Hot Sauce

For the last decade or so, the story of Indian rap has been synonymous with Mumbai-based gully rap. But that’s set to change with Seedhe Maut. Bhanuj Kappal meets the firebrand duo from Delhi making music for Gen Z (and anyone else who’ll listen)

- Bhanuj Kappal

Bro, yeh toh full BT ho gayi (Bro, this is a full bad trip),” declares Siddhant Sharma, aka MC Calm, his eyes affixed to the TV screen in my living room as he pours himself a generous glass of Jack Daniel’s whiskey. In the corner, Abhijay Negi (nom-de-rhyme: Encore ABJ) is rolling joints like his life depends on it. He picked up 15 grams of weed from a friend the day before, and he’s on a mission to finish it before the two get on a flight back to Delhi later that evening.

It’s May 23, election results day, and the boys from Seedhe Maut have stopped over at my suburban Mumbai flat on the way to the airport. We’re supposed to be doing a second round of interviews, following up on our conversation in Delhi a couple of weeks earlier. Instead, we spend the evening getting wasted and watching the ruling party’s triumphant return to power.

“We laugh at the US for electing Donald Trump,” says Sharma, in a resigned voice. “But look at us.”

Admittedly, this isn’t the most erudite example of political commentary. The two young men – Sharma is nearly 23, Negi is 24 – don’t use the sort of political vocabulary and theory that’s in vogue with the analysts on TV, or the “woke” twitterati. Terms like “caste calculus”, “regulatory capture” and “electoral bonds” are nowhere to be found. They haven’t yet been bloodied in the culture wars of online activism, with its radicaler-than-thou posturing and tendency towards blue-on-blue attacks. Instead, their response to the election result is a direct and heartfelt, “We’re fucked.”