A Run Down Reel of Hip-Hop

Hip-hop as a medium of art has been in the world since like the past 5-6 decades. Rap music, the sub-domain of Hip-hop, is America's most streamed music genre. Hip-hop occurs to you, it’s a lifestyle. It started off in Bronx, New York, and imported, more like imparted to other parts of the world. Hip-hop is a movement, if you feel it, you live it. To be hip-hop, is to be. It’s just you in the purest form of you. That’s how the charm of hip-hop works. It gives you a chance to embrace and accept you without any exceptions. You feel it.

Hip-hop, however has a growing influence, and the movement goes on, there have been growing movements of hip-hop in the non-other than America parts of the world, which keeps on, for instance, we’ve got UK hip-hop, there’s hip-hop movements in the Persian world, i.e. Iran and Iraq, in European nations like Germany. The movement that came to Pakistan and India combined is termed as Desi Hip Hop. DesiHipHop emerged from the streets of California, when Bohemia, a Pakistani-American rapper and music producer started doing his thing, in the late 90s he is considered as the pioneer, or as he likes to call himself Raja, of this movement, alongside many of his peers like J-Hind, an Indian-American rapper and music producer.

It took more than a while for the culture to hit the fan. The first wave of this movement started off in the early 2000s. And more people started joining in and that’s how the caravan went on. It was more of an exclusive club, just only the people who knew about it, were aware of it, and were often made fun of. You might have seen people rapping at your birthday parties or welcome or farewell parties as well, if you grew up in those times. The people who were hip-hop at that time were usually disregarded or made fun of. Some of them really did good by keeping on their journey, reppin’ themselves, as themselves.

This is how the second wave of this movement hit the shore, when the people who identified with this movement, waved along, and decided to make something out of it, by just not rapping to someone else’s beats, but making a craft out of it, of their own. This movement flourished in the first half of the 2010s decade. We saw many rappers, and producers doing their thing on their own. YouTube and other social media platforms are to be credited for this wave, as it gave a name to the many unheard and unseen artists. The artists appeared, and so did the crowd.

Third wave was the time of confusion, and disbelief, when the artists got recognition from the audience, but were not validated by the mainstream media. The many artists at that time flourished and made a name for themselves, on their own, without any help from the higher-ups, who were found not interested in this movement. But guess what, now everyone’s interested. It was probably post Gully Boy, the Indian film, that actually got everyone interested in this artform. It takes us someone from the outer world, to get our eyes focused on something, atleast, it got the people interested, and I’m glad. Before Gully Boy, hip-hop was still made fun of, but who’s laughing now?

They-See Battle League is to be credited for their contribution to hip-hop, a label that promotes hip-hop in different many ways, like organizing battle rap events, recognizing artists, and promoting their content on their own channel. Other artists, aka the OGs like Xpolymer Dar and The Rap Engineers, Adil Omar, Ghauri, DJ Abdur, Moji, Sunny Khan Durrani, Young Stunners, Farish Shafi, Talal Qureshi, Anarchy: (a collective of hip-hop dancers), Daranti Group, Gawky Records, BeastBox (beatboxer, who organized international beatboxing competitions) and other many people involved, from producers to rappers to b-boys/b-girls, beatboxers, battle rappers, graffiti artists who made it cool to express in the most purest form of expression, and now everyone is interested. You see a rapper in almost every commercial, if not the rapper, there must be hip-hop dancers. To go commercial is considered a sin in the orthodox old-school school of hip-hop and among the old-school artists of hip-hop, but it’s good that people are getting paid, in such an industry like Pakistan’s. At least, we get something out of it.

Now, we are living somewhere in the fourth phase of hip-hop, where everything is clearer, and both, the art, the artist, and the audience, are more flourished than ever. But how did we get here, majorly due to the fact that over the years, people got more interested in this medium of art. One of the primary reasons is the fact that hip-hop, or rap, or b-boying, or dj-ing, or graffiti, is quite inclusive, and is very relatable, for any person. A rapper for instance, raps their heart out, writes the word, and says it over a beat, with a flow, and cadence, tells their story before the world. And it’s pretty safe to say that the people are the same, all of us are quite alike, and our problems are pretty much the same, and so are the themes for any track.

Hence, there’s a growing influence of hip-hop among the people, particularly the youth of Pakistan. At least the youth is drawn towards some positivity for that matter. A developing nation takes more time to progress, and in the meantime, it is the youth that suffers the most. Due to different factors like inflation, extremism, terrorism, art movements are always a better way to cope and deal with it, as they give a person some room to express, and more room to relate to, avoiding the negative traits. And of course, there are some aspects to hip-hop that the earlier generations might find hard to catch up with. But that is the thing with culture, it goes on, and is not entirely static.

Recently, a motivational speaker cum preacher’s video surfaced on the internet, and went viral, and faced quite backlash as well as endorsement from the netizens. The motivational speaker cum preacher was found preaching against hip-hop and rap, the person believes, more like confuses hip-hop with some sorta’ satanic rituals, I as a rapper, and part of this hip-hop fam, would most politely ask the person to chill, it’s only wrong if you make it look wrong, and a person who is a speaker, and spews all hate, definitely has an impact, and makes it look negative, which, it is not.

Why is it so, that whenever any new progression takes place, you’ll find people advocating against it. Well, it could be due to the fact that we the homo sapiens, particularly, from this region are not adaptive to change. No change is good initially, it takes a clock two round circles to call it a day. And a lot happens between those twenty-four hours. Verily, there are many aspects to this artform, which are not likable, for instance, some people believe that hip-hop paves way for violence and anger. That is right, but that’s not all to it, there’s more, there’s expression, and the violence and hatred aspect only gets channelized in a good expression.

Do not impose, when there are already less ways or mediums of expressions for the youth to voice out their opinions, it would only draw them back towards their shell of angst, anxiety, and depression. And if one is truly worried that their children might sway away from the culture, then, educate your children to not sway, make them aware of the consequences of any XYZ circumstances. Don’t ask them to stop experiencing things, let them experience some experiences, let them express, and let them be. Believe it or not, hip-hop is here to stay, and will only flourish in the coming many years.