Dhanji Brings Debut Album ‘Ruab’ Home to Zomaland Ahmedabad This Week

On August 8th this year, Ahmedabad artist Dhanji put out his debut full-length album Ruab and it (still) remains one of the finest yet somewhat underheard works in Indian hip-hop. Dhanji – who had released several mixtapes before finally releasing Ruab via hisThaltej Publishing Company – says he’s here for all kinds of reactions to the album.

He says over a call, “There’s a lot of praise and there’s a lot of hate also. I just love how polarizing it is, for the most part. People are either on or off it, seeing that was fun.” Traversing experimental hip-hop and blending it with funk elements to make a somewhat esoteric but emotive collection of songs, there’s a lot that Ruab has going for it – a resounding irreverence for conventional song structures,  deeply personal storytelling and featured artists such as Seedhe Maut’s Encore ABJ, Gravity, Pho, Arpit Bala and more.

Once it was out, the artist was not one to think about it too much. “I just let it breathe, as they say. I know it exists out there and I just love that,” Dhanji says. Ruab arrived on the back of mixtapes such as Lost in AMD, Boy Cut and DZs Control. The rapper explains that those tapes weren’t called albums, because he was working on “something further.” He adds, “Those are all the kinds of steps I took, learning projects to understand how to really create a sound that stands on its own.” It tested the audience uptake as well with Dhanji’s shapeshifting style. “I’ll forever be testing them,” he adds with a laugh.

Dhanji takes Ruab out on the road this week at food and music festival Zomaland’s Ahmedabad edition, taking place on November 25th and 26th. Dhanji – along with his friends ranging from fellow rapper Siyaahi, beatsmith Acharya and Neil C.K. among others – will perform on November 25th at Sargam Farm. The artist says it took a while for the news of a big festival stage performance to settle in. “It happened and I was like, ‘Cool, great.’ One week later it just dawned on me – I was almost going to bed and I was half asleep – I was like ‘Fuck!’ We used to do 10-man shows and cypher kheench rahe the [putting together] two, three years ago. Me and the boys, whoever’s here, I’m bringing all of them and we’re going represent hip-hop,” Dhanji says about his set.

The performance is wholly different from the 10-piece live band iteration of Dhanji performing Ruab, like he did at the Piano Man in Gurugram in July.“I did the album, but on stage, I was definitely the least talented and I had to direct everyone. A lot of the album is like that where we wanted to bring those people in. We’re looking to do more and more of that,” he adds.

After CDs and T-shirts for Ruab sold out, there are plans to press it on vinyl as well. The Zomaland show marks the start of more touring to promote the album, according to Dhanji. “For two to three months, wherever we can go in the country, we’ll go where they call us. Some places where they’ve not called us also we’re going. Have to make Ruab known to people and its sound.”

At Zomaland as well as forthcoming shows, there’s also going to be new and unreleased material being tested out, some that features Siyaahi and Acharya. “Since our last tape Lost in AMD we haven’t put out a project. Right now we’re nearing the end of a new one, which is a 12-track mixtape. That’s fucking exciting – just bangers on bangers,” Dhanji says about his upcoming release.

Simultaneously, there’s also a short film in the works to further promote Ruab, directed by Dhanji, which should be out before the end of the year. He says, “I just wanna dive into being behind the camera and crafting pieces instead of rap videos where rappers come, haath hilaake chale jate hain [move their hands and exit]. There are those kind of videos too and they’re great and we’ll keep doing those as well, but with this album, we’re really carefully carving out pieces – visual and audio.”  

Dhanji performs at Zomaland Ahmedabad on November 25th, 2023 at Sargam Farm. Get details here.