It was some time in 2016 when I discovered this rapper from Mumbai - Naezy. He was real down to earth rapper, unlike any other Hindi rappers free from all those daaru, party, lambo stuff, just talking about real people and real issues. I found the real gully boy and then I found everybody else - Divine, Emiway Bantai and others. As I am never stuck in one musical form or other, this Bambaiya rap also stuck with me.
Now Ranveer Sing is portraying one of these gully boys and he used Mere gully mein in his movie. This Naezy and Divine song is a classic hip hop song with dope beats. It is really catchy with local lyrics. They start from their Pincodes (zipcode in India) - Mumbai 70 and Mumbai 59 - areas close to Dharavi - land of complex labyrinth of gullys and three-story zopdi. The whole video is shot in these gullys. It just feels organic - nothing flashy about it. Lyrics describe their everyday stuff from these gullys. How they talk to each other, how they run when police arrive, mucchi (fish), ladki (girls) and other things. They even touch the multifaith aspect of Mumbai when they say "Prayer, aarti, yaa namaaz mere gully mein". These all things make this song a very raw Hindi Hip hop.
With Ranveer Sing's voice, it still maintains its sincerity and originality. I think Gully boy will be a good way to showcase the Hindi Hip hop scene and a different aspect of the music culture to a wider audience who are fade up with all those flashy party songs !!
Original Mere Gully mein -
Gully Boy version -
Additional viewing - A short film about Naezy's life - Bombay 70
Now Ranveer Sing is portraying one of these gully boys and he used Mere gully mein in his movie. This Naezy and Divine song is a classic hip hop song with dope beats. It is really catchy with local lyrics. They start from their Pincodes (zipcode in India) - Mumbai 70 and Mumbai 59 - areas close to Dharavi - land of complex labyrinth of gullys and three-story zopdi. The whole video is shot in these gullys. It just feels organic - nothing flashy about it. Lyrics describe their everyday stuff from these gullys. How they talk to each other, how they run when police arrive, mucchi (fish), ladki (girls) and other things. They even touch the multifaith aspect of Mumbai when they say "Prayer, aarti, yaa namaaz mere gully mein". These all things make this song a very raw Hindi Hip hop.
With Ranveer Sing's voice, it still maintains its sincerity and originality. I think Gully boy will be a good way to showcase the Hindi Hip hop scene and a different aspect of the music culture to a wider audience who are fade up with all those flashy party songs !!
Original Mere Gully mein -
Gully Boy version -
Additional viewing - A short film about Naezy's life - Bombay 70
