Hip-Hop Artist The Siege Offers Wit and Grit on ‘Really Brown Really Rare’ EP

Hollywood cult gangster film Scarface, digs about overused Mumbai hip-hop slang and prickly relationships all make an appearance on rapper The Siege aka Siegen Moopanar’s new EP Really Brown Really Rare. With his suited up slick look (as seen on the  EP cover), Moopanar moves into a much more confident tone on the five-track record, while still retaining the confrontational style of his 2019 debut album Bubblecars. 

Moopanar worked with producer Varun Shungloo on Really Brown Really Rare to create songs like the name-calling opener “Really Brown,” the caustic takedown that is “Kulture” as well as “Kaise,” a steely song about breaking away from norms. In his Hindi and English switch-ups over beats by Pune producer Vedang Deshpande and New Delhi’s Natiq, there’s a loverboy routine on “Hazel” and a guitar-aided closing track for hustlers, “Really Rare.” Moopanar cites his upbringing in the suburban town of Mira Road and the inculcation of rat race culture as a key factor in inducing emotions for Really Brown Really Rare. “Siege chronicles his story of learning and his persistent ongoing efforts of unlearning [that] school of thought,” a press statement says.

The rapper adds in the release about the making of the record, “The plan was to not have a plan or agenda going into this EP. I am not trying to be the voice or a representative of all Indian kids. There’s too many of us to be generalized or stereotyped. The idea was to be 100 percent myself in the booth, everything else fell into place. I’m tired of the idea of brown people that is presented in front of mainstream media – which is the white person’s idea of a brown person. We’re not just a group of yoga practicing, gold wearing, mantra chanting people with a thick accent. We’re much more than that.”

Stream ‘Really Brown Really Rare’ EP below and on more platforms here.