Nepalese hip hop

Music of Nepal: Topics
Ethnic music	Newa music - Gurung music - Tamang music - Khas music - Mithila music - Sunuwar music - Magar music - Bhojpuri music - Sherpa music - Thakali music - Chepang music - Rai music - Tibetan music - Lepcha music - Limbu music - Kusunda music
Genres	Dapa - Dohari - Selo - Bhajan - Rodhi - Adhunik Sangeet - Rock - Hip hop
Festivals	Goon lā
Instruments	Dhimay - Bhusyah - Madal - Sarangi - Damfoo - Dholak - Chyambrung - Bansuri
Media	Radio Nepal, Hits FM, Image FM
National anthem	"Sayaun Thunga Phool Ka"

Nepalese hip hop, or NEPHOP, is the Nepali form of hip hop. Its elements include MCing, DJing, B-boying, and graffiti writing.

History

When performers such as Eminem, Nelly and Outkast brought hip hop music into the mainstream in the 1990s, Nepal was still opening its doors to the outside world. As television was limited to working class households and the Internet was completely unknown, radio (playing Nepali folk and pop music and English rock and roll) was the only electronic medium providing mass entertainment. This period also saw an increase in Nepali emigration and the birth or raising of Nepali children overseas, mainly due to the Jana Andolan (the 1990 People’s Movement) and the threat of a Maoist-initiated civil war. By the early 2000s, Nepalese children raised abroad had grown up listening to hip hop music and had used the Internet to collaborate with and express themselves to their families and friends. Aroz, Cyclops, Original Sinz, Merricks, SINIS and many more were members of an online forum, giving rise to Nepalese hip hop.

Early 2000

In 2000 Rappaz Union (Sammy Samrat and Nirnaya) created the first Nepalese rap album in English. In 2003 Nurbu Sherpa released his debut album Nurbu Sherpa Representin' K.T.M.C. (Kathmandu City), the first Nepalese hiphop album recorded in the US, for which he was nominated for a Best Music Video award. In 2004 TheUNity (Aidray and Da69) brought out their first album Girish n TheUNity presents X with Girish (Gorkhali G). It included "Shes the Bomb", the music video of which was a major success in the local charts. Around 2003–2004, when commercial artists with remixing skills began to produce lyrics that appealed to the young urban Nepalese generation, the Nephop fanbase was fully established. Balen Shah released the underground rap album in 2005 with school friends. Then remixes like "Chyangba hoi chyangba" by The Unity (remix by DJ Raju) and "Chhundaina" by Nepsydaz (remix by DJ AJ) were increasing in popularity and became more commercialised, while other Nepalese rappers published their music underground, even though their audiences were usually Nepalese living in the US, UK and elsewhere.

Rise of the Underground

In 2003 underground rapper Aroz, based in New York City, spearheaded the Nepalese underground hip hop movement through his website (now defunct) nephop.com. The term "Nephop" soon gained worldwide popularity and is accepted as referring to Nepalese hiphop in general.

In 2004 Aroz released his first underground single "Chudaina", produced by DJ AJ on nephop.com. In 2005 Nepsydaz had a commercial success as a rap group when they released their version of the same song. Aroz became "the most controversial" rapper, experimenting with dirty rap in his next single "Katti Khep Vannu". This had great success in the underground, after which he quickly released his next single, "Killin Terraces", which the New Urban Music Blog considered one of the best Nepalese political raps.

Aroz received some mainstream exposure after being featured in Nurbu Sherpa's single "Baby Gurl", from Nurbu's second album, Save Nepal. According to fursad.com, "Baby Gurl" was voted one of the top ten songs of 2008. Nurbu also featured Aroz and other underground rappers in his next single, "When I'm around", from his third album.

See also

• Mastakush
• Music of Nepal