Prabh Deep: India's Most Fearless Rapper

New Delhi’s moshpit-starting, soul-searching star is now thinking beyond hip-hop in 2020

- Anurag Tagat

PRABH DEEP

On Christmas Day, Prabh Deep premiered the video for “Amar,” a super-smooth horn section-aided track in which he’s actually talking about preparing for his death, his soul’s journey to immortality and even a fleeting reference to the 1984 anti- Sikh riots.

He outlines the most important things to him in life on the song: “Iss duniya ch pehla pariwar mera/Duji meri neend mainu pyaari/Teeja mera kamm naale/Chauthi meri maut jiddi kara mai tyaari.” Family, sleep, work and a death he’s preparing for – that’s perhaps where the New Delhi-based firebrand hip-hop artist and producer’s priorities lie at this juncture. Despite the reference to ’84, there’s a separate album (tentatively called 84-18) that he’s working on, whereas his latest EP KING is “very personal.” He adds, “I got bored of rap, man. I wanted to try some soul and I suck at it, but I’m still trying. I’m not scared of experimenting and changing my sound. Some artists they’re really scared of changing their sound, because they fear they’ll lose their audience. With me, it’s different. Whenever I change my sound, I gain a new audience.”

Recently turned 26, Prabh Deep was heralded as the next big thing in 2017 itself, when he and producer Sez On The Beat worked together on the former’s debut album Class-Sikh, the first big release on New Delhi/Mumbai-headquartered label Azadi Records. He might be a total braggart and ready to throw down on songs like “G Maane” and “Suno” off Class-Sikh – which even won him the Toto Funds the Arts Music Award in 2018 – but Prabh’s socially conscious verses and stance taken on issues like drug abuse and the world’s increasingly right-wing bent has been a much-needed elbow to the face of mainstream (and largely superficial) Punjabi music.