KR$NA Talks Growth, Gimmicks and Generations in Indian Hip-Hop

On the day that Haryana was about to have its internet shut down, KR$NA is sitting in a car and speaking to us over a Zoom audio call. “I was afraid that I was going to be late,” he says with a laugh.

Since the release of his EP Time Will Tell in March this year, via Kalamkaar, the rapper says he’s been on the grind and still considers the studio his favorite place. It’s the case for a lot of hip-hop artists who started out before rap’s eminent blowup in India a few years ago. There was always a steady slew of singles, EPs or a mixtape coming out, but the shows were not exactly big-stage performances per se. KR$NA recounts, “Initially in my career, I was just doing my own thing. I used to go to and perform at random places and maybe just do one song […] From around 2014 to 2017, I was not doing many shows so I kind of missed that feeling [of being on stage].” Over the last one and a half years of working closely with Kalamkaar as well as co-founder Raftaar, KR$NA says he’s understood the industry dynamics around shows and how it helps command a price as well.

More than anything, finding thousands of fans shouting along to his rap in cities like Lucknow and Indore (where KR$NA admits he didn’t know he had a sizable following) gives him motivation when he’s back in the studio after a tour. He says, “These were like sold out shows with these crazy guys pushing each other around… I thought, ‘Bro people are actually listening to me!’ That feeling translates back when you get into the studio. Like okay, ‘Now, I’m writing for a lot more people I know are listening to me.’”

You’d think that the insight that streaming platforms offer now would give more than plenty indication about demographics and where to tour, but KR$NA is kind of humble about it. He also doubles down on the fact that in the current music industry, streaming numbers may not always convert into ticket sales. “I think that’s a thing outside of India and a lot more seen in the U.S., although there was the news about Lil Baby recently and how he couldn’t sell as many tickets and had to cancel select dates. But he’s doing crazy numbers,” the rapper says.

When it comes to India, neither ticket sales nor streaming numbers are “crazy” enough compared to other markets, according to KR$NA. “There’s a good chance people will show up if you have a lot of streams, but the extent of it is always debatable,” he adds. Eventually, he does say that he’s in a space in terms of numbers to bring in big audiences, but it might not always be the case across the board in Indian hip-hop.

During our chat, KR$NA remains as erudite as ever when it comes to knowing about music strategies, rap news and more. He differentiates between gimmicks and songs that serve a specific purpose and “strategically made” in hip-hop. There are rappers in India who are all about bars, making hardcore hip-hop but KR$NA feels the audience isn’t “large enough” just yet for that type of rap to truly get its due.

With his EP Time Will Tell, he was keen on dropping all the songs in one go instead of taking the singles route with music videos. “That was like the first step in my new direction in terms of what am I targeting,” he says. He wanted to “concentrate on audio” by just releasing the tracks, which he worked on with Pakistan’s top hip-hop artists including Young Stunners’ Talhah Yunus on “NGL” and Talha Anjum on “Been a While,” with producers Umair, Rovalio and Jokhay involved as well. KR$NA adds, “With a song like ‘Kaha Tak’… I’ve made songs like that before, but people don’t know it. Like, I probably made it before [people] became fans.”

Time Will Tell gave him the confidence to dive into different kinds of sounds, which he wasn’t so sure of getting into before, including melodic stuff. It helped that he had Young Stunners on board. Although they’ve worked together on the single “Quarantine” in 2020, KR$NA believes their audiences across the border became common. The Indian rapper appeared on “Touch Base” off Talha Anjum’s 2023 album Open Letter and said soon after, when he was writing material, he hit a block. While talking to produce Umair, he got a beat which led to “Kaha Tak,” followed by another beat sent his way which had Talha Anjum on it already. “He [Umair] told me that Talha Anjum has already done a bit on this. I liked what it was, so I messaged him and asked if I could keep his parts in,” the rapper says.

The bond between the artists is a strong one that goes beyond borders. “I feel like my crowd and their crowd is almost exactly the same,” KR$NA adds. Would they ever do a show together? The rapper says, “It would be an amazing opportunity. I know we can’t do it here and we can’t do it in Pakistan, but maybe, I don’t know… Dubai?”

In the rap game for more than a decade – hell, KR$NA’s major label debut happened when his album Sellout came out in 2014 via Universal Music – the rapper does think about what it’s going to be like growing older and staying relevant. When prompted about Jay-Z, KR$NA acknowledges the change, but has a laugh when asked about Eminem. “I think Eminem hasn’t really changed,” KR$NA says and bursts into laughter. He argues that Nas is having the “best run of his entire career.” He adds, “At his age, having a run like that just tells you that hip-hop doesn’t get old. “As long as you have your ear to the streets, and you know what’s going on in the culture right now, you can remain relevant,” he adds.

There’s some stuff that KR$NA says he’s rapping about right now that he wished he could years ago. “If I write about expensive things right now, it’s because I can finally get expensive things. I wasn’t talking about it 10 years ago, because I didn’t know as much,” he says.

With hip-hop turning 50 and Indian hip-hop only now seeing a second or third generation come up, KR$NA admits there’s a lot that needs clarifying about the culture. “I see things every day and I’m like, ‘Bro, who’s gonna tell this person?’ I’m not gonna go into someone’s comments and write something and say they’ve got this wrong,” he says. At the risk of sounding rude, he talks about how, among the first generation of rappers in India, “everybody didn’t know everything.”

“So a lot of it was made up. Then came a second generation who looked at this first generation and picked up which was already not sort of authentic, so it kind of gets even more diluted. I’m not saying that I might know everything, but I feel like I have been so entrenched in it that I have just picked up a lot of things,” he adds. All in all, KR$NA is still confident that hip-hop in India will sort itself out and find its way.

For his part, the rapper says a new single will be out this month, and though he didn’t indicate it, it might just be “Khatta Flow” with New Delhi duo Seedhe Maut, as part of their massive new mixtape Lunch Break.