You either love Badshah or you don’t. You can’t be indifferent to his brand of music. Those who love him, sing along Ladki beautiful kar gayi chull ( Kapoor and Sons) at live concerts or dance to Saturday Saturday ( Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya ) and other songs. The rapper and composer Badshah was in Bengaluru performing numbers such as DJ Waley Babu , Kaala Chashma and his latest hit Humma Humma at Forum Mall in Koramangala.
In a brief chat, Badshah, who also turned music-director with Ok Jaanu , spoke to us about Hip-Hop, its evolution and the challenges he faces while pursuing it.
Any artistes, you were inspired by when you started out? Were there a lot of inspirations around?
No, I didn’t have any benchmarks to follow. It was a race, I had to run alone which is a good as well as a bad thing. I initially faced difficulties in grasping what people expected of me. It took me a lot of time but it happened.
Hip-Hop is essentially part of the underground movement. Do you think becoming mainstream has altered its identity?
I think the mainstream has given a wider audience to hip-hop in India. The identity hasn’t altered, it is just being customised for the mainstream audience who listen to music for leisure. There is still a vast underground movement that is brewing in the country. There are exceptional artists such as Divine/ Sikander Khalon and more who are carrying the flame of Underground Hip-Hop. I make a continued effort to keep releasing songs independently like Baatcheet and Driving Slow - my upcoming album has a couple of underground non-commercial tracks as well.
That brings us to your first album, that you are working on. How is it shaping up?
It has no re-mixes, no high-tempo party songs. It has a very different feel. We plan to release a single in March and full album in April.
Coming back to the hip-hop scene in India, has the genre picked up?
Hip-Hop has definitely grown in terms of following. But the scene in India still needs serious artistes who work on quality content and spread the correct image of the art. It is important for all artistes to work on their distinctive styles so that proper rap and Hip-Hop can emerge as the great genre that it is.
With rap, there is trap of sounding repetitive. How do you try to overcome the challenge with every song? Any particular examples you can cite?
Like I have said before, rap is not an easy art form. It is rhythm and poetry and we rappers do not have musical melodies to fall back on. The message of the rap is important to get through to the audience in the right way, whether it is a serious message or fun banter about an evening out with friends. What we do have is wordplay and there are a million possibilities of changing the kind of words we use to change the sound of it to the listeners’ ears. For example, I have used a lot of Urdu words in the Humma song’s rap to do justice to the fact that it is supposed to be a mid-tempo, love serenade song.
Another example is Bandook which has a very strong traditional message of karma - Jo bhi boyega, wahi khayega - What you sow, so shall you reap” and completed with an extremely strong ending line in a different language as a punch.
Where do you draw your lyrics from?
I haven’t read poetry. People around me are the source of my vocabulary. I am part of people as I listen to them and which is why there is a connect with people.
High notes
Badshah’s real name is Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia.
Born and brought up in Delhi, he is a qualified civil engineer.
Some of his biggest hits are:
“DJ Waale babu mera gaana chala de”
“Baby ko bass pasand hai” (Sultan)
“Abhi to party Shuru huyi hai” (Khoobsurat)
“Kaala Chashma” (Baar Baar Dekho)
“The Break-up Song” (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
He is curently judging the reality show “Dil Hai Hindustani”.
