Elevating the conversation in Hip Hop with Artisttaan and Aamir Kunwar

While its true that Hip hop has always been around the corner but it only came to the forefront once it was brought together as a culture,” Says Aamir Kunwar who spearheaded the foundation and upbringing of Artisttaan, which in its truest sense has defined the future of music in India.

“Being the best wasn’t easy , but somebody had to do it.” He added when asked about his inspiration towards starting a music label as his passion towards music was undying and far beyond an obsession which led him to creating the ultimate roster of artists that together, perfectly represented contemporary Indian music, a big part of which is now, Hip Hop.

While rap was often seen as a filler in a catchy pop song, Aamir and his (now) team at Artisttaan saw the huge potential in the genre and how perfecting it was the key to giving it to the masses, thus deciding to join forces and collectively pursue the stature of grandeur in this music Industry.

“I wont say that we discovered Indian hip hop, as it did exist before us, but what we did was, ACTUALLY bringing it to the people and paving the way for other independent artists to spread the word as it was no longer ‘just music’, it was a lifestyle, our lifestyle and our generation, of which we spoke, that people could relate to so well, and there was no way it could not have been this big, and looking at it now, sky is the limit.” He added.

Artisttaan was more than a passion project from him, as he wanted it to be his life, so he decided to reach out to some of the artists in Delhi he saw online, putting out music, out of which one was Raga and once he had all the artists he needed there was no stopping him.

Together they managed to grab eyeballs with their 1st ever release which was ‘Jamnapaar’ by Harjas and Yawar which garnered over 10,000 views in a week and was also shared by artists like Raftaar and Badshah thus showing them the way to success ‘from the get-go’.

However, gathering masses like this wasn’t the 1st for Aamir as in his college years he developed a social media website named ‘Socialinga.com’ that manged to get over 20,000 users in a fortnight which he then had to shut down because of the unbearbly high server maintainence cost that came with its ‘claim to fame’. He later on served as a SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) expert for sometime before starting up with Artisttaan as his full time career and thus becoming an entrepreneur.

Only within a span of 3 years Aamir has managed to, not only reach, but also to stay at the top of the game with his team effort and ingenuity in putting out music that has set his name in stone when it comes to uplifting the community.
Seeing this rapport, it was only inevitable for Sony Music India to share its ties with Artisttaan, making it the 1st Indie Hip Hop label to be exclusively signed to them, thus turning a new leaf in Artisttaan’s never ending conquest to the top.

The latest addition to their laurels is Raga’s debut album ‘Rap Ka Mausam’ which has definitely brought back the indie album culture where people would anticipate on an artist’s album rather than just discovering it and such a feat could’ve only been made possible on the back of solid and robust content which Artisttaan has always been known for.

Its only to look out for what they have next as Artisttaan never ceases to amaze its audience and with a diverse roster of its artists there’s an endless amount of possibilities of what they can do as a collective for not just hip hop but also for the Indian music scene at large as they clearly have the vision and its just a matter of time that it would materialise to be the biggest sensation in Indian music.