Hip-hop emerged as a cultural response to historic oppression and racism, and as a system for communication among black communities throughout the United States, in the 1970’s. But when it made its inroads into Nepal, it was used as a tool to express one’s personal angst and musings. During late 1990’s Girish Khatiwada, who was a high school student at the time, inspired by the rise of the sub-culture around the world, recorded a song, Meaningless Rap, and then went on to collaborate with Pranil Timalsena. The duo released their debut album, Meaningless Rap, borrowing name from Khatiwada’s single, which is also included in the album. For their second album, the duo collaborated with Sudin Pokharel, who went by the name DA-69, and produced the era-defining Ma Esto Chhu Ma Usto Chhu. The song touched a nerve with the young audience and quickly became a phenomenon. The songs, at the time, revolved around motifs mostly surrounding the singer’s personal problems, with them seeking an outlet to express their inner dilemmas, and deriving self-affirmation with the songs. Likewise, The Unity recorded songs with lyrics in the same vein, and also on love, courtship and girls, highlighted by the popular song She is the Bomb. Nepali Rap scene, or Nephop as it is termed, was even in its early days felt as if it had plateaued out; the craft was mostly limited to urban, mostly privileged youth, who rapped about urban, self-serving, themes.Then came Anil Adhikari, performing under the moniker Yama Buddha, who sang with a veritable swagger, and whose lyrics were charged with the confusion and chaos that beset the middle-class youth, who had grown up silent witnesses to monumental political changes in the country, confused about what to make of it, and frustrated that nothing has changed in the society they live in. Yama Buddha captured this motif and made it into his art, suddenly using this ‘echo-chamber medium’ to talk about real life problems, real people.
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