Top 10 best Indian rappers 2019

Rap is a melodic kind of vocal conveyance that joins music, rhythm, and most cardinally lyrics. It has become so prevalent in our modern day culture that we generally think of rapping as expressing lyrics and poetry in a rhythmic format.
Rapping was introduced a way back in India but has now become a rage among the youth considering the variety of artistic and proficient rappers our country is delivering each day.

No doubt, India has countless talented rappers but let’s take a look to the Top Ten Best Indian Rappers who are taking the Indian Hip-Hop world by storm commercially and in the underground culture as well.

10. Naezy

Naezy a.k.a Naved Shaikh is an Indian (Mumbai based) rapping artist who rhymes in Hindi and Marathi. He released his debut single ‘Aafat‘ in January 2014. The song quickly went viral garnering over a million views. Naezy is known for his rap style, in which he heavily uses Mumbai slangs. A film titled ‘Gully Boy’ which released this year is loosely based on his journey and his life struggles. His collaboration with Divine in the breakout hit ‘Mere gully mein‘ brought him into attention and gifted him a lot of recognition.

9. Brodha V

Vighnesh Shivanand, better known by his stage name Brodha V, is an Indian hip-hop artist, lyricist, rapper and music producer. As an independent artist, Brodha V released a mixtape called Deathpunch which had a limited release and which garnered him some attention from the hip hop fraternity. He has always been listed under the best rapper category due to some of the compositions that he has given to the nation

8. Dino James

Dino James is a very popular name among the rappers on internet. He is acclaimed for his realistic approach towards relationships and emotions which he projects in his songs beautifully. His song ‘Girlfriend’ which talked about fun lyrics of every other relationship went viral over the internet. His another song ‘Loser’ – A rap on every struggler’s life was also appreciated a lot by the audience. Lyrics of his songs are beautiful and if you compare him with any other rapper, you would surely see him winning with great margins.

7. Ikka

Ankit Singh Patial, widely known as Ikka Singh is a hip-hop rap artist from New Delhi. He is widely known and appreciated for the kind of music he produces. He has given his rap for many bollywood hit tracks and has a huge fan following in the commercial and underground rap culture. He belonged to the crew Mafia Mundeer founded by Yo Yo Honey Singh.

6. Badshah

Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia a.k.a. Badshah is a well known Indian rapper and singer known for his Hindi, Haryanvi, and Punjabi songs. He is widely regarded as a hit machine in Bollywood. He debuted in Punjabi album Born Star in 2012 with Deep money. His first commercial success came with ‘Abhi toh party shuru hui hai’ in 2014. He has earned many awards like GIMA Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year in 2016 and Punjabi Music Best Music Director for a Single Award. His debut single, “DJ Waley Babu” featuring Aastha Gill, was ranked number one on Indian i-tunes charts within 24 hours of the release. The song also crossed a million views on YouTube within 30 hours.

5. Yo Yo Honey Singh

Yo Yo Honey Singh often referred as a revolutionary music changer of India who made rap music so popular in the country. He is considered as one of the highest-paid musical artists in Bollywood. It has been reported that he was paid the highest fee ever for a Bollywood song (as of 2012) of ₹7 million (US$97,000) for a song in the films Cocktail and Mastan. He combines rap music with pop culture making him very appealing to fans. He is also believed to be one of the top music producers who has worked with the biggest superstars of the country.

4. Pardhan

Parichai Modi, better known as PARDHAAN, is a Hindi/Hariyanvi rapper from Karnal, Haryana, India. He started his career in 2009 as a member of a hip hop crew “Desi Beam”. He is one of the most lyrical rappers in the game right now. The twenty-five-year-old demonstrates some incredible songwriting skills in one his laidback tracks titled, “Rappers Delight”. He’s worked with the likes of Beny Dayal and the Kakkar sisters, Sonu and Neha. He switches between serious and goofy raps, making him a pleasure to listen to. Pardhan is all about versatility and yes, the pioneer of Desi Hip Hop, Bohemia is a fan too.

3. Raftaar

Dilin Nair, better known by his stage name Raftaar is an Indian rapper from Kerala. He signed to perform on three records of the Punjabi band RDB. After the spilt of RDB, he started working with Manj Musik of RDB and also started his solo career. He won the Best Urban Song Of The Year award for Swag Mera Desi at the Brit Asia Awards in 2016. Raftaar has been seen in many Bollywood hits and is one of the first choices of top music producers of the country. In fact, from commercial to pure hip-hop tracks, Raftaar can pull it off better than any other rapper in the scene. Recently he came into limelight with his Rap battle against Emiway Bantai.

2. Divine

Vivian Fernandes a.k.a Divine is an indian rapper from Mumbai. He started his career as an underground rapper in 2011. He began rapping in English, but later switched to Hindi. He was part of the hip hop crew called “Mumbai’s Finest”. His track “Yeh Mera Bombay” received the best video of the year award by Rolling Stone India in 2014, which was a success in the underground. His debut single “Jungli Sher” released under Sony and it ruled the charts. He took Jungli Sher to the Breakfast Show ahead of BBC Asian Network Live on 29 April 2016. Divine is known for his fast flow and exceptional lyrics. He has made a name in the underground hip-hop scene and has also done a lot of commercial hits.

1. Emiway Bantai

Bilal Sheikh widely known as Emiway Bantai is one of the biggest names in underground Hip-Hop Rap scene. He debuted with a song called ‘Glint Lock’ in the year 2013 and garnered fame with ‘Aur Bantai’ in 2014. At present, he is considered as India’s trending and most popular Rapper. He has over 4 million subscribers on YouTube which is the highest for any Indian rapper. He has appeared in many videos from 2014 but he became a viral sensation on the internet after the rap battle with Raftaar. His back to back diss tracks against Raftaar made him immensely popular among masses. He was also seen in the movie ‘Gully Boy’. This Mumbai rapper has a crazy fan following and he remains independent, labeling himself as an ‘Independent artist’.

Other big mentions

Other than these talented artist here are few more desi rappers who are ruling the genre, and producing thoughtful, catchy, and brilliant music. Some of the other mentions include very famous Punjabi rapper Hard Kaur, Delhi-based MC Prabhdeep, 7 Bantaiz, South Indian rap artist Hip-Hop Tamizha, Young fire artist Kam Bhari, Bangalore based rapper Smokey, Mumbai girl Dee MC, Sikander Kahlon, Delhi rapper Muhfaad, Raga and one of the most dope rapper Lil Golu.