HOW WILD WILD WOMEN ARE FLIPPING THE NARRATIVE IN INDIAN HIP-HOP

THE MUMBAI GROUP TELLS US WHY THEY'RE PUTTING PERFORMANCES AHEAD OF STUDIO RELEASES IN A SCENE DOMINATED BY MONTHLY SINGLE DROPS

- By ANURAG TAGAT

In July 2023, Mumbai-based hip-hop act Wild Wild Women blew up globally after a video of them performing the buoyant single “Game Flip” at the gig series Sofar in Mumbai went viral on Instagram. Currently at 15.5 million views on Instagram and over 1.2 million likes for a snippet of Tamil and English rapper JQueen aka Jacquilin Lucas’ verse, it put the sari-clad group—completed by Krantinaari aka Ashwini Hiremath, HashtagPreeti aka Preeti N. Sutar, MC Mahila aka Shruti Raut, and Pratika Prabhune—on the map.

The “Game Flip” Reel also came a week before another Indian hip-hop artist went global—Hanumankind’s “Big Dawgs.” But with Wild Wild Women—formed by Krantinaari and HashtagPreeti in late 2020—the difference was that they were self-managed at that point and didn’t even have a new single to promote. JQueen tells Rolling Stone India, “The Sofar Reel blowing up has been one of the biggest gifts. It has given us good reach and many big artists, producers, and actors, say [they’ve seen it] when they meet us.”

That includes feted Indian composers like A.R. Rahman, M.M. Keeravaani (who later got Wild Wild Women on as a surprise act on his Naa Tour in early 2025), and Santhosh Narayanan. “I never expected Rahman sir to even know me,” JQueen says. By their own admission, the Reel changed their trajectory and was the outcome of the group, especially JQueen, who led social media with HashtagPreeti.