Premiere: Rapper Armaan Yadav Fires Off on Rousing Protest Anthem ‘Fist Up’

New Delhi hip-hop artist Armaan Yadav’s latest song “Fist Up” receives an urgent, powerful push with its music video, which is streaming below.

Shot by production agency Galat Scenes’ Siddhant Shah and splicing together footage of pre-pandemic protests from Mumbai and New Delhi captured by filmmaker Harsh Doshi and Muckoul Bhandari, the anthemic song sees Yadav pull together lyrics in Hindi, Urdu and English about the subjects he’s always rapped about – institutional corruption in India, a faltering economy and more systemic injustices.

Yadav cites African-American author Toni Cade Bambara’s words that “it is the role of the artist to make the revolution irresistible” as a starting point for “Fist Up.” Set to a driving beat produced by Whoisavi, the rapper says the goal was to make “resistance cool again visually.” He adds, “It was incredibly important to stay true to the foundations of hip-hop in times of utter crisis and there’s nothing else I’d rather have rapped about.” The footage was shot during the pandemic, with Galat Scenes taking Yadav to places nearby their homes, while the protest footage from Doshi covered Mumbai.

Following a serious slew of tracks like “Fist Up,” “Zulm” and “Articles of Faith,” Yadav says his next song will change things up and keep it lighter. “I am dropping a single on June 11th called ‘Dark Lord,’ which is a wordplay and punchline heavy track reminiscent of the Harry Potter series so many of us grew up with it,” he says.

Watch the video for “Fist Up” below. Stream on more platforms here.