It’s been more than a week since the movie ‘Gully Boy’ released and the hype around it is gradually fizzling out. Initially, it was predicted that the movie would make over ₹200 crore in the domestic market, however, later the speculations deescalated to ₹150 crore. Well, considering the fact that the movie was made at a budget of nearly ₹50 crore, it is already a solid hit, and the final tally including the foreign revenue would lead up to a great result. But the main issue concerning me is whether this wave of ‘street hip-hops’ will sustain in the future or not.
Divine is currently enjoying perhaps the most bright phase of his career, due to the unprecedented success of the aforementioned film’s soundtrack. Nevertheless, it can be argued that his past work was way more personal and straight from the heart. After all, he is specifically known for bringing out the hidden facets of his heart and including them into his raps; while Naezy, who was curiously missing from the soundtrack of this movie, also has a very strong fan base. Interestingly, Divine is not only a huge fan of him but also considers him to be the real icon of ‘Gully Rap’ and his guru.
While the latter is more personal in his content, the former is more inclined towards depicting the happenings around his surroundings by giving his voice to the unheard. Both of these rappers are in a place where they would easily manage to remain relevant as long as they keep composing their spectacular music.
Rappers like ‘Kaam Bhaari’ and ‘Spitfire‘ need to steadily make great content if they wish to be a part of this rap culture for a long period of time. They are just 20-year-old boys who are yet to explore their creative potential. There’s a chance that they might not be able to live up to the expectations, but I hope that these guys have a bright future, especially ‘Spitfire’ whose ‘Asli Hip Hop‘ from the movie’s soundtrack is simply a lyrical brilliance.
Though this underground hip hop culture has earned a lot of admirers, yet, it remains to be seen, if these admirers/fans will actually stick around and further explore this genre. One aspect which is quite heartening to witness is that rap, in general, has rocketed into the limelight, and is not only confined to the streets of Mumbai. A rap song from my city, Hyderabad, called ‘Miya Bhai‘ has garned over an astonishing 80 million views in just over three months of its release. This is clearly a great thing for this genre in particular, as it shows that people are actually willing to absorb different styles of rapping with different lingos and different sensibilities.