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Krishna Kaul, known
mononymously A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. A mononym may be the person's only name, given to them at birth. This was routine in most ancient societies, and remains ...
as Krishna, stylised now as KR$NA, (previously as Krsna; known formerly as YoungProzpekt) is an Indian rapper. He was one of the earliest rappers to emerge in the
Indian hip hop Owing to India's vastness and diversity, Indian music encompasses numerous genres in multiple varieties and forms which include classical music, folk, rock, and pop. It has a history spanning several millennia and developed over several ...
scene in the mid-2000s under the stage name Prozpekt. He is widely acknowledged within the Desi hip-hop community for pioneering a lyrical revolution in the genre, infusing a new wave of poetic depth and lyrical complexity into hip-hop's narrative. He was also briefly featured in the 2019
Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...
film
Gully Boy ''Gully Boy'' is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language musical drama film directed by Zoya Akhtar, and written by Akhtar and Reema Kagti. The film was produced by Ritesh Sidhwani, Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar under the banners of Tiger Baby Films and E ...
as himself.


Early life

Krishna Kaul was born into a
Kashmiri Pandit The Kashmiri Pandits (also known as Kashmiri Brahmins) are a group of Kashmiri Hindus and a part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community of India. They belong to the Pancha Gauda Brahmin group from the Kashmir Valley, located within the In ...
family in
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
. He spent a part of his childhood in
South London South London is the southern part of Greater London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, Lon ...
, where he was raised and schooled for a few years. Kaul started rapping at the age of fourteen in an effort to blend in with other children at his school in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. He did graduation from
Hansraj College Hansraj College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi, in Delhi, India. Established in 1948 and situated in the Delhi University North Campus, it is considered as one of the best colleges in India having produced a large and not ...
.


Career

Krishna's first shot of success came with the release of the music video for "Kaisa Mera Desh" in 2010, becoming the first Indian hip hop song on
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
and earning a number 2 ranking as one of the most watched music videos in India overnight following its release. He also released a song titled "Vijay" in collaboration with international NGO
Save The Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919; its goal is to improve the lives of children worldwide. The organization raises money to imp ...
in 2013. After sporadic underground releases, Kaul switched from Prozpekt to the stage name KRSNA after signing with Contrabands, a joint venture company between
Universal Music India Universal Music India Pvt. Ltd. (UMI) was launched in 1999; it is a part of the Universal Music Group, an American-based, Dutch-listed multinational music corporation. Universal Music India is registered with the Indian Music Industry, a tru ...
,
VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...
and Hard Rock Cafe, in 2013. In May 2014, he released his debut album ''Sellout'', an all-English effort on Universal Music with its lead single "Last Night" peaking at number 5 on the VH1 Music Charts in India. Kaul became the first hip-hop artist in India to do a five-city album tour with a band. Following this, the music video for the title song "Sellout" was released but failed to make a large impact due to lacklustre marketing and shrinking label budgets. After a two-year hiatus, Kaul made his return in 2016 with his Hindi release "Vyanjan". Following the success of the song, he signed to the artist management agency DNH Artists (now Kalamkaar) in 2017 and became a partner in 2018, with the likes of Ankit Khanna and
Raftaar Dilin Nair (born 16 November 1988), better known by his stage name Raftaar, is an Indian rapper, lyricist, music producer, composer, dancer, actor and TV personality associated with Hindi, Punjabi and Haryanvi music. He is among the first rap ...
. In 2020, Kaul accused the IPL and
Disney+ Hotstar Disney+ Hotstar, also known as JioHotstar or simply Hotstar, is an Indian subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Disney Star. The brand was introduced as Hotstar for a streaming service carrying content from Di ...
of permitting the plagiarism of his 2017 song "Dekh Kaun Aaya Wapas" when creating the 2020 IPL anthem "Ayenge Hum Wapas", an allegation which was dismissed by composer Pranav Ajayrao Malpe. Kaul responded by stating that "his team .. will take the legal route and approach Disney+Hotstar, which commissioned the song". In the month of January 2021, Kaul was featured on American rapper Hi-Rez's song "Crossroads" along with
Royce da 5'9" Ryan Daniel Montgomery (born July 5, 1977), known professionally as Royce da 5'9" (or simply Royce 5'9"), is an American rapper. Best known for his association with fellow Detroit rapper Eminem, they became acquainted in 1997 and formed the hi ...
. Later in July, another collaboration with Hi-Rez was released, titled "Playground" which also featured former
Slaughterhouse In livestock agriculture and the meat industry, a slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir (), is a facility where livestock animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a mea ...
member,
KXNG Crooked Dominick Antron Wickliffe (born September 23, 1976), better known by his stage name Kxng Crooked, (stylised as KXNG Crooked and pronounced "King Crooked"; formerly Crooked I) is an American rapper from Long Beach, California. He formed the hip ho ...
. His collaboration in Hi-Rez's song "Overdrive", was released in November 2021, featuring A-F-R-O,
Joell Ortiz Joell Christopher Ortiz (born July 6, 1980) is an American rapper and former member of the group Slaughterhouse. Raised in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn's Cooper Park Houses, he first gained recognition after appearing in the Unsigned Hype colu ...
,
Bizzy Bone Bryon Anthony McCane II (born September 12, 1976),Whitburn, Joel (2008) ''Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–2006'', Record Research, , p. 97 better known by his stage name Bizzy Bone, is an American rapper, singer and the youngest member o ...
,
Tech N9ne Aaron Dontez Yates (born November 8, 1971), better known by his stage name Tech N9ne (pronounced "tech nine"), is an American rapper and singer. In 1999, he and business partner Travis O'Guin founded the record label Strange Music. He has sold ...
and
Twista Carl Terrell Mitchell (born November 27, 1973), better known by his stage name Twista (also known as Tung Twista), is an American rapper. He is best known for his Chopper (rap), chopper style of rapping and for once holding the title of fastest ...
. The music videos were released on Hi-Rez's
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
channel. In the same year, Kaul also released his sophomore studio album ''Still Here'', which was his first album released through Kalamkaar Records, the artist agency he had joined 3 years back. In 2022, he featured on
Karan Aujla Jaskaran Singh Aujla (born 18 January 1997) is an Indian rapper, singer and songwriter based in Canada who is primarily associated with Punjabi music. He is known for his numerous tracks which have charted on the UK Asian chart published by th ...
's song "Ykwim", and also made an appearance in the music video. In the same year, also collaborated with British rapper French the Kid, on the song "10 Pe 10", which was released in November 2022, with an accompanying music video. Kaul with
Brodha V Vighnesh Shivanand (born 27 March 1990), better known by his stage name Brodha V, is an Indian rapper, songwriter, and music producer. Born in Kanchipuram, the Bengaluru-based artist started rapping at the age of 18 and took part in online ra ...
won the Radio City Freedom Awards 2023 on 31 March 2023, for the Best Indie Collaboration. The two won the Freedom Awards 7 for the song "Forever", which was released in September 2022. Starting in 2023, Kaul released a series of EPs, which featured collaborations from fellow rappers, and producers in the Desi hip-hop scene. His first EP, ''Time Will Tell'', released in March 2023 and featured Pakistani rappers
Talha Anjum Talha Anjum (born 3 October 1995) is a Pakistani rapper, singer, songwriter and lyricist. He is known for being a member and co-founder of the Hip hop music band Young Stunners along with Talhah Yunus and Jokhay. He got his first outbreak afte ...
, and
Talhah Yunus Talhah Yunus (born 21 October 1996) is a Pakistani rapper, songwriter, filmmaker and musician. He graduated from the National College of Arts in filmmaking. He is a part of the hip hop duo Young Stunners along with Talha Anjum, having the musi ...
, and production from their frequent collaborators, Umair and Jokhay. His second EP, ''FAR FROM OVER'', released in August 2023, and featured the Indian hip-hop duo
Seedhe Maut Seedhe Maut is a hip hop duo from Delhi, India, consisting of Siddhant Sharma (stage name Calm) from Nainital and Abhijay Negi (stage name Encore ABJ). Formed in 2015, their name comes from a slang that the former's brother used perpetually among ...
, musician
AR Paisley AR Paisley (born Amarit Rehal in 1997) is a Canadian rapper and songwriter. Paisley began his career by releasing his debut album "Screwface" in 2017. His second album "Timeless" was released in 2019. He released his most recent album "AR Paisley V ...
and production from Bharg. His third EP, ''For The Day One$'', which released in the following year, also featured production from Bharg, and collaborations from rappers
Faris Shafi Faris Shafi (Urdu/ Punjabi: فارس شفیع; born 2 November 1987) is a Pakistani rapper, songwriter and an actor. Performing in Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is ...
, Karma, and singer
Lisa Mishra Lisa Mishra is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She is best known for her reprise version of the song Tareefan in the 2018 Indian film Veere Di Wedding. Since then, she has worked on songs like 'The Wakhra Song' from the 2019 film '' ...
. In 2025, Kaul, along with 3 other rappers–
Jay Park Jay Park (born April 25, 1987), Korean name Park Jae-beom (), is an American rapper, singer-songwriter and dancer based in South Korea. He is a member of the Seattle-based breakdancing, b-boy crew Art of Movement (AOM), and founder and former ...
, MaSiWei, and Vannda, featured on
Japanese hip-hop Japanese hip hop is hip hop music from Japan. It is said to have begun when Hiroshi Fujiwara returned to Japan and started playing hip hop records in the early 1980s. Japanese hip hop tends to be most directly influenced by old school hip hop, ...
artist Awich's track "Asian State of Mind", which was released on 28 February, accompanied by a music video, which was shot in each of the featured rappers' home countries. In the same year, Kaul announced his first mixtape, ''Yours Truly'', which was also his first project to be distributed via
Mass Appeal India Mass Appeal India is an Indian record label. It is a subsidiary hip hop label of the American parent Mass Appeal Records. The label had partnered with The Orchard for music distribution. History Mass Appeal India stated operating in August 2 ...
. The announcement coincided with American rapper
Nas Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air (S ...
making his India debut on 19 April 2025 at Mass Appeal Presents: The World Reunion—A Charity Concert in Mumbai. ''Yours Truly'' eventually released on 22 May 2025, with a title announcement, made 4 days prior to its release.


Discography


Albums

*2014: ''Sellout'' *2021: ''Still Here''


EPs

*2023: ''Time Will Tell'' * ''2023: Far from Over'' *2024: ''For the Day Ones''


Mixtapes

2025: ''Yours Truly''


Singles and collaborations


References


External links

*
KRSNA
at
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krsna Indian rappers Living people 21st-century Indian singers Singers from Delhi Rappers from Delhi 21st-century Indian male singers Kashmiri Pandits Year of birth missing (living people) Hansraj College alumni