Brodha V (read as Brother V), is a self-taught musician from Banglore who blends hip-hop, Hindustani, Carnatic and Indian folk music to create unique compositions. Over the last decade, he has garnered a loyal fan base with hits singles like ‘On My Own’, ‘Aathma Raama’, ‘After Party’, ‘Aigiri Nandini’, ‘Let Em Talk’ and ‘Way Too Easy’.
Today he releases his new rap song called “Shook Ones” a freestyle track which addresses the issue about how more popular rappers are out plagiarising his lyrics and tunes. Giving in to his overwhelming urge to address the issue he and most of his peers in the non-mainstream hip-hop rapping space feel, Shook Ones talks about how non-Hindi rappers coming from other cities excluding Delhi and Mumbai are doing well too and deserve equal recognition in the Hip Hop and Rap scenes. This track is a freestyle rap in Hindi and Kannada on Mobb Deep’s original Shook Ones and it’s also Brodha V’s way to pay tribute to the legend.
Speaking about the song, Brodha says, “Nowadays India as a whole looks at only Rappers based in either Mumbai or Delhi. I mean no doubt they are talented and doing well but there are a lot of others rappers too from all over India who are probably more talented and gifted. I myself am from Banglore and I believe the ones who aren’t in the public eye such, we also deserve some attention.”
“Also, I have heard bits and pieces of even my work being plagiarised by a lot of popular rappers when it comes to lyrics and tunes and that takes away the deserved recognition away…… that’s a bit unfair!”, he adds.
Born in Kanchipuram, the Bangalore-based artist started rapping at the age of 16 and took part in online rap battles. As an independent artist, Brodha V released a mixtape called Deathpunch which had a limited release and which garnered him considerable attention from the hip hop fraternity and the independent music circuit in SouthIndia. Several well-known pop culture websites along with Rolling Stone have also named him as a part of ‘Hip-Hop’s Elite”. He has also collaborated with other artists in the Indian film industry such as Raghu Dixit, Vishal Dadlani, Benny Dayal and Anirudh Ravichander.