‘Rain girl’ Is Mumbai-Based Adi AVG’s Hip Hop Spin On Retro Bollywood

Mumbai-bred hip hop stallion Aditya brings more to the table than you’d expect from your average Indian rapper. Unwilling to surrender his creative vision to the cloud of conformity, Adi’s music is certain to take you on a breakneck journey beyond the confines of the same old gully-rap we’ve all grown accustomed to. Strongly influenced by Chicago-rap heavyweights like Vic Mensa and Saba Pivot, Aditya who goes by the moniker ADI AVG, has been a pioneering force in popularizing English rap even amidst communities that otherwise identify with India’s characteristic Hindi or vernacular rap.

While his rapping finesse, crisp delivery and lyrical fluency have garnered critical acclaim, they account for only a portion of his impressive skill-portfolio as an artist. Adi not only writes his own rhymes, but also co-produces most of the sound and beats we hear on his tracks. Adept at playing percussive instruments like the drums and tabla, Adi also boasts a fair share of experience playing the piano.

Adi’s Journey With Music

“I remember auditioning for Berklee. My excitement and anxiety were through the roof and even though I gave it my all, my performance tanked. While it felt disappointing in the start, for most part I’m grateful because the Berklee audition gave me a pivotal reality-check. I saw the talented musicians I was up against and truly realized the need to expand the range of instruments I could play.” narrates Adi explaining where he found the motivation to begin learning the piano and developing a more technical, music-theory oriented approach to rap.

Adi’s swelling proficiency with the piano compounded the flavour of his tasteful writing, culminating in the birth of prolific SoundCloud hits like Sushi ft. Benihanaboi, Freaky Lil’ Mama, Stretch Marks and Betty Botter among others. A commonality among all these numbers is how flawlessly the sampled melody or trap beats in the back blend with Adi’s powerful vocals. Having groomed his knowledge of music and discipline towards the art form, Adi went on to produce an impressive catalog of music, spanning from new-age rap to lo-fi.

This interesting mix of meticulously put-together music won Adi a major scholarship at Long Island’s top-billed music university, Hofstra. His admission at Hofstra was a major breakthrough for Adi, who now had every reason to convince his family why pursuing music was an obvious choice for him. “It almost felt like a victory after all the indecision I had battled the year before. I remember taking a gap year and constantly switching from one internship to another, in hope of understanding where my true calling lay. I could finally prove to my family that me studying music on the scholarship I’d received would ensure neither my time, nor their finances would go to waste.”

Eventually Adi flew out to Long island, New York having broken out of the science/commerce dominated bubble of academia most brown teens find themselves shackled by. The year 2017 brought with it a novel opportunity. Counter-culture apparel maker and indie streetwear label, Strey invited Adi to co-produce and rap for their brand’s ‘This is counter-culture’ Anthem. While Adi cites the single as one of his rather rudimentary pieces, the song introduced Adi to the consciousness of the country’s high-fashion and hip hop fraternity.

Rain Girl

The confluence of meaningful lyric-writing, punchy choruses, and melodic sampling that Adi’s music is, can be observed evidently in one of his latest music releases, Rain Girl. The brilliant medley features samples chopped-out from cult-hit ‘Ladki bheegi bhagi si’, over which Adi delivers a mix of Hindi hooks and English verses. Delhi-based producer NDS created a beat using sampled vocals from the iconic Bollywood track and sent them Adi’s way, so he could embellish the beat with his powerful rap.

The song’s catchy hook sees Adi dish-out tastefully strung Hindi rhymes like ‘Dheeli-Dhaali’ , ‘Bheegi bhaagi’, a novelty considering his norm of rapping in English. After every well-chained hook, Adi switches back to rapping verses in English almost effortlessly. The song’s background samples blend perfectly with its verses thanks to Adi’s signature style of delivery, giving the song an overall distinct edge.

Talking about his inspiration behind the song, Aditya recalls his experience interning on set as an assistant to a Bollywood film director. Despite his aversion to the kind of masala tracks the backbone of Bollywood is built on, Adi’s Indian roots have laid the foundation for his music in general and ‘Rain girl’ in specific.

“Even though I’m not the greatest fan of modern Bollywood music, the experience of working in close proximity to its music, colour, and vibrancy, was an extremely fulfilling one. Though not my preferred genre, just being around some kind of music made me happy, so I couldn’t complain. I feel like retro Bollywood music has its own charisma and I wanted to employ some of that magic in my new song. That’s how Rain Girl was born”

Humour, Podcasts & Future Releases

The zeal and ferocity with which Adi raps creates a badass aura around his hip hop avatar. In person however, when he’s off the stage, studio, and around family, friends, and supporters, Adi slips back into the shoe of the humorous and witty goof he enjoys being. It’s rare to observe rappers with such an elegant contrast in their on-and-off stage persona.

Adi’s candid moments reveal the sweet and goofy vibe that lies behind his tough, kick-ass in-song persona. His genius parody-video ‘Over explaining’ the lyrics of his new release ‘Rain Girl’ capture Adi at his finest. His hysterical breakdown of the song, both leaves the audience in splits and gives them a good hard look at the song’s intricate expressions, metaphors, and symbolisms.

The one thing besides music that Adi is most passionate about is ‘Podcasts’. Adi who prides himself in being a tactful writer, fluent speaker, and a funny guy overall, began a podcast called ‘Having Said That with Adi’ during lockdown. The podcast according to Adi is a heady mix of political commentary and light-hearted banter where in certain episodes he touches upon serious subjects like human trafficking and the Indo-China tensions and in others he can be found engaged in casual banter and long drives with a friend. You can find the show here.

Talking about future releases, Adi shares his exciting collaboration with Azadi records to release his new single ‘ .22’ across various streaming platforms. He is also stoked to tell us about his upcoming EP ‘Pigeonholed’ that has long been in the works.

You can hear Rain Girl below