“Rap is something you do; Hip Hop is something you live”
— KRS One
Hip Hop isn’t anymore what it could have been. Bastardised into just another music genre, this socio-political cultural movement that could have been very powerful, seemed to have been nipped in the bud. With time, rose a group of people, forming the underground, that stayed away from the commercial canon of the music industry and continues to live by the principles of Hip Hop which is Peace, Love, Unity and having fun. For them, music is more than the noise it makes, it is about the voice it wakes.
Hip Hop is a choice of lifestyle. It is a way of thinking which promotes one’s unabashed expression about self and collective consciousness with whatever minimum means one might have. Hip Hop practitioners have gleaned from this culture a sense of identity and acceptance. Many a youth subscribes to this culture in search of purpose and in its pursuit, they earn respect, brotherhood and a feeling of belonging, as part of a larger phenomenon. In this manner, this movement has become a melting pot of different classes and cultures.
This work intends to bring to light the underground hip hop music culture in Delhi which has seen an organic growth since the early 2000s, maturing at its own pace and has over these years, found the true essence of Hip Hop Culture with its own local twist, where the artists are not just performing Hip Hop, but are living it. Flowing in Delhi’s veins is a youthful revolution, aggressive yet non-violent, with self-expression and fluid identities at its core. This project aims to document, facilitate and enable this thriving subculture and encourage artists to keep contributing to the unique consciousness that is Delhi Hip Hop.
