Hip-Hop and Hindi: India-born Artist Sapra Expresses His Creativity Through Fusing Cultures
- Now based in Los Angeles, he is an expert at mixing a mélange of cultures into beautiful visual pieces and thought-provoking works of art.
India-born multi-disciplinary artist Sapra is a sonic chameleon. The Los Angeles-based singer, composer and actor is an expert at mixing a mélange of cultures into beautiful visual pieces and thought-provoking works of art. The New Delhi native expresses his artistry through music and acting. He infuses and mixes hip-hop and Hindi with Afro-Beats as its backdrop to pour out his heart into messages of love, addictions and social issues for the world to consume.
And the numbers don’t lie. Sapra’s music has garnered millions of views on YouTube. Among his stand-out songs is ‘Always on My Mind’, where Sapra sings about lovers separated and the longing to reunite. A slickly produced, sci-fi futuristic music video, it was co-created by him and Clio award-winning director, Michael Washington, a long-time collaborator. The music video won the 2022 Gold Telly Award for Best Short Form Music Video, and the song was also featured in a Rolling Stones India article – a #rsdailymusic “what we’re listening to today” song list.
“There are times where you’re not able to control your mind; especially when its thinking about somebody you love,” he says about the ubiquitous song over the phone from his home in Los Angeles. “In the video, I was searching for this woman. And when I was in prison, she was always on my mind. And I was thinking about the regret I had about what I’ve done and should not have done. In the end, she waits for me,” he continues. “A lot of times these things happen, when people have someone on their mind and they can’t control it,” he continues.
Sapra’s love for entertainment came at a young age when he was still in school. He would go on to do musical theater and even perform for the prime minister of India. During this juncture in his life, he would travel all over India to perform in front of 1,000 to 3,000 people. He says now, the experience was a great training ground for becoming the great artist that he is today. Eventually, his artistic journey brought him stateside to Los Angeles, where he studied acting at UCLA. And filmmaking at The New York Film Academy.
It’s cool to witness an artist like Sapra experiment with two different sounds that come from worlds and galaxies apart from each other. There’s Hip Hop and there’s Punjabi music. He mixes the two into one but asserts that his art isn’t composed of trying to be something he is not. Instead, he takes pride in being a South Asian artist who wants the world to see and hear India.
“How can I take a part of this and make it my own?” he ponders about the fuse between Indian music and hip hop. “Because I am Indian and I’m not trying to be somebody I am not. So, regarding hip-hop music, I still make my Indian music in Hindi and English, the terms are similar, but they are still Indian tracks. I’m very comfortable in who I am, and where I come from, and how I can take a part of the United States with me and take hip hop and make it my own and present it to a whole another world in India.”
He’s now working on a new album, which will be a departure from his usual sound, called, The Indian Cowboy. His friendship with Srilankan-Indian-born Cowboy, Ty Nitti, inspired the record when Nitti introduced Sapra to the cowboy lifestyle of living. The music compositions of the tracks are an up-tempo and foot-tapping medley of country banjo, guitar, and Indian ‘dhol’ (drums). Sapra says, “When I was introduced to horses by Ty, he put me through rigorous training to ride them and taught me line dancing over the years with them. This experience and Ty’s passion for horses inspired me to make this album.”
Amid his musical modus operandi, it’s worth noting that he shoots, edits and color-corrects his own videos. Soon, he will be starring in a new comedic horror movie called, Dead of Night, set to premiere in October 2024. He also composed the film’s soundtrack. “I am excited about writing these songs that take us through the film. The musical elements have an upbeat rhythm with the songs written in Punjabi and English,” he says.
Ultimately, Sapra just wants the whole world to come into one single particle and never burst. There’s a lot of love in being able to merge two different cultures or more, even. It’s his life mission for people to accept one another for who they are. His life is a love letter to peace and acceptance. With his art he hopes to leave the world with this: “With diversity comes tolerance with tolerance comes unity,” he says.
(Photos: Abhijeet Sarkar)
Richy Rosario is a Dominican writer and producer from The Bronx. He is a proud first-generation Dominican born and raised in The Bronx. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Psychology from The City College of New York in 2014. He’s worked at Vibe Magazine as a staff writer and most recently, was a video production assistant at The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard. He’s also written for other publications: Teen Vogue, XXL, Global Grind, The New York Observer, Milk Studios, BESE, Billboard, Miami New Times and more.