From Anger to Acceptance: Mumbai Rapper The Siege Looks to ‘Slightly Better Days’ on New EP

The irreverent, positive and carefree attitude heard on The Siege aka Siegen Moopanar’s latest EP Slightly Better Days marks the arrival of a change in tone that the Mumbai rapper has been building up for a while now.

After all, the release of his single “Kabhi Na Mili” in 2021 added a whole new dimension to The Siege’s catalog, which already included angst (Bubblecars, his 2019 album), status-seeking storytelling (Really Brown Really Rare EP from 2020) and cinematic grit (Salim EP, 2021). The Siege says about the journey so far, “A crucial step in my music-making process is ‘living’ the life I’m blessed with. The music that I make will always reflect where I am in life at that point.”

He explains that the seven-track Slightly Better Days came at a time of “relaxation and reflection,” which led to laidback production (by producer Kalbaisakhi and on the intro, by The Siege) and hooks. The rapper’s Hindi and English cadence remains distinct, as he sings about realizing the importance of rest (“Sundays”) and calls in rapper-comic Wolf.cryman aka Harshit Wadhwani for a delightful reference to Schrodinger’s cat on the heart-to-heart track “Zindagi Question Paper.” The Siege says he had the most fun making “Zindagi Question Paper,” which references a lot of things – including sex – in a way that you wouldn’t expect from Indian rappers. “The way I write about anything stays true to how I would talk about it in real life as well. I think the way I write about sex or anything for that matter is how people usually feel about it. I think rappers right now just find it hard to translate that,” he adds.

On songs like “Ek Din Se Zyaada” – which comes with a music video depicting what could be the final stages of a relationship – there’s more that The Siege has to get off his chest. “1 of 1” navigates a nod to smokey gangsta hip-hop-esque production for a quick two-minute throwdown about being one of a kind. “I think I’m moving into a place of acceptance in my personal life. I’ve spent a huge part of my life angry, which has translated in the music I’ve made. But I also know growth and healing is not a linear process. The goal is to be myself at all times,” the rapper says.

Listen to ‘Slightly Better Days’ below.