Indian hip-hop, or we can say Desi Hip-hop is a genre of popular music developed in India. It is the amalgamation of Indian culture with hip-hop. The term ‘desi’ referring to the South Asian Diaspora , gives a feeling of oneness to the people of the culture that it represents. From ‘Pardes’ , to ‘Swadesh’ , to ‘Rajya’, Hip-Hop came up to our very own state, Odisha. For the very first time, The Urban Loafer hosted the Odisha Hip-Hop Festival in association with Odisha Artist Connection (OAC). 

OAC was founded in 2016, as a platform to culturally connect Odias and recognise, promote the artists of the state. It currently holds workshops and dance based events to promote Odia culture and help artists to get more skilled and share their art. They also target to promote the wide use of Odia language and make credible music videos  and short films. Creating a self sustainable ecosystem for freelance artists is their main motto.

The Odisha Hip-Hip Festival aims to select the best rappers in the state and help them to get a platform to showcase their talent. In the Finale, which is scheduled to happen in December, the viewers will get to interact with the contestants , judges and the guests. The event will be ending with performances of guests and judges as well. The entire event will be streamed on YouTube and Facebook. The event will be followed by the production of Odisha’s first hip-hop documentary film. 

Mr. Abhinav Singh a.k.a. Juggernaut , the organizer of Odisha Hip-hop festival says, “Great pieces of art are built with passion and deep intellect”. With the rising popularity of their first rap ‘Sabda Prahar’ , he got a lot of requests from many local rappers to get along with ‘The Urban Loafer’. People really appreciated the way in which the rap shows the reality of life in a modern way, that too, in authentic Odia language. Since Abhinav is not a mainstream artist, but has a deep passion towards Odia Hip-Hop, so he tried to study different dimensions of art and artists involved.

As a part of his own journey, he too faced a lot of hardships and struggles. There was no place for Odia artists to showcase their hip-hop , and the charm associated with the craft was dying with time. This gave Juggernaut an idea to organize the Rap tournament in the Odisha Hip-Hop Festival. This platform gives a chance to the Odia rappers to compete with each others and their skills get the honour and respect that they deserve. Adding to it, Abhinav claims that, they are launching Odisha hip-hop diaries- Chapter 1, which will tell stories of the artists that will inspire many. The stories of struggle and hardships along with decision making abilities will work as a source of guidance for the youth. They have also created a project, Street Katha , whose volume 1 got released in January 2020. Featuring a number of hip-hop artists and their experiments, Street Katha promises to give a moral boost to the local rappers.