Pakistani hip hop is a music genre in Pakistan influenced heavily from merging American hip hop style beats with Pakistani poetry. The genre was initially dominated in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and Punjabi, but in recent years has expanded to

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Sindhi,

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

, and Balochi.

History

The contemporary hip hop and rap movement in Pakistan grew out of the globalization of American hip hop in the early 1990s. Some Pakistani artists began experimenting with

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

and hip hop as early as 1993 when Fakhar-e-Alam released his first album ''Rap Up'', where his single ''Bhangra Pao'' is commonly acknowledged as the "first rap song in Pakistan". In particular, the rise in popularity of Eminem in the late 1990s and 50 Cent in the early 2000s influenced many of today's hip hop artists in Pakistan such as "Party Wrecker" (Mustafa Khan) of the Pashto rap group Fortitude, Qzer (Qasim Naqvi) and DirtJaw.https://muftah.org/pakistani-hip-hop/ The first Pakistani rap song was "Bhangra Rap" (1993) by Yatagaan ( Fakhar-e-Alam), which became a major headliner on Pakistani music charts. The hit 1995 song "

Billo De Ghar ''Billo De Ghar'' ( pa, ) is début album by Pakistani pop singer Abrar-ul-Haq. It was written, composed and sung by the artist and became a best selling album in South Asia at the time of its release in 1995. As of 2004, over 16million copies o ...

" by Abrar-ul-Haq also featured rapping. Hip hop and rap culture in Pakistan during the 1990s and early 2000s was mainly centered around those with a good grasp of

(a socioeconomically privileged group). Pakistani hip hop and rap artists at this time were mainly underground English acts and were dismissed by the media and mainstream as "''Eminem ki aolad''" (Eminem's children) and "''yo-bache''" (yo-kids).

Genre development

Hip hop music in Pakistan is still an emerging genre. Since the early 1990s, it has been performed taking inspiration from underground English scenes to regional Punjabi rap in the early 2000s, before branching out into various other languages. By the late 2000s, Punjabi rap began influencing non-Punjabi speakers to experiment with hip hop in other

Pakistani languages Pakistan is a multilingual country with dozens of languages spoken as first languages. The majority of Pakistan's languages belong to the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family. Urdu is the national language and the lingua fr ...

, thus leading to new Sindhi and Pashto hip hop scenes. Urdu rap artists tried initially but failed to leave a mark on hip hop. This was due to class and linguistic politics dictated in the mid-nineteenth century by the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

, who had replaced

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

with

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Pakistani pop music.

Languages

Punjabi rap

In February 2006,

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

produced the first commercially backed album of Pakistani American rapper, Bohemia. A Punjabi Christian, born in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

, schooled in

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

, and brought up in the working class minority communities of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, Bohemia's music emerged from personal experiences, such as seeing his best friend murdered and several others sent to jail. ''Pesa Nasha Pyar'' (Punjabi for "Money Drugs Love") was Bohemia's second album and stood out as lyrically groundbreaking. With Universal's distribution network, Bohemia found a ready market among Pakistanis, both in the diaspora and in Pakistan itself.

Urdu rap

The

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Punjabi rapper. In 2012, Urdu rap first gained popularity after rapper Faris Shafi released one of his controversial songs "Awaam". The song targeted the system of governance and was a sleeper hit. His other renowned songs include Muskura, Jawab de, Waasta and several others. Subsequently, the genre gained increasing popularity after a hip hop music duo

Young Stunners Young Stunners are a Pakistani hip hop duo formed in Karachi in 2012. The duo is composed of Talha Anjum (rapper) and Talhah Yunus. Much of their music is produced by Jokhay. Talha Anjum and Talhah Yunus rose to fame as rappers on YouTube afte ...

, consisting of two independent Urdu rappers

Talha Anjum Talha Anjum (born 3 October 1996) is a Pakistani Urdu rapper, songwriter and lyricist. He was born and raised in Karachi and is popularly known for being a member and co-founder of the hip-hop band Young Stunners along with Talhah Yunus, ...

and Talha Yunus, released their first song Burger-e-Karachi, a satirical take at the westernized urban elites and upper middle class people of

. The song became instantly viral. Following which they threw back to back hits among which are Maila Majnu and Laam se Chaura. They lead the Malir Rap Boys and have successfully collaborated with different artists like Irfan Junejo and Asim Azhar. Currently, they are considered the pioneers of the Urdu rap. Other collaborations include Indian rapper

KR$NA Krishna Kaul, known mononymously as Krishna (stylised now as KR$NA; previously as Krsna) and formerly as YoungProzpekt, is a rapper from Gurugram, Delhi NCR, India. He was one of the earliest rappers to emerge in the Indian hip hop scene in ...

, for the successful song "Quarantine". The track has over 10 million views on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. Then there is the Pindi rap scene consisting of all rounder and someone whose help put hip-hop on the map in Pakistan, Osama Com Laude who is one of the most viral, veteran & mainstream hip-hop artists in all of Pakistan with over 17 million views to his name alone, multiple shows globally, collaborating with international sensations like

Edward Maya Eduard Marian Ilie (; born 29 June 1986), better known by his stage name Edward Maya, is a Romanian DJ, musician, composer, record producer, performer, singer and songwriter, most famous for his 2009 smash hit single " Stereo Love". Career In an ...

Ali Zafar Ali Zafar ( pa, ; born 18 May 1980) is a Pakistani singer-songwriter, model, actor, producer, screenwriter and painter. Zafar started out on Pakistani television before becoming a popular musician. He later also established a career in Bol ...

Major Lazer Major Lazer is an American electronic dance music DJ trio, which includes record producer Diplo, and DJs Walshy Fire and Ape Drums. It originates from Kingston, Jamaica, and was founded in 2008 by Diplo and Switch, with Switch leaving after ...

Valentino Khan Valentino Khan (born February 15, 1987) is an American DJ and producer born and raised in Los Angeles. He is best known for releasing material through Diplo, Skrillex and Steve Aoki. His singles "Deep Down Low" and "Make Some Noise" peaked at numb ...

. Their collaborative song ''Pindi Aye'' was also a super hit. Other notable rappers include Chinese-Pakistani entertainer Chen-K, Rap Demon, Savage, Sunny Khan Durrani, Jani, Munab A. Manay, Wustaaz, Marshall, Maarij, Kaashxn 2damn and others.

Pashto Rap

In 2011, A rap group from

, released a track named '' Pukhtoon Core'' by Fortitude, Which instantly became popular amongst Pakistanis. This was the first time anyone made a rap song in the

language. Soon the band started making hits like ''No Borders'', ''Lewani'', ''Outrageous'', Alongside Rap Demon and in 2019 they finally dropped '' Era of Pushto'' which was a comeback music and it made waves across

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version o ...

, Recently Fortitude Pukhtoon Core, Released the official Anthem of

Peshawar Zalmi Peshawar Zalmi ( ur, ; ps, پېښور زلمي; literally meaning "Peshawar's youth") is a Pakistani franchise T20 cricket team which plays in the Pakistan Super League and represents Peshawar, the capital city of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pro ...

, for

HBL PSL The Pakistan Super League (PSL) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league contested during February and March of every year by six teams representing six cities of Pakistan. The league was founded on 9 September 2015 with five teams by the Paki ...

, and it made an instant 2 Million views in a week. They are the most famous mainstream

rap group from

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

Sindhi rap

The Sindhi hip hop scene draws on a history of linguistic nationalism of Sindhis. Many Sindhi rap artists are attempting to resurrect and mainstream Sindhi culture in Pakistan using hip hop. Many Sindhi rap artists are also continuing the long Sindhi tradition of Sufi poetry, by including them into rhymes.

Ali Gul Pir Ali Gul Pir ( ur, علی گل پیر; born 14 February 1986) is a Pakistani rapper, television and voice actor, Brand ambassador and stand-up comedian. He achieved popularity with his first single, "Waderai Ka Beta", a comedy song about politica ...

's '' Waderai Ka Beta'', Meer Janweri "''Piyar Jo Siphai''" and are recent Sindhi rap songs that have gone mainstream and shows signs of the genre expanding beyond Punjabi.

Balochi rap

Lyari Underground (L.U.G.) & breakout artists like Sami Amiri, Anas Baloch & Eva B are promoting the Lyari/Balochi culture through hip-hop.

Saraiki rap

The Saraiki hip hop scene in the country is said to be limited due to the language being a dialect of western Punjabi language and still in its nascency.

Artists

Urdu rappers

* Talhah Yunus

Punjabi rappers

Adil Omar Adil Omar (born 17 May 1991) is a recording artist, rapper, record producer, singer and songwriter from Islamabad, Pakistan. He released his debut album and film, ''Transcendence'', on 8 July 2018. In addition to being a solo artist, he is also ...

* Bohemia * Fakhar-e-Alam *

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...

* Young Desi *

Zack Knight Zack Knight (born 22 November 1991) is a British Pakistanis, British-Pakistani singer-songwriter. Formerly known by the stage name, Zeekay (before 2011), Knight is well-known for hit songs including Bom Diggy, Galtiyan, Nakhre and Enemy, the fo ...

Bilingual rappers

* Lazarus (English & Urdu) *

(English & Urdu)

References

{{hiphop Hip hop Pakistani hip hop