Badshah & Honey Singh have introduced rap to Gen Z: Neeti Mohan

Seagram’s Royal Stag has brought back the experiential music festival, Royal Stag BoomBox, which celebrates the coming together of diverse genres of music – Bollywood and Hip-hop. This year’s line-up includes artists like Badshah, Armaan Malik, Nikhita Gandhi, Neeti Mohan, Dee MC, Ikka, Dino James and DJ Ali Merchant. The concept of the show brings two very diverse artists together to perform live and collaborate for a music video.

Noted singer Neeti Mohan, who was also part of last year’s edition, said, “I am performing in two cities – Bhubaneswar and Jaipur – this year. For any artist, the most exciting part is to collaborate with a different artist. I feel the more you do that, the more you get to explore yourself as an artist. Last year, when I collaborated with EPR (Rapper), it was a completely different experience for me. He is a musician in a different world and I belong to a different world. When I sing for a film, we are given a mic, musician, situation, director. Here, we did not have that, we had to imagine everything, make changes. We did everything on our own, we shot for a video as well. It was a liberating experience for me to create a music video and perform it for the audience.”

Speaking about her previous song, Neeti Mohan said, “Last year, EPR had written the lyrics and I was impressed with him because he is very talented. He shocked me with his Urdu hip-hop and rap. It was so difficult to understand and say it so fast with that speed. It was a very intelligent kind of writing, it was about a writer’s block. It was a mesmerising experience and I am in awe of him. EPR is from South India and lived in a city like Kolkata and above all, he is dominating the hip-hop scene, which is very incredible.”

She credited Badshah and Honey Singh for introducing rap to the current generation and said, “I love RnB, I find those beats very interesting, to be able to bring melody into it, is very exciting for the youth in our country. Because youngsters are used to listening to melodious songs and at the same time they are getting a chance to know diverse music. We have seen a rise in rap music in the past few years. Now, many Bollywood songs have it too. I think Badshah and Honey Singh have brought a lot of rap into music. That is why a common person now understands what rap is and hip-hop is. All fresh talents, who did not know that they can sing and write, are getting encouraged. After watching such shows, they get that confidence that they can also do it.”

Neeti Mohan opined that every artist needed to update himself or herself with changing time. She elaborated, “We are in this digital age, where things become irrelevant very fast, music is changing, the kind of films that we are consuming are changing, there is an option of OTT. There is so much available, but you just have to go with a flow. I am someone who wants to go into unknown territory. I have always been open to change and like to try new things.”

The organisers will travel to four of India’s biggest youth hubs – Bhubaneswar, Indore, Jaipur and Pune – offering marquee musical performances with interactive Phygital activations like insta-live sessions, art showcases, AR/VR installations, AI-based engagement, selfie-booths and more.

Last year, the four original songs from Season 1 – ‘Pehle Jaisi Baat Nahi’ Ft. Dino James X Jasleen Royal, ‘Hoodie’ Ft. Bali X Nikhita Gandhi, ‘Mohabbat’ Ft. Amit Trivedi X SlowCheeta, and ‘Imtihaan’ Ft. EPR X Neeti Mohan – garnered over 70 million views across multiple OTT and audio platforms.