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PHOTOGRAPHED BY ABHISHEK BALIFor the last decade or so,
the story of Indian rap
has been synonymous
with Mumbai-based
gully rap. But that’s set
to change with Seedhe
Maut. Bhanuj Kappal
meets the firebrand
duo from Delhi making
music for Gen Z (and
anyone else who’ll listen)B
ro, yeh toh full BT ho gayi (Bro, this
is a full bad trip),” declares Siddhant
Sharma, aka MC Calm, his eyes affixed
to the TV screen in my living room as he
pours himself a generous glass of Jack
Daniel’s whiskey. In the corner, Abhijay
Negi (nom-de-rhyme: Encore ABJ) is rolling joints
like his life depends on it. He picked up 15 grams
of weed from a friend the day before, and he’s on
a mission to finish it before the two get on a flight
back to Delhi later that evening.
It’s May 23, election results day, and the boys from
Seedhe Maut have stopped over at my suburban
Mumbai flat on the way to the airport. We’re
supposed to be doing a second round of interviews,
following up on our conversation in Delhi a couple of
weeks earlier. Instead, we spend the evening getting
wasted and watching the ruling party’s triumphant
return to power.
“We laugh at the US for electing Donald Trump,”
says Sharma, in a resigned voice. “But look at us.”
Admittedly, this isn’t the most erudite example
of political commentary. The two young men –
Sharma is nearly 23, Negi is 24 – don’t use the sort
of political vocabulary and theory that’s in voguewith the analysts on TV, or the “woke” twitterati.
Terms like “caste calculus”, “regulatory capture”
and “electoral bonds” are nowhere to be found.
They haven’t yet been bloodied in the culture wars
of online activism, with its radicaler-than-thou
posturing and tendency towards blue-on-blue attacks.
Instead, their response to the election result is a
direct and heartfelt, “We’re fucked.”
This same directness and emotional honesty also
informs the duo’s music, which combines dark alt-
trap beats with introspective lyricism and exuberant
wordplay. In the two years since they signed to Delhi
rap label Azadi Records, Seedhe Maut have become
one of the most talked-about new acts in Indian
hip-hop, Delhi’s icons-in-waiting, all set to take over
from the Mumbai rappers who currently run the
rap underground. Recent sets at BudX and Bira91’s
April Fools’ Fest saw them upstage much bigger
acts on the lineup, with hundreds of fans singing
along to their tracks. They’ve got a collaboration
with UK rap/electronica biggies Foreign Beggars in
the pipeline, and they’re also going to star in their
own documentary very soon. They even had a major
political party offer them `25 lakh to do a song for the
election campaign (they refused).