22jis of hip-hop: Move Over ‘Chandigarh Di Kudi’, Kru 172 Makes ‘Punjabi Bro’ Chic

Many Punjabi singers have penned lyrics on Sector 17 and their tongue-in-cheek description of the quintessential ‘Chandigarh di kudi’, a high-maintenance girlfriend, but rarely have the city’s south-side, middle-class beings found any mention in their songs. City rappers Navdeep ‘Nav’ Singh and Harsimranjit ‘Lucky’ Singh of the Kru 172 band broke away from the tradition to sing about the city’s 22jis, or baijis (bros), from Palsora and Ram Darbar.
The duo active on the city’s indie-rap scene since 2007 had the YouTube release of its latest single, ‘Rocking with the Best’, on August 24. Even if the song did not go viral or hit even the 1-lakh views mark, it did get a good-old Facebook “thumbs-up” and “share” from popular rapper Hard Kaur and Bollywood music director Vishal Dadlani. For the record, the song had 19,371 views and 1,055 likes by 5am on September 20.
It is their three other singles—‘Shehar Mera Chandigarh’, ‘Mera 22’, and ‘Shaukeen Baliye’—that have done better. For ‘Shehar Mera Chandigarh’, the duo collaborated with Chandigarh rapper Harry Cheema. In parts, the rap paints a stark contradiction of life in Chandigarh—the tough streets of Palosra village in Sector 56 and the cruising luxury cars on the upmarket Gerhi Route.
Being a ‘bai’
Mera 22, on the other hand, is a comical, witty Punjabi spin-off on popular rap song ‘My Nigga’. If you don’t understand the meaning of “22”, here’s a brief explainer: Bai is Punjabi for the Hindi baees, or the number 22. In Punjabi, one also calls a bro a bai. So, when SMS-ese became a language of convenience in the 2000s, Punjabi teenagers started using 22 for bai, while texting Punjabi messages on English-only phones. “We used to do gigs regularly when we started. Now we do only selective gigs in Chandigarh,” Nav says in reply to a question.
The duo opened for rapper Bohemia when he performed live for the first time in Chandigarh in 2009. They say the music scene in Chandigarh is “very much alive and kicking”, as the city is one of the hubs of Punjabi movie and music industries. However, the same cannot be said of indie (independent) music. “People are putting some serious effort into music but recognition is tough. More opportunities need to be created for artists in the city,” adds Nav.
Given that the indie music lacks sponsors in Chandigarh, Kru 172 has a simple philosophy—commercial side projects pay the bills and fund their “main thing”, which is rapping. Nav says: “If you want to experiment and go your own way, things are not going to be easy. Our main genre is hip-hop. We started as rappers and hip-hop producers but that never paid our bills, so we now do some (commercial) music. (We) can't say we earn a lot, as we are selective in our work. We go broke at times but, yeah, it (the money) is still enough to put food on the table.”
Things have started to look up of late, says Nav. “Chandigarh has been hosting a variety of festivals lately and the artist line-ups are versatile indeed,” the rapper adds. Kru 172’s last gig was in July, at the Sector 7 Social, a co-working space by day and a resto-bar by night.
Ancestral vibes
Nav and Lucky do not plan to move out of the city, even if that means fewer opportunities. “Our ancestral village was somewhere near the modern-day Sector 34. We have lived here for hundreds of years probably. You can say we are the natives. This is the biggest reason why are glued to the city. The standard of living in Chandigarh is also better and the whole vibe of the city is different. We feel blessed to be living here,” says Lucky.
‘Support the scene’
Kru 172 says people should be more open to all kinds of music. “There is so much more to it than the usual commercial Punjabi and Bollywood Music. It would be so much nicer if organisers and promoters gave gigs to local artists, too, instead of inviting singers from outside. We understand that entertainment has to make business sense as well but there are some incredible artists in Chandigarh who could shine if given an opportunity,” Nav says.