Songs For The Future: An Interview With Rapper Mahi G

I started rapping in 2021. Before that, in college, poetry was my preferred form of writing. It was during the Kisan Protests in 2021 that I first wrote around ten-twelve lines of rap. I was curious as to why people my age don바카라�t seem interested in such issues. I wanted people below 25 to pay attention to what is happening in our country because they constitute nearly half of our population. I know that youngsters are attracted to hip hop and rap so I wanted to do something that will have an impact on this section of the society, because for any kind of effective social change, it is important that the youth are part of the initiative. Thus, 바카라�Jungle cha Raja바카라� came into being. It was written by me and Rap Boss, a rapper and music producer, helped visualise it and composed the music for it.

There is a diverse range of issues that I have explored through my rap songs. I바카라�ve done a song on the Hijra community and another one on rape protests. But yes, I do write frequently on environmental justice because it is a pressing issue. I have done 바카라�Jungle cha Raja바카라� and 바카라�Hasdeo ki Kahani바카라� because we are surrounded by destructive development and it is necessary to address it. Recently, Greenpeace India approached me to do a rap song on the rising temperatures in our country and I made 바카라�Heatwave바카라�, which is my latest release.

The visuals for 바카라�Jungle cha Raja바카라� were my idea mostly. I wanted the video to represent my identity and show my community바카라�how we dress and live. So, it was shot in my village and the costumes were inspired from what my Dadi (grandmother) wears. The making of videos is a collective process. The thought of the producer and the composer also goes behind the visual design. However, the germ of the ideas comes from the rapper, because it is the rapper who writes the songs and knows what kind of imagination goes behind the lyrics.

Yes, I do believe that environmental justice is tied closely to social justice. Whatever is changing around us impacts us directly. I wrote the song on Babasaheb when I was invited to perform at JNU, New Delhi on Ambedkar Jayanti couple of years back. I believe that his intervention has benefited everyone in some form or the other. Everyone may not be aware of what they have received from his contributions to our country, but that doesn바카라�t diminish his significance. That is why I chose to write a song on him.

I think I am an artist and I believe that every artist must be responsible in what they create. Artists are followed by many and their work influences a lot of people. May be what I rap about comes across as activism, but actually, talking about these issues is the duty of every responsible citizen. If everyone addressed the problems of our society from whichever professional space they are in, then activists wouldn바카라�t need to do activism and artists would not come across as activists.

They have been extremely appreciative and supportive. I live with my family in a small town called Kalyan near Mumbai. My father is a bus conductor and my grandparents live in the village. Whenever I go to meet them, members of our community delightfully say, 바카라�Dekho singer aa gaya바카라� (See, the singer has arrived). There are no restrictions on what I do from my parents, perhaps because I write on issues that represent us and that don바카라�t harm anyone. Yes, there are all kinds of rappers out there, like those who participate in diss culture. But my parents have always maintained that as long as I am financially independent and don바카라�t depend on them to sponsor my art, I can perform wherever I want. They want that apart from rapping, I also make use of my engineering degree. That바카라�s when I decided to start taking care of my own expenses. Up until some time ago, I was working as a software engineer.

Yes, definitely. Art and poetry can initiate a lot of social change. We can direct as much sentiment and emotion into our art as we do in a war or a conflict. It is as fierce and it is as meaningful.

No, I have never felt this while writing or singing. I don바카라�t really know why. It바카라�s true that if anyone writes something critical against the government, it outrages them. And when it does, they go after artists and writers. But as we saw with the comedians, even though they were targeted, they continued to make their jokes, right? That바카라�s why I think that artists should chill and continue doing what they are doing. If they are saying the correct things, they shouldn바카라�t care whether it outrages anyone or not.