Did You Know: Rap has been in India for 500 years!

Rap music is a style or a piece of music with a fast strong rhythm, in which the words are spoken fast, not sung. In the recent times. Rap music has gained immense popularity among Gen Zs. But do you know where the form of music came from? Rap has a surprisingly deep-rooted history in India, spanning over 500 years.

A contestant at Kaun Banega Crorepati Namrata Shah revealed the presence of rap in Kathak for centuries which has sparked a renewed interest in the historical roots of rap in India. “Kathak’s ‘taal baddh kavita'” refers to a unique form of storytelling within the Indian classical dance tradition of Kathak which shares the common essence of using music and lyrics to convey narratives as it does by contemporary rap music.