Rapper Badshah unveils a state-of-the-art recording studio in Dharavi

A lime-green brick structure with four classrooms, which functions as a primary school during the day, is used for the afterschool in the evenings. The building’s dual identity is reinforced by the posters on the wall: one lists out ‘Parts of a Body’; the other lists out the golden rules of TDDP

Mumbai Rapper Badshah arrives in an SUV bigger than the lanes of Dharavi. But, when he speaks to the young teenage rappers, the fast-talking, freestyling, beat-boxing lads of the area, he speaks like a mentor. Like someone who has walked in their shoes in his own time. After watching eight performers, who rap in a mix of Hindi, Tamil, English, Marathi, and Mumbai Satra lingo, he says, “After listening to you guys, I think we should make a YouTube channel, a project out of this. I’ll produce it. Matlab, you guys will produce, I’ll fine-tune it. Talent should come up from here only. A few things I have seen today will blow up on the internet. That Tamil rap was crazy: yeh fatega.”

Rapper Badshah with the rappers and break-dancers from The Dharavi Dream Project, for whom he inaugurated a recording studio with advanced sound equipment. (Satish Bate/ HT Photo)

Badshah, whose greatest hits include bangers such as ‘Kar Gayi Chull’ and ‘DJ Waley Babu’, was in the area to inaugurate a cutting-edge recording studio, the latest infrastructure upgrade of The Dharavi Dream Project (TDDP). He has come on board as coach for the NGO, and will be working with around a hundred kids. In its 10th year, TDDP has been nurturing hip-hop and developing creative aptitude among locals with an after-school of hip-hop. An initiative of music composer AR Rahman, film-maker Shekhar Kapur and late entrepreneur Samir Bangara, TDDP works under the supervision of co-founder Dolly Rateshwar, with Universal Music Group (UMG) bankrolling the project. It offers free classes to students aged 5-24 in breakdancing, beatboxing, and rapping.

‘Badshah aa rela hai’

A lime-green brick structure with four classrooms, which functions as a primary school during the day, is used for the afterschool in the evenings. The building’s dual identity is reinforced by the posters on the wall: one lists out ‘Parts of a Body’; the other lists out the golden rules of TDDP. These include, “We will not hit another person physically or verbally under any circumstances,” and “We will let others finish their sentences”. At the end of the performances, when Badshah is to be escorted to a different room, Rateshwar tells the restless crowd, “Everybody sit down calmly, and let him leave. Show these people that Dharavi is no different from the rest of the city.”

But, these street-smart kids, with their oversized T-shirts featuring rappers Raja Kumari and Kendrick Lamar, and outsized attitude, are unlike the rest of the city. They have a voice, and they are learning to wield it. Eighteen-year-old Ayush Gopal, whose stage name is Kavikaar, spits, “Galat ke saath galat karna galat nahin hota.” Another rapper, MC Josh, compares ‘acchhe din’ and Swachh Bharat to his own lived reality. Even Badshah alludes to this in a hastily put-together press conference, “What I like about rap is that you can tell your story. The three minutes you have been given is like your own film. Rap gives you a voice; how you use it is up to you.”

Devraj Sanyal, CEO of UMG South Asia, who is 100% behind the project, says, “All we need is one song to break out from these artistes. Then the floodgates will open. We have everything, from beat-makers to producers. But, it needs someone like him (points to Badshah) to say, ‘We will do it.’ It’s so big of Badshah to help us out with his time and talent. Under this bad-boy Badshah persona is one of the kindest, gentlest people I know.”

Badshah adds, “It’s very important that core people from the industry are supporting this. Everyone needs people to back them up. I want to give a huge shout-out to the people behind TDDP. They are doing this selflessly and wholeheartedly. My faith feels reignited in the music industry. It feels like everything is not done for money, some things are still done for art.”

On his own involvement, he says, “There’s so much talent that’s waiting to be discovered here. I was just thinking what can we do to expose this talent to the outside world. Skill is a big leveller, in that sense. It doesn’t matter where you’re from: skill is skill, talent is talent. So, one breakout talent is this year’s target.” As MC Josh rapped at the event, “Yeh toh trailer hai, picture abhi baaki hai.”