This Pune-based hip-hop collective will reveal their fresh take on music today

Step out in Mumbai today and yoursquoll find no dearth of fans across diverse backgrounds jamming to hiphop tunes that have their origins in the slum clusters and gullies of the city This cultural transformation began when the metropolisrsquo hiphop scene came of age nearly a decade ago Not far away in Pune the cultural capital is experiencing its own awakening now Tonight Mumbaikars get a sneak peekRinging the bells or rather beats to this awakening is hiphop collective Itihaas from their compact home studio in Punersquos original business hub Swargate When Shreyas Sagvekar Vedang Deshpande Shantanu Dubey and Raj Karan join us over a video call from their homes theyrsquove all taken a break from writing music ldquoThis is how a usual day in our life looksrdquo laughs SagvekarAway from the Maximum City where broken dreams usually fuel art the quartet comprising architects and engineers turned to hiphop for a different reason For Sagvekar and Dubey it was a means to break out of their introversion ldquoGrowing up I was a man of few words Home or outside I kept my opinions and complaints to myself When I take stage I pour it all outrdquo shares Sagvekar who also addresses it in his single KhankhanitShreyas Sagvekar and Deshpande at an artiste meetup in MumbaiKaran an architecture professor who will join Dubey for a multilingual set tonight echoes the sentiment ldquoI grew up with a physical disability The day I performed my first set at a cultural fest in my college I could see people look past my disability and into the poetry I had pennedrdquo he reveals adding ldquoWhen Irsquom on stage I seem to forget about whatrsquos holding me back as wellrdquoThe duo reminds us that wersquod be mistaken if we assumed Pune hiphop was confined to Marathi ldquoThe essence of the subgenre is the Pune way of life our proximity to the Western Ghats and the experience of growing up in a city that is slowly embracing multiculturalism That is what yoursquoll hear in our songs as wellrdquo explains Dubey who writes his verses in Hindi and EnglishSagvekarrsquos discography presents itself as an apt representation From rapping about loneliness in his 2022 Englishlanguage track titled BT and turning to colloquial Marathi in selfexploratory 2023 single Uddhat to switching between the two seamlessly in multilingual single Remember me the artistersquos style transcends languagesDeshpande who lays down the foundation for various artistes in Pune quite literally with his music production and sound engineering gives us another perspective ldquoFurthering the use of Marathi in hiphop is undoubtedly one of the end goals simply because there exists a void in that territory When I make beats for instance I revisit Marathi classics chop them in my digital audio workstation and add them to the final product When we play it in a club audiences both native speakers and otherwise jam to itrdquo he elaboratesThe quartetrsquos enthusiasm is contagious and it reminds us of Mumbairsquos hiphop collectives like SlumGods and Mumbairsquos Finest that championed the genre in the mid2000s before hiphop became a popular genreWe ask Sumeet Jadhav the artistesrsquo manager where Punersquos hiphop scene stands right now on this roadmap ldquoWersquore at a crucial stage right now We need more listeners supporters and people willing to take a bet on us Thatrsquos the only we we can grow rapidly I see that happening sooner than yoursquod imaginerdquo he revealsWe notice the artistes itching to get back to writing music and bid them adieu with one last question While rappers from Mumbai have given us some peculiar slangs like the popular lsquobohot hardrsquo over the years what catchphrases one must learn before heading to the show tonight ldquoTheMarathi equivalents would be lsquovaadhiwrsquo or lsquovishay kholrsquo They are the quintessential Pune slangs yoursquoll hear across the cityrdquo the group shares excitedly With the quartet slated to make it big anytime soon wersquore adding these to our vocabulary right about nowLOG ON TO itihaasstudio for more details