BETWEEN HIS DEBUT ALBUM AND DEMBOW, SAMBATA IS MAKING BIG MOVES

The Marathi hip-hop star recently teamed up with producer and artist Phenom for the party rap song ‘Pankha Fast’

- By Anurag Tagat

When I ask Marathi rap star Sambata about the origins of his debut album Maaz while speaking over a video call, he is quick to respond, “One minute, let me show you something.”

Sitting on a terrace, he flips the camera to show me a long stretch of homes, many with blue and grey roofing sheets, which, from his vantage point, he can see far and wide. “The album came from here, bhai. This is my neighborhood — Pune’s second-most notorious slum,” he tells me.

If you ever wondered where Sambata gets his hard-hitting, shouty bars from, there’s plenty more of it served up across 10 songs, including his previously released singles “Proud” with producer Karan Kanchan and “Bhuk” with beatsmith Basspaper (whom the rapper calls a young “khatarnak” artist from his area). The first song on the album, however, was the title track, which is split into two parts: “Maaz Intro” and “Maaz,” both produced by Zero Chill. He clearly had so many bars and a solid hook that Sambata technically made a seven-minute song with a few beat flips. “I’d send invitations to all the producers to just come by and chill with me, to hang out. Whoever I clicked with on a song, I’d make that song with them,” Sambata says about his process.

While songs like “Proud,” “Don Boltoy,” “Can Kara Gardi,” and “Bhuk” are all straight-up ragers with hardcore rap, Sambata walks a different path with the final three songs on