The Muslim Rap
31–08–2018, Mumbai, India: Sometimes I feel like rap music is almost the key to ending all kinds of discrimination.

Good Morning Everyone. It’s the Friday Post on a balmy Friday morning. On the edge of Mumbai lies the suburb of Nala Sopara. It had a glorious past, having served as an important port in the heydays of the Buddhist empire. Today, it is the residence of an invisible underbelly of Mumbai that keeps the metropolis running — its sweepers, cleaners, daily wage labourers, and taxi drivers. Cheap property rates are driving up its population and creating a slum-like environment in this piece of land that opens up into the Thane creek. Unbeknownst to the urban Indian who drinks coffee at Starbucks and assumes caste to be a phenomenon no longer present, slums like Nala Sopara are pioneering India’s first true rap revolution.

Rap Music as Social Commentary
Rap and its origins in the US
Rap music emerged and gained popularity in the background of disturbed and disturbing race relations in the United States of America. Rap music became the anthem of resistance among blacks against white supremacy and a vent for their anger and frustration. It also became a symbol of creativity and a vehicle for the fight to equality. Black musicians rapped their way into the collective conscience of America and rap music became as much a social tool as a political commentary.
Rap Music in India
America’s great cities sweep and brush aside all their dust and grime to their outskirts. Hidden alongside all the dust and grime is also the inconvenient truth of black Americans — the group largely bereft of all forms of social capital. Just as the anger in their voices gave rise to the American rap movement, outskirts of Indian cities too are giving birth to a class of youngsters using rap music for expressing themselves. Most of such outskirts include large Muslim populations among other socially and financially backward classes. The outskirts of Kolkata include Topsia, Metiabruz, Kidderpore, Burrabazar, etc. which have a large Muslim population. Mumbai outskirts like Nala Sopara, Panvel, Vashi, and Mumbra have significantly large Muslim and Dalit populations. Prominent outskirts of Ahmedabad include Juhapura which is largely a Muslim colony.


(Nowhere do I imply that outskirts are occupied only by Muslims, all muslims are poor and disadvantaged, rap music is produced only by the underprivileged or those living in suburbs.)
Muslims and Rap Music
In the US and UK
Muslims in rap is an old phenomenon. While Akon is a Muslim, Ice-Cube too accepted Islam. Their music, like most of the young Muslim rappers in India today, was very local. They talked of local issues as well as contemporary subjects along with elements that appealed to them. Both US and UK saw a rap movement emerge in Muslims along religious lines. Bands like Native Deen which used their music and poetry for religious topics became popular. The popular Danish band Outlandish also featured in a song by Sami Yusuf, one of the global rock-stars of Islamic music.
In India
Indian rap is still in its infancy stage. Still, some very good rappers have come out of Mumbai’s suburbs. Naezy and Divine bring the intricacy of their localities and its culture to their music. Their lyrics present their angst against a system that has treated them as outsiders for too long. Similarly, in Kolkata, there seems to be a rap battle on between the various as they sing of what life in their ghetto feels like. As time goes on, we are bound to see addition of more topics and more depth to the India rap scene. Till then, live long and prosper!

