New Delhi: Over the last few years, Indian hip-hop and rap music has become less about flaunting a particular lifestyle and more about struggle, identity, hustle and the cityscape. It’s been a journey from Baba Sehgal’s music in the 1990s to the more recent, more politically laced music of Naezy, Divine, Prabh Deep and Ahmer Javed.
Carrying on this tradition is Duleshwar Tandi, aka Dule Rocker, from Odisha.
In a small house with a thatched roof in Borda village of Kalahandi district, Dule Rocker writes, produces and records his own music. He films videos on his smartphone, sometimes with the help of his friends, and uploads them on YouTube.
He does not match the traditional image of rappers in the mainstream media – he wears no jewellery; his videos aren’t about flaunting cash and riches. “I don’t do this for money, I do this for myself,” he tells me over the phone.
At 27 years old, the rap sensation went viral for his rap on the struggle of migrant workers. At the time of writing, it had more than 300,000 views on YouTube and had been covered by several news portals. “I’ve been a migrant worker myself. I know what it’s like to struggle for the bare minimum and go to bed hungry,” he says.
Several celebrities including Vishal Dadlani and Swara Bhasker praised him on social media. “I was really overwhelmed and grateful when it happened. Since then, many media outlets have reached out to me. I am truly grateful to all of them.”
Dule tells me the main influence on his music is the rapper Divine, from Mumbai. “I was very touched when he reached out to me. We are thinking of working on a project together.”
Dule Rocker produces his own beats on FL Studio, and plays them through a laptop or speaker while making videos. His music deals with a wide range of themes from corruption within the government, his hometown, the Indian Army, farmers’ rights to the need for everyone around the world to come together as one.
Dule was born amidst artists and thespians; members of his community would often spend time together singing during the day, or enact scenes from popular films and plays. This played a role in his interest in rap and music as he grew older. He was introduced to hip-hop music when he began watching TV.
“I started writing rap when I was in the 12th grade, and it slowly became an addiction. My family asked me to get a college degree and a lot of money went into that. I continued writing during my BSc days, but eventually picked up odd jobs to help make ends meet.”
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Dule used to wipe tables in hotels and restaurants in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. “They refused to give me the job of a waiter because I didn’t have any experience,” he says with a chuckle. He came home to Odisha days before the nationwide lockdown was announced in March.
“I have done all kinds of jobs, travelled to several places in search of work. I was even delivering newspapers from door to door not very long ago.” Dule’s search for work led to him and his friends to travel to Chhattisgarh, Chennai and Gujarat.
Dule Rocker is not the first anti-caste rapper to emerge from Odisha. Sumeet Samos, in his work, chronicles his journey from Koraput in Odisha to Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. In a video uploaded in July titled ‘Jaati’, Samos says, ‘Jaati jati hi nahi hain (Caste just never ends)’.
“I know I had a lot of privilege when I started rapping, since I was studying at JNU at the time and I had a good network of people to support my work. Dule doesn’t have that yet. I have been giving him pointers and guiding him on how to succeed in this industry,” Samos says.
Several Dalit artists have released music recently talking about their identity, discrimination and rights like The Casteless Collective, Sumeet Samos, Ginni Mahi and Arivu.
Most recently, Dule has come out with a song on the Hathras gang-rape and murder case, where four Thakur men allegedly assaulted and killed a Dalit teenager.
The video, shot in Dule’s room opens with Dule saying ‘Balaatkari ko thu thu, rapist ko thu thu (I spit on rapists).’ In the 2 minutes 16 second video, Dule calls for justice for the victim and compares the perpetrators of the crime to dogs
‘Haan mein dhoond tha hun apni behen ko aasmaan ke sitaron mein, par woh aaj hai akbaron mein (I look for my sister in the stars in the night sky, today I found her on the front page of newspapers),’ he raps.
“When it comes to gaining votes, we are all Hindus, but when it comes it to living together, we suddenly turn into ‘backward’ and ‘untouchable’ Dalits,” says Dule on the incident and his latest song.
Watch: A 21-Year-Old Woman From Dharavi Is Using Tamil Rap to Break Boundaries
Despite virality and internet fame, the gap between the socio-political discourse remains. Samos recalls how he was once invited to a posh five-star hotel in Delhi to perform. “I agreed at first but then I thought for a minute, would the rich folks there understand when I rap about Rohith Vemula, farmer suicides and dissenting students in universities?” He later turned down the offer. “The rich and elite audience there can afford to see our suffering as art, but for us it’s our lived realities.”
As resistance hip-hop continues to find its way in metropolitan cities, it is yet to find a fan base in small towns. “People have to realise that resistance music comes with a certain baggage and history. Dule’s music is not the kind that will be played at NH7 Weekender or major music festivals; it’s not the kind that will be played at clubs and restaurants,” adds Samos.
Dule’s hometown of Kalahandi district makes it to the news only during encounters between Maoists and the armed forces, or crimes. The district currently has over 2,307 and counting COVID-19 cases.
His song ‘Sun Sarkar Sat Katha’, which loosely translates to ‘Listen up, Government. I’ll tell you the truth’, begins with an image of an old man from his village who is a migrant worker and lived on a diet of salt, chilli and onion. The old man is crushed under a weight of debts as the unexpected COVID-19 lockdown is announced. Dule then asks the government, “What will he do? Where will he go?”
There’s another line which shows the harrowing plight of migrant workers across India: “Corona kana marba tar agru ame mari jimu boo (We will die of hunger and poverty before coronavirus kills us).”
Dule’s songs have an urgency, and respond to the news and current events. In response to the recently passed farm Bills, Dule released a short rap song titled ‘I stand with farmers’. He says, “I stand with farmers because I am a farmer. Farmers are dying by suicide and poverty, who’s looking out for them?”
#IStandWithFarmers #isupportfarmers #IAmAFarmer
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🙏Plz save the farmers 🙏 pic.twitter.com/NxrrAhQkkH— Rapper Dule Rocker (@DuleRocker) September 25, 2020
This isn’t the first time he’s rapped about farmers. In a track titled ‘Farmer rap’, Dule says, “Agar teri thaali mein khana hai, ek kisan ko salam do (If there’s food on your plate, salute a farmer).”
Most of his songs are in his mother tongue, the Kalahandia dialect of Odia. “A lot of people have asked me to translate my rap. I want my music to reach more people across the world, which is why I have decided to make a few of my songs in Hindi.”
But his decision to rap in the Kalahandia dialect is also political, since the dialect has been discriminated against for being ‘backward’.
“Yes, people in Odisha sometimes discriminate against folks from Kalahandi, but this is my identity and I have accepted it,” says Dule. He lives with his mother, who is about 50 years old. “She does her own work of gathering wood.” Does she know that her son is a viral internet sensation? “She doesn’t care about all that!” he laughs. “She thinks I am just fooling around.”
Despite being an internet sensation, Dule refuses financial help. “A lot of people have approached me, saying they’d like to send money or equipment my way. I always turn them down. I can make music with the bare minimum that I have. That is all I want to do.”
The prospect of recording his songs in a fancy studio or earning royalties through his music doesn’t seem to interest him at all. Dule found out YouTube videos can be monetised only after he posted them online.
“I never dreamed of having a big bungalow with cars and riches. These things don’t matter to me. I make music to connect with people around the world, to spread awareness.”
Currently, Dule wishes to make more music and release a full length album, but has run out of funds. “I was offered loads of money to write ‘cheap’ songs objectifying women, but I refused. I will figure out a way to earn money, but I will never stop writing,” he says.
Jaishree Kumar is a freelance journalist and poet based in New Delhi. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram at @jkwritesstuff.