The golden age of Indian hip hop: A guide

Editor’s note: Indian hip hop is unstoppable. Ten years since it entered the mainstream conversation, the genre has soared and spread across local and regional subcultures across the country. Bhanuj Kappal offers a list of 10 of the most exciting and hard-hitting voices in hip hop today.

As always, we’ve put all the music referenced in the article in a YouTube and Spotify playlist for you to dive into this cracking homegrown music scene.

Written by: Bhanuj Kappal

Ten years after Naezy and Divine broke into the mainstream with their surprise hit ‘Mere Gully Mein’, we’re now firmly in the Golden Age of Indian hip hop. Earlier this year, Hanumankind—the Bengaluru rapper who became a global sensation with 2024 single ‘Big Dawgs’, peaking at #23 on the Billboard Hot 100—made history by becoming the first rapper to perform at Coachella. Punjabi rappers Sidhu Moosewala and Yo Yo Honey Singh are now among Spotify’s 10 most-followed hip hop artists worldwide, ranking higher than Doja Cat and Kanye West. The gullies have gone global.

Back home, a new generation of artists are pushing the boundaries of Indian rap, crafting thrilling new sounds that effortlessly blend the global with the local. From Gujarati trap and Bhojpuri jazz-rap to absurdist avant-hop from Navi Mumbai, Indian hip hop has never been bigger, louder, or more diverse. Meet 10 artists leading the charge.

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Dhanji

The self-styled “Jay-Z from Gujarat” is Indian hip hop’s most ineffable auteur. Across a string of DIY mixtapes and his breakout 2023 debut album Ruab, Ahmedabad’s Dhanji (born Jayraj Ganatra) has built a sonic world that’s equal parts absurdist theatre, social commentary, and stoner humour. His music jumps recklessly between 1970s funk, Bollywood kitsch and lo-fi trap, fusing highbrow philosophy with meme-age irony. On Ruab, he raps about the “Herculean struggle to create art” under capitalism, while his latest project with producer Rasla, Drive In Cinema 2.1, is a dense, moody exploration of Amdavad’s seedy underbelly.

What sets him apart is the wit and weirdness—the sense that he’s less interested in chasing trends than in warping them beyond recognition. In a scene still obsessed with image and bravado, Dhanji’s refusal to play it straight feels both radical and refreshingly unserious.

Chaar Diwaari

Garv Taneja—better known as Chaar Diwaari—makes music that sounds like a surrealist fever-dream. The New Delhi rapper, singer, producer, and visual artist takes a post-modern deconstructionist approach to hip hop, remixing the genre’s familiar tropes with sounds and ideas from avant-pop, horrorcore, industrial noise and retro film music. ‘Barood’ sounds like a dispatch from the end of the world; Bharg collab ‘Roshni’ blends catchy ear-worm pop with ear-shattering extreme metal; and ‘LoveSexDhoka’ is a Bollywood love song run through the hyperpop blender.

It’s all part of a distinct, cinematic world—part Guru Dutt, part David Lynch, part restless Gen-Z imagination—brought to life through his self-directed videos and meticulously maximalist production. Even his strangest work carries an emotional clarity, a sense of haunting beauty beneath the chaos.

Ahmer

Kashmir’s Ahmer Javed doesn’t just rap about resistance. His music is resistance. Emerging from Srinagar’s tense streets, Ahmer brought Kashmiri rap into the national consciousness with his 2019 debut Little Kid, Big Dreams, a blistering outburst of fury, grief and raw honesty. His 2022 follow-up Azli, written in the wake of the abrogation of Article 370 and the ensuing lockdown in the valley, painted a vivid portrait of the mental and emotional trauma of life in the world’s most militarised zone.

Switching effortlessly between Koshur, Hindi, and English, Ahmer’s music—despite all the anger and despair—is first and foremost a testament to Kashmiri resilience in the face of overwhelming odds. He’s just signed on with Mass Appeal India, with a third full-length in the works. In a country still uncomfortable with political dissent, Ahmer is a reminder that hip hop was always meant to be dangerous.

Dizlaw

Navi Mumbai’s Dishant Kamble aka Dizlaw first caught the attention of hip hop fans with re-works of popular tracks by artists like Divine, MC Stan, Emiway Bantai, and Seedhe Maut, rapping his own verses over some of hip hop’s most recognisable beats. But in recent years, he’s crafted a sound that’s entirely his own, merging hip hop and R&B with indie-rock and bedroom pop. His 2025 debut EP Dilbar is a dreamy, synth-laden record about dealing with heartbreak and finding closure that offers a perfect showcase for Dizlaw’s poetic lyricism, delivered in pathos-filled falsetto.

His latest single, ‘Andhbhakt’, is a sparse, moody dissection of blind love that would fit perfectly on any break-up playlist. A talented and incredibly versatile newcomer, Dizlaw is destined to be your girlfriend’s favourite desi hip hop artist.

Excise Dept

Mumbai/New Delhi artist collective Excise Dept creates hip hop music for the terminally online, drawing inspiration from sources as varied as Whatsapp University forwards, esoteric political theories, and Pakistani meme videos. Their 2024 debut album Sab Kuch Mil Gaya Mujhe Vol. 1 is a thrilling mashup of instrumental hip hop, synth-funk, Punjabi folk, ambient noise, and ’90s Bollywood and rap in Hindi, English, Punjabi and Bengali, all filtered through the lens of internet-fried surrealism.

Their self-directed visuals are equally wild: photoshopped archival collages, government memo aesthetics, and an ironic bureaucratic identity (their name nods to the state excise department). Turn on, tune in, and freak out.

Kinari

It doesn’t take more than a minute of listening to Kinari’s music to realise that the New Delhi rapper has got it—that elusive mix of confidence, charisma and bite that defines star power. Her 2024 debut album Kattar Kinnar features husky, faux-whispered rhymes over beats that splice mujra with North Chennai gaana, disco with riot grrrl, and ballroom with dub. It’s messy, magnetic, and entirely her own.

Across Kattar Kinnar and three follow-up EPs, Kinari chronicles what it means to live and love as a trans woman in the city’s capital, switching between vulnerability, razor-sharp humour, and radical joy.

Shikriwal

Jharkhand’s Sanket Shikriwal has quietly been making Bhojpuri rap since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, experimenting with sounds ranging from glitchy East Coast rap and chilled out jazz-hop, trying to find the sound that fits him best. On his 2025 full length Natya Alaapika, the rapper and producer finally struck gold. The 18-track album is one of the year’s most vital and inventive Indian rap records—a dense, dreamlike blend of Bihari folk, Bhojpuri pop, jazz, hip hop, and lo-fi electronica. Working with collaborators Yash Raj Mishra, Abhi Shakti, and Vilohitt, Shikriwal stitches together upright bass, flute, synths and saxophone into something that feels both global and rooted in Purvanchal soil.

Tracks like ‘Vyapar’ and ‘Tanashahi’ showcase his knack for absurd yet magnetic swagger—Bhojpuri braggadocio delivered over a mouthful of gutka—while songs like ‘Nirnayak’ reveal a subtler emotional register. Right now Shikriwal is still an underground secret, but he’s got everything he needs to make it big.

Reble

Shillong’s Reble—government name Daiaphi Lamare—is only 24 years old, but she raps with the poise and effortlessness of an artist with decades of experience. Which makes sense, considering she started writing songs when she was just 12 years old. Inspired by the trinity of Eminem, Biggie, and Andre 3000, Reble’s music also draws from indie and alternative rock acts such as Linkin Park and MGMT.

Her lyrics often deal with identity—both as someone from the under-represented state of Meghalaya, and as a woman in a male-dominated world. On her 2022 track ‘Bond Fission’, she raps that she’s “a dark horse/magnificent art source”. Three years later, with plenty of high-profile collabs and a Malayali film song under her belt, and having just signed a record deal, she’s already made good on that promise. And she’s still got a long way to go.

ThirumaLi

Over a decade deep into the game, Vishnu MS—aka ThirumaLi—is one of the pioneers of Kerala’s thriving rap scene. His breakout moment came with 2018’s ‘Malayali Da’, an R&B-laced anthem about “the state of being Malayali”, and he’s been putting out banger after banger since. His music blends political commentary with deeply personal storytelling—tackling everything from greed, poverty, and class politics with sharp wordplay and biting humour.

Already a household name in Kerala, ThirumaLi’s verses have found their way into film soundtracks like Varane Avashyamund. Now signed to Mass Appeal India, ThirumaLi is all set to put Kottayam on the global hip hop map.

shauharty

When it comes to alternative rap in India, there are few artists as accomplished and as distinctive as 22-year-old shauharty. His 2022 debut project Madheera—produced by Arslan—was characterised by lo-fi grit and impressionistic lyricism, but his more recent work has leaned into linear narrative and visual experimentation.

shauharty is gearing up to release his latest project, a 14 track mixtape titled Farookh, out this weekend. Judging by lead single ‘Saddam Hussainé’—a fascinating riff on ego, power and identity set to jazz-meets-spaghetti-western production—it’s going to be an absolute bop. If you’re a fan of MF Doom or Redveil, shauharty needs to be on your playlist.