Trigger Warning: Su*cide
Aditya Tiwari (MC Kode), a Delhi-based rapper allegedly goes missing after posting a note on Instagram on Wednesday. His last post indicates him to be around an “isolated bridge near Yamuna river.”As #SAVEKODE trends on Twitter, the search by his colleagues and police continues.
MC Kode came under fire for an old video where the rapper (Aditya Tiwari a.k.a MC Kode) allegedly hurts the sentiments of the Hindu religion by hurling abuses at sacred symbols of Hinduism. After Kode’s address and mobile number leaked, an army of Twitter users put a price on his head and asked for a mob lynch all over Twitter.
What’s the matter?
In a video, while battling an opponent, Kode allegedly disrespected cows, Mahabharata and the Geeta, which holds holy values in Hinduism. The video is said to be five years old and has come under notice recently.
In a seemingly cropped out video, Kode can be seen commenting on the Indian army in bad taste. However, the part of the video where he says, ” I love Indian army if they’re doing their duty right” has been cut in the circulated video.
How did MC Kode respond?
Kode issued an apology in his Instagram story and requested to not associate his actions with his family and friends.
“I was a teenager back then looking for cheap reactions just and never realised the consequences and since then I have grown into someone who hates his teenage years because of my own stupidity,” he wrote.
In an old interview, Kode had said that he started battle rap with more abuses and foul ideas (much like how it originally started in the west) but with time he realised the scope and kind of creativity and improvement one can bring to the battle rap.
The Concept Of ‘Battle Rap’
Battle rap or rap battling is a type of rapping that includes bragging, insults and offensive language. It is supposed to have started in an American east coast hip hop scene in the late 1980s. Initially, battling has been about offensive bars (remarks) on religion, homophobia, misogyny, character assassination, but over the years battles are now won by creativity and skills.
As the idea of battle rap changed with time all over the world, so did it in India. It is highly debatable what is just or unjust in battle rap and those continuous debates are believed to bring an improvement in this underground industry.
Rap battles mostly remain underground due to their highly offensive content, but now the creativity allows them to be showcased. In India, hip-hop is new and it includes not just rapping but an entire culture borrowed from the black community. It includes everything from what one wears, how one talks to how one speaks.
Hip-hop in India got hyped after Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy. The movie shows how rap empowers a person from the streets. Though Indian audience has not seen much of the rap battles. ‘What is said in a rap battle, stays in the battle,’ that is the reason people who battle or brutally insult each other can remain friends outside. It requires a certain level of maturity and a thick skin to take it and the Indian audience is new to it.
One of Kode’s opponent in one of his 70+ battles wrote, “I understood how much this means to him and how much he wants battle rap to be recognised and the culture and the artists to grow.”
One of the famous producers Sez On The Beat put a post on Instagram which reflects how the meme pages can destroy a person’s career. He wrote, “They can make or break someone and the majority of the page admins haven’t been in the scene since the beginning and got a surface level understanding of the genre and our scene as a whole.” Another rapper feared for the future of rap in general and battle rap in particular in India.
The trend of online trolling, instant judgements and mob lynching continues. A debate has also broken out over why social media trials are dangerous, while many are trying to find him.