The Rise and Rise of Emiway Bantai

How the Mumbai rapper cracked social media and tackled naysayers to become a viral sensation

- JESSICAXALXO

EMIWAY BANTAI OCCUPIES A DISTINCT space in Indian hip-hop. In a little over eight years, the social media magnate and multilingual rapper (Emiway spits bars in Hindi, English, Marathi and Tamil) has turned into a phenomenon: the Emiway Bantai insignia stands for a veritable viral hit or nothing — with views well into the billions and counting!

While his debut English track “Glint Lock (feat. Minta)” — released in 2013 when he was 18 — failed to make much of a dent, his 2014 single “Aur Bantai” and particularly, the 2019 drop “Machayenge” (which went viral on the now denaturalized TikTok) captured the attention of a global audience, making Emiway an accidental digital star and a household name. Now, an artist-entrepreneur heading the Mumbaibased label Bantai Records, he reveals how he cracked the code.

The making of Emiway Bantai

Like most borderline millennial Indians, the 1995-born Emiway’s first brush with hip-hop was rapper Eminem’s empowering 2010 anthem, “Not Afraid.” Nary an inch of Mohammed Bilal Shaikh urf Emiway Bantai’s hair had strayed from his oil-slicked scalp, that the rapper — now associated with a raging, bedraggled mane that meets slick, street-styled ensembles and many-hued killer kicks — began to think of life ahead of being an ‘average’ pupil.