Indian Hip Hop Is Non-Stop. It’s Even Made When You’re Sleeping.

This year, Boiler Room x Ballantine’s True Music Studios kicked off in India for the first time in Delhi NCR. This 9-year long partnership brought together two stalwarts in the Indian hip hop arena - Prabh Deep and KR$NA - taking its inclusive platform to the heart of a subculture that took struggling artists to the mainstream of India’s pop culture zeitgeist. Though both these rappers come from different backgrounds, diverse music styles and career trajectories, they find common ground on stage in conversation together, nerding out about their music-making process and how sometimes, “rap is rap”.

While the Kashmir-origin Krishna Kaul aka KR$NA started writing raps on tissue paper at the age of 14 in school in London, Punjabi hip hop artist/producer Prabh Deep dropped out of school at the age of 18 to hustle for work and money, eventually quit his job, and start writing raps and learning music production. Prabh rode the wave of an already flourishing hip hop scene in India where his first album Class-Sikh, debuted at No.2 on the iTunes India albums chart, while KR$NA was one of the first rappers to emerge out of the early 2000s recording and releasing songs on his MySpace page in 2006. Leading more with passion rather than an expectation of commercial success he continued with a regular job while releasing music. It wasn’t until 2013 that he signed a record deal with Universal Music.

Despite Prabh Deep and KR$NA’s divergent paths to thriving hip hop careers, when talking about their creative process, as dissimilar as they seem, there is a syncing of minds and a jovial camaraderie that shines through.

Below are some of the highlights of the conversation:

Mae: I feel like anyone who's in hip hop, especially if you're a rapper, you have beatmakers' numbers on speed dial pretty much. What do you look for when you're thinking about production or working with a good beat maker?

KR$NA: I honestly just go on feeling, to be honest. Vibes. So I just listen to a beat - if it talks to me, then I talk back.

Mae: When the beat doesn't talk to you, then what do you do?

KR$NA: Then I don't listen to it anymore.
I mean Prabh produces, so it's very different from him.
I haven't produced for like a good 10 years,

Prabh Deep: Making a beat that talks to people.
I gotta send you some, man.

Mae: It's just begun - Collaboration!

Mae: How do you approach your music? Is it very 9:00 to 5:00 everyday,
"I need to go into the studio whether I make something or not. I just want to go in as a daily routine.” Or is it one of those, when I feel inspired, I pluck a flower and maybe
today I will write a rap?

KR$NA: I go in every day like a job. I have a studio. I go there every day in the morning. I come back in the evening. Most days I don't make anything. Some days I can make two songs. I don't know, that depends, but I do it religiously. I don't have a weekday or weekend.

Mae: What about you? [signals to Prabh Deep]

Prabh Deep: I get inspired for three months in a year and that's where like all the music comes.

Mae: Basically, like monsoon season,

Prabh Deep: Yes.

Mae: When inspiration comes, it rains.

Prabh Deep: Yup.

Mae: Then it's winter.

Prabh Deep: So I segregate my year. Spend some time with the family. Then you get to hear some stories, maybe write that in the songs.

Prabh Deep: We are actually lucky that we are making music. People call it different names, like God, love, whatever it is, it's different… I'm sure you’ve also felt it in the studio. When you're in the zone, we call it "in the zone."

Mae: Thanks. I love the technical terms.

Prabh Deep: Yeah, you're in the zone for three hours and like you come out, check your watch, and you're like, "Yo, that's three hours."

KR$NA: Sometimes songs will write themselves. And that's the craziest feeling.
That's what we strive for, like you can't get it all the time.
Sometimes you have to write it even if that feeling is not there.

Prabh Deep: So there was a time, I was getting ideas in my sleep.

Mae: Whoa.

Prabh Deep: Sometimes a melody, sometimes a lyric, sometimes a full song,
And these are the songs which people like the most.

Mae: Really? The ones that you're dreaming of?

Prabh Deep: Yeah. It's crazy, sometimes I'm taking a nap in between a song and I wake up, the mic is always on, so I go record. I go back to sleep. I wake up again and listen to it, rework it and of course you make mistakes along the way and then you perfect those mistakes. That's a beautiful process, and you learn so much.

Mae: You know how some people sleepwalk? You sleepsongwrite.

At the heart of this exploration into the architecture of their music, Prabh Deep and KR$NA talk about the origins of their songs; how regardless of their success, they can never predict what their fans will love; they are their own biggest critics; rediscovering songs they’ve not heard in a while and showing the world that rappers can sing (well at least the chorus).

As Boiler Room x Ballantine’s True Music Studios expands its global music repertoire into the urbanscape of India’s capital, you get to discover two of hip hop’s finest with their shades on, armed with swagger, eventually take the mic and open up to what makes them most vulnerable about their music.

Watch the full conversation below:

Photography: Fardad Postwala