Back to the Gully

Divine with actor Ranveer Singh during the first edition of Gully Fest. Pic/Twitter

The city's homegrown hip-hop music festival, Gully Fest is back in town after six long years. If you are a true "Bombay hip-hopper" who has missed vibing to the beats of your favourite rappers live, revise your lyrics and gather your friends for Mumbai's biggest cypher.

This is the second edition of the festival which came into prominence after the release of Zoya Akhtar's film Gully Boy. Frontlining the festival is "The Boy from the Naka 59", Divine (Vivian Fernandes), with his music conglomerate Gully Gang. Organisers say this edition will be the biggest homecoming for the festival. With a tagline of "Hip-Hop Mere Gully Mein", the two-day festival will pay homage to the evolution and rise of the underground genre.

Bombay Bassment

In the highest traditions of the Gully Gang scene, the festival will provide a platform for both established and emerging talents. Divine says, "We have come far as a movement. [It's a dream realised] to see so many pick up the mic and pen, to see how our music has travelled so far and wide in India and beyond. Gully Fest is a celebration of that, we want to bring down global rap icons to India to highlight the best of Indian hip-hop and to platform upcoming artists."

The idea behind the festival is to ensure that desi hip-hop's diverse voices are authentically represented on a national and global stage. Apart from featuring over a dozen artists over two days, the festival venue will feature experience zones, including a graffiti wall and a skate ramp - quientessential elements of hip-hop, and also some contemporary interactive boom-box and year book photo booth.

International icon Pusha T, and Divine will be the show's main acts. Joining them would be heavyweights like Lisa Mishra, Sambata, Yashraj, Gravity, Bombay Bassment, Reble, DJ Proof, DJ Kan-i, OG Shez, and Beatraw x D-Cypher, and more. The festival, which has already gone global, is set to expand to various tier-2 and tier-3 cities across India by next year.

Prabh Deep, Lisa Mishra and Reble

Gully rap first caught the attention of a wider audience in India in 2015 with the release of Mere Gully Mein by Divine, featuring Naezy. Naezy had by then already tasted success with 2014's Aafat.

Chaitanya Kataria, co-founder and CEO of Gully Gang says, "When we launched Gully Fest in 2018, the Indian hip-hop and rap movement was just building up. Today, its fan-following is huge. Both the brand (Gully Gang) and the artists have evolved before we brought back the festival. But we are launching the second edition with the same level of enthusiasm and energy as the first one."

Kataraia also says, "Now while we, as a label and as an organisation mature, we feel the mix of ingredients is just about right to take on the challenge of building this IP and making it a home and celebration of hip-hop year on year!"

When: October 26-27
Where: Nesco Hall 4, Goregaon East
To Book: Insider.in
Price: Rs 1,299 onwards

Also Read: Gully Fest hip-hop music festival returns for second edition on October 26 - 27 in Mumbai