Wes Anderson, Tupac, & Hot Assassins: KR$NA Marks His Return In An Outrageous Music Video
Never in my life, despite all the AI experiments, could I imagine seeing Tupac in a pagdi and sherwani. And yet, KR$NA gifts us this outrageous image in his latest music video. Shot in the decadent corridors of Villa Palladio, a location that plays like the Indian cousin of The Grand Budapest Hotel, the video for Knock Knock borrows Wes Andersons's charming mise-en-scène to tell the comeback story of a hardcore rapper.
Against the baroque opulence of the palace drenched in reds, stripes, stained glass, and ornate frescoes, KR$NA addresses betrayal, the hollowness of fame, and the fragile loyalties of the scene with piercing bars; his statement grounded in the lived experience of someone who’s survived the volatility of the Indian hip-hop landscape without diluting his voice.
In the video an assassin stalks KR$NA through ornate halls, but never quite manages to eliminate him — a metaphor for the many who’ve tried to write him off and failed. In another shot he's seen worshipping an old ancestral portrait of Tupac as an Indian royal. He recalls the rapper's line 'It’s me against the world', honouring legacy, acknowledging struggle, and placing himself squarely within that lineage of misunderstood excellence.
Knock Knock comes from KR$NA's new mixtape Yours Truly which is cut from the same cloth. Structured like a series of letters to himself, Yours Truly is a 15-track record of bruises, doubts, and small, hard-won victories. With stellar collaborators like Seedhe Maut, Raftaar, Badshah, Aitch, Awich, and Yashraj, the project moves between different tones and perspectives in the evolution of a rapper.
In its most vulnerable moments, KR$NA addresses his younger self, reflecting on missteps, encouraging resilience, and confronting the emotional cost of ambition. The title track, for example traces his path from underground outsider as YoungProzpekt to the chart-topping artist he is now, all while refusing to compromise on lyricism or identity. In other tracks, he opens out to speak on broader cultural contradictions — the performative nature of the industry, the blurred lines between art and branding, and the fight to remain authentic.
While a lot of the mixtape is an inward journey and a self-dialogue, in Knock Knock KR$NA confronts the outside world, through sharp jabs as well as mischief, reintroducing himself to the arena as the unflinching voice of desi hip-hop that he has always been known as.
Follow KR$NA here, listen to the mixtape below and watch the music video at the top of the page.
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