The group formed by a few young boys, who have been raised in slums surrounding the Khirki village, is using hip-hop to spread the very important message of respecting women and breaking the mold of misogyny and objectification.
Even before one strikes a conversation with them, they launch a volley of words with lightening speed. "Behen betiyaan hain yeh bahu kal ki aane wali, sadko baithe taad rahe hain inko gunde mawwali."
Breathless at the end of a 20-second gig, these boys huddle together for another musical bit, this time the lyrics reprimand eve-teasers while belting out the plan of action for such hoodlums. As they croon, "Jee karta hai dhar doon inke ya de doon koi gaali, kyunki dil inka hai kala aur bheja mera khaali", it is clear that Khirkee 17 does not believe just in entertaining.
The group formed by a few young boys, who have been raised in slums surrounding the Khirki village, is using hip-hop to spread the very important message of respecting women and breaking the mold of misogyny and
objectification.
MC Freezak alias Mahesh, MC Hari, MC Shiv, and MC Akshay came together in 2016 to form Khirkee and have since performed at various fests in Delhi University, besides private gigs.
"Hip-hop is an entertainment form but we have decided to take it beyond that. Being a popular medium, it can be used easily to rake up social issues. So, we have infused the light part of it with serious matters, such as violence against women," Mahesh says.
Dwelling on this thought further, Hari says that through Khirkee, they are also trying to break the myth that art forms such as hip-hop and rap are fiefdoms of privileged classes. "We are lucky that our mentor, He Ra, has been so supportive to help us grow. Otherwise, we lack the means to fund our training. By excelling in the field, we also want to tell people that even poor can shine with their talent," he states.
When queried why they focussed on the condition of women as their theme, Mahesh says: "The lyrics are a result of the environment we live in. We see so many cases all around us. Eve-teasing is so common. You cannot go and drill sense into each and everyone and hip-hop provides us a medium to take the message to a larger audience. It fills us with angst when we see women feeling unsafe just because of their gender."
Since funds come in rarely, the group designs and prints t-shirts, and sells them through their Facebook page to keep them going. It also makes them more visible in the art circuit. "Due to the lack of money, we are unable to travel for shows. Bollywood can be a destination but people there would prefer to highlight our background instead of our talent, which is something we are not comfortable with," Hari says.
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