Bigger India
Diaspora Hip Hop: After Heems, New League of Desi Artists Making Waves
Perhaps influenced or encouraged by the success of Heems and the global music industry finally opening its eyes to the existence of the Indian identity, many more voices from the diaspora (who aren’t generic Punjabi rappers) have emerged.
While desi hip hop – in all its multilingual hues and varied moods, from political to self-portraiture – has arguably thrown a lot of artists’ names in the spotlight, there was also another very important name that made a mark starting 2012. Himanshu Suri, also known as Heems, was just breaking out and away from his popular hip-hop group Das Racist to launch his solo career.