It’s hard to take your eyes off them. Their on-stage persona is strong and powerful – whether it’s because of their meaty rap, their confident attire, or their solid performance. They call themselves Wild Wild Women, India’s first female hip-hop collective.
Bringing together the collective
‘My parents were not ready for this. They didn’t even know what rap or hip-hop is. They thought I was doing covers. There was also the concern about my safety, considering it is a male-dominant industry. So, the core reason for bringing together this all-women collective was to feel safe in doing things that we wanted to do,‘ says Preeti Sutar aka hashtagpreeti, one of the 5 core crew members of Wild Wild Women.
It’s hardly a surprise therefore, to hear words like ‘Saanse chale jab tak, main ladne wali tab tak‘ or ‘Choose the people who choose you, not the ones who use, abuse you‘ in their songs. The tone and content are fragrant of feminism, women’s safety and empowerment. Songs talk of body shaming, patriarchy and being “bold, strong individuals”.
Unlike many other rap and hip-hop shows, theirs is one that draws women in hordes. ‘Our first few rows were filled with women in some of our shows,’ gushes Pratika Prabhune, who programmes their music too.
Ask them how they pick their themes and pat comes the reply from Pratika, ‘As five women who have broken so many norms, the themes that we picked for our songs, collectively made sense to all of us.’
The girls met at a cypher in Marol, Mumbai, four years ago. A cypher is an informal gathering of music /dance artists like rappers, beatboxers and b-boys/b-girls with music jam sessions and battles being commonplace here. Their cypher song got enough appreciation from the crowd for them to realise that they should make more music together. That’s how Wild Wild Women got birthed. ‘Before meeting at the cypher, we all were independently doing music, hanging out with boy hip-hop crews, and hoping to be considered by them. But we were never considered a part of their crews,‘ says Ashwini Hiremath aka Krantinaari.
Ever since then, the women have been creating songs, performing and even collaborating with other artists (skateboarders, mural artists, b-girls and the like) for their shows and performances.
Wild Wild Women: creating more than just music
One look at Wild Wild Women on the stage and you feel like that’s a miniature India right there. Draped in sarees with big bindis, their traditional avatar is contradictory to the groovy music they make. Rap and hip-hop music are known to have originated from the Bronx borough of New York city in the 1970s.
The Wild Wild Women have added their own sense of Indianness to the music not just with their uniquely stylish attire on-stage, but even in the multitude of languages they make their music in. There is a good mix of Hindi, English, Marathi, Kannada and Tamil in their songs. ‘It’s a reflection of where we, and our music comes from culturally,‘ explains Pratika about the tapestry of Indianness in an otherwise western genre. The girls have performed in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Kovalam and Pune and hope to travel extensively and perform internationally soon.
Finding strength in diversities
But it’s not been an easy ride for them. Their content brings in the trolls too. ‘It’s a sign of us becoming famous,‘ laughs Preeti, who also designs jewellery besides being a music artist. Like her, a few of her comrades in the group have gigs besides music. ‘I have a 9 to 6 job,’ says MC Mahila, the youngest in the group, known for her peppy Hindi and Marathi rap and poetry. JQueen, who brings in the Tamil element to the collective, smiles, ‘Mahila is the cool kid; a fighter.‘ Prod her to spill out the details on the others and the room buzzes with laughter as she decodes, ‘Preeti exudes calmness, Pratika is the boss lady on the floor and Krantinaari is the teacher.‘ Their camaraderie is perceptible when Pratika jumps in with, ‘and JQueen is the wild child while being the class monitor among us.’
It’s evident that each of them comes from a different culture of hip-hop and has her own sense of music. ‘I am purely into social issues, Preeti is into pop and new-age music, JQueen is more Afro / Nicki Minaj, Pratika is metal, Mahila has a Bollywood touch…the spectrum is so wide that when we bring all these flavours into one group, it becomes unique,‘ says Ashwini.
So how do they find a common ground in their music? Ashwini explains, ‘Being a woman and experiencing the same set of problems, enables us to create music where we connect. When we were working on our first song (title track), we realised how beautifully we synergised. One of us got breakfast, Mahila arranged for the studio, Pratika shot the video and edited it – everything was a jugaad but it worked.‘ Ashwini juggles between being a communications designer, rapper, social activist and researcher. ‘With Wild Wild Women, we want to celebrate womanhood in the most authentic way,’ she adds.
As my eyes wander and my ears seek the meaning in their banter, I realise how at ease they are with each other. I could easily assume them to be college roomies, sharing a packet of chips and pulling each other’s leg. But then their songs come to my mind and I realise that even in their ease, they share difficult truths. They speak of experiences lived while claiming their space. They share their perspective as a woman; something that the world of hip-hop has a dearth of. Their journey has just begun.