lent his voice along with music composer Anirudh Ravichander in one of the top ‘teen-maar’ songs, Aaluma Doluma extended mix from Ajith starrer Vedalam.
So many blockbuster hits! Who knew a former civil engineer could one day bring us the biggest blockbusters? He definitely sums up American singer-songwriter Jon Bon Jovi’s thoughts: ‘Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate’ It was his passion for rapping that made him what he is today.
He had recently celebrated the spirit of ‘Living it Large’ with his association with Royal Stag Boombox, which has led to the start of a new culture on the whole. As we interacted with him over an exclusive chat, he described this first-of-its-kind musical experience as a ‘stepping stone for something bigger’. Being proud to be associated with it, he enthusiastically shared, “I love it. I love my association. I’m proud to be associated with Royal Stag Boombox. It’s a stepping stone for something bigger, I believe. And the first step itself is not small. I definitely do believe that it’s the start of a new culture.”
No surprise — the Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt-starrer Gully Boy had brought the rapping world to a different platform in itself. The film gracefully explains what goes through one’s mind when one thinks of becoming a rapper. Sharing his thoughts on the idea of ‘Bollywood meets the gully of hip-hop’, he gleefully shared, “I feel that music is music. It does not matter where it comes from. It does not matter what background it comes from. It’s beautiful because there are 7 ‘Sur’ and that’s beautiful and different. I think music is like water. So, it’s always beautiful to see different colours getting mainstream, getting something entirely different.”
The adept artist couldn’t agree much when we asked him if hip-hop is set to become a major force in the future. He vigorously enthused, “It has. I think other genres of music need to catch up now. Hip-hop has definitely taken off.”
It’s not wrong to say, ‘Too much swag is synonymous with Badshah’. I mean, why not? Every time we are astonished by any of his recent releases, he comes up with something even more wondrous. So, does too much swag ever get tiring to put up? He quipped, “There are a lot of people who have a lot more swag than I have. I think it’s just the laid-back attitude people confuse with “I think I am like this”. Probably that’s why I was not a good student.”
But a question that just rang up to us was: “It’s no piece of cake to always come up with something new, unique, and different every single time. Does it become a pressure for the artists to overcome this obstacle along the way?” To this, he said, “It does, but then, like I’ve said, that’s a challenge that a lot of artists enjoy. I think artists love to put themselves in situations that they have not been in before. And they always want to explore different sides of themselves. That is something that I enjoy. There is no joy in repeating your own song like I said, ‘Dhanda Banjata hai’!”
It doesn’t even take a couple of days now to make a song trend. Thanks to reels and other short video platforms! A song can become a trend overnight. That’s definitely a huge boon, but on the contrary, some beautiful, soulful songs just go underrated. Many musicians, while in a chat with us, opened up and talked about the same. On a recent note, Badshah had also taken to his Twitter account and posted a series of tweets highlighting how music has become “democratic” but it is also in a space where people are “trying to crack the algorithms”.
The rapper tweeted that in the rush to “crack” a chartbuster, people are desperate to compose music that may not necessarily come from an organic place, often forgetting that a good song will always become a hit. When we asked him about the ‘trends’ era, he said, “I’ve got nothing against it. As long as we keep getting good music and we’re able to find good music. Not that all the songs that are trending are bad. Every now and then you do come across a song that is actually a good song that you would want to listen to not because of the trend but because you like it, for example. Maan Meri Jaan is a good song. And it also became a trend.”
