DIVINE's music is first a soundtrack for the disenfranchised urban millennial. The urgency of his rap has almost always come to include the joys and sorrows that paucity affords. It keeps you on your toes." His lyrics are just as alert. He says, "Bombay was a teacher I never had. DIVINE, however, burst onto India's music scene spitting rhymes about the city, its squalor and opportunities. Before DIVINE, hip-hop in India seemed like a New York or Baltimore import.Įven though some underground musicians struggled to find a sound more 'street', mainstream artistes couldn't have enough of cars, drugs and women. The rapper arguably gave Indian hip-hop a new, more authentic identity. He says he was working with musicians - Amit Trivedi and Nucleya - he liked.ĭIVINE has earned his fastidiousness. His two songs for Blackmail (2018) and Mukkabaaz (2017) were exceptions. It takes me three hours to decide whether I want to do something or not." "They make you sit, and they give you a beat. He seems proud of having been invited to most of the industry's studios, but admits to having drawn a blank sometimes. She wanted to understand what goes on in a rapper's head, but after that, they've added their own masala."ĭespite this, DIVINE doesn't regret consulting on the project. DIVINE is quick to refute reports that the film is ostensibly his biopic: "The character is entirely fictional. Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy releases next week. DIVINE - that's how he likes his name written - obliges, but never interrupts our interview. Over the next hour or so, a dozen boys come up, wanting selfies. Someone repeats the chorus of Kaam 25, a song the rapper had scored for the Netflix series, Sacred Games. Seeing him walk in, a group of delivery boys huddles together. The day DIVINE agrees to an interview, he suggests we meet at JB Nagar's Amar Fast Food and Juice Centre in Mumbai. Photographs: Kind courtesy Vivian Fernandes(DIVINE)/Facebook