All hail Hyderabad’s counter-culturists!

On the outside they look rusty and resilient. Their vocab replete with catchwords such as “dawg”, “riding” and “hustlin”— characteristic of the street slang of 1970s’ South Bronx, New York City that inspires them. Their bright-coloured and at times, over-sized clothes resemble fashion of the legends they swear by — Grandmaster Flash, Kool Keith, Diamond D and so on.But on the inside, they are a bunch of passionate and sensitive youngsters dedicated to the alternative culture; dreaming of getting a foothold in the city’s arty sphere.
Meet Hyderabad’s counter-culturists who are on a mission to promote street culture in the city. Calling themselves ‘Downtown Culture’, this motley crew of youngsters, comprising mostly students and fresh grads, have come up with a loose confederation of street-dance crews, beat boxers and rap artistes, who are all set to shape Hyderabad’s sub-culture.
“Street culture is an umbrella term that encompasses a lot of art forms — be it beat boxing, skateboarding, rapping, B-boying, et all. Yes, we did get inspired by the ’70s and ’80s street culture of the Bronx, but we also represent desi Hip Hop, slam poetry and other art forms prevalent in India,” says 17-year-old Rohit Deval, one of the co-founders of the fraternity, adding that the motto behind forming Downtown Culture is to “bring out art in every person by providing them a platform to share their artistry”. “We want to make a community of like-minded people,” stresses Rohit.
The beginning
The idea of forming a “cultural commune” struck Rohit and his friends — namely Abhilash Vikram Singh and Misha Bertram, a year ago when they got the opportunity to emcee for various events, in and around the city. “While emceeing for the events, the idea of ‘real’ Hip Hop and its different aspects struck us. We thought why not bring all the aspects of the genre into one big fold and the idea of forming this confederation came into being,” says Vikram, a beat boxer.
Soon they formed an outfit called Hyderabad Underground Evolution (HUE), but it didn’t last long and after just six months, it broke up following some squabble over copyright issues with the other members. “We formed Downtown Culture thereafter and it’s fairly new; it’s just two months old,” says Rohit, an intermediate student. “Before HUE, Hyderabad had dance troupes who used to organise dance cyphers. One of the organisers of those cyphers — Invasion Crew, today is a part of Downtown Culture,” says Vikram, adding, “Other than rap, beat boxing and B-boying, we have magic groups, slam poets, graffiti artistes, skateboarders and so on. As of now, we have around 70 members in the fraternity categorised into groups according to their passion and skill.”
“my dance troupe — Invasion Crew — has been a part of Downtown Culture since its inception. The idea of getting like-minded people together is fantastic. Now, we have to push for more gigs so that people get to know what we are actually about,” says Tariq, one of the members.
The obstacles
Contrary to common perception about Hip Hop and its fans, most members of Downtown Culture come from humble backgrounds and are doing what they are doing for the sheer love of alternative art forms. “I have been raised by a single mother, who works as a customer care executive in an IT company. I know what my mother had to go through to raise me as a child. From taking care of my schooling, daily expenses, tuitions to the occasional outlandish demands, she has never said no to me,” says 18-year-old Misha, a vocalist and student of Little Flower Jr College.
Rahul echoes, “My dad expired when I was two years old. And since then my mother has toiled to raise me. She is an employee of the Indian Railways and we live in a joint family. Initially, she never encouraged my music. She said it won’t do me any good in the long run, but slowly she started realising my love for it and now she is cool with it.”
For Misha, being a girl is the biggest hurdle she had to overcome. “Except my mom, every other family member used to discourage me. They used to say ‘you are a girl so act like a girl. Stay at home and ghar ka kaam karo’ and all that. They even asked me not to attend gigs and hang around with boys after college. But my mum confronted them and supported me in following my passion. I am really grateful to her and someday I will make her proud,” she says, adding that she loved growing up with problems as that gave her experience and the courage to take them by the horns.
The road ahead
But for Downtown Culture, the real struggle begins now and they are well aware of it. In a scene which is dominated by Tollywood and other mainstream art forms, making a mark in the city’s art sphere won’t be a cakewalk for these youngsters. But they have plans to counter that and are seeking support from the best marketing guru of today’s times —– Internet. “The plan is to organise as many gigs, workshops and meet-and-greet events as possible. We will upload the videos of these events on social media and that will expand our reach,” says Rahul.
“See, everyone has a dream to be in the mainstream to grow as an artiste. But what if we make our community so large that we don’t need to be a part of the mainstream to be big; something like an alternate mainstream? That’s the plan,” adds Vikram.
In the coming months, Downtown Culture has pledged to organise gigs and workshops across the city. “We will start hosting events in the coming months and thereafter we will also organise friendly battles between rappers and B-boying dancers,” concludes Rahul, who is also releasing his debut rap EP by October, 2018.