Zoya Mateen
BBC News, Delhi
Instagram / Yo Yo Honey Singh
Once one of the biggest rappers in India, Yo Yo Honey Singh returned to music after seven years
About 15 years ago, an Indian rapper of humble origins collapsed on the hip-hop music scene then infertile in the country and transformed it forever.
He teased, Cajolé and annoyed his listeners, daring them to explore the “diabolical” contours of his mind, while he sang reckless rhymes on the holidays, the drugs and “attractive” women. His songs played in clubs and weddings, in the sound of stereos during major festivals and tea stands on the roadside.
Then, at the top of his career, he disappeared. Seven years later, Yo Yo Honey Singh is back – with a new album and an in progress musical tour, claiming to be a man changed after a prolonged battle against drug abuse and mental health struggles.
The 41-year-old singer and producer was once one of the largest music stars in India, a figure that “moved the cultural gravity of hip-hop music”, explains the music journalist Bhanuj Kappal in Famous, a recent documentary Netflix on Singh.
But he was also deeply controversial – and, by his own admission, an “aggressive and reckless man”, systematically accused of promoting vulgarity, debauchery and violence through his music.
Many have criticized Singh’s words for portraying violence against women and rape, an image that gained in traction in the press after his former wife and childhood darling accused her of domestic violence in his divorce deposit. Singh denied the accusation.
Seven years later, the singer is no longer the provocative hitmaker who formerly governed the charts with his provocative hymns and tapping his feet.
Many things have changed over the intermediate years, including Indian hip-hop, which has become a flourishing dynamic space. The artists once inspired by his sound have now exceeded it like the main voices of the genre.
Singh also seems different. From someone who described himself as “the omniscient master of the universe”, he now identifies himself as a man fearing God who believes in good energies, the cyclical nature of life and “scientific astrologers”.
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The rapper was recently seen during the first of a Netflix documentary on his life
He claims that his music is now more conscious, going beyond drugs towards something deeper. But faithful fans say that he has lost his advantage and that his last songs did not leave a brand.
“He has a central audience that will stay with him forever … But his vision is old now. It’s obsolete,” said Kappal.
But Singh is not yet ready to be struck off.
Instead of trying to hide or defend his personal difficulties with glory and drugs, he made the centerpiece of his return.
Since his return, Singh has admitted his difficulties with dependence and mental health. “The drugs have completely destroyed me,” he told Lallantop, a digital information platform. “I got lost because of glory, money and women. I was like a devil, completely satanic.”
In the interviews, he is full of mind and relaxed, speaking with the clarity of a tormented artist who, after having fought against his inner demons, seems to have unlocked a spiritual truth
“What happens happens, I really believe it,” he said recently. “It took me a long time to go out where I was stuck from. But I’m back now.”
Born Hridesh Singh in the state of Punjab, he grew up in a cramped district of Delhi. These difficult first years shaped his music and still echo in his work today.
“This ghetto was my house, my hood, will always be,” he often heard.
Instagram / Yo Yo Honey Singh
Singh grew up in an average income family in Delhi before moving to Punjab
Singh has always known that he wanted a career in music. He started as a university DJ, who then managed to perform full time. “I wanted to make beats and produce music, not sing or write,” he said.
But after years as a small producer in Punjab, he realized that it would not be enough. “My sounds were too urban for the place. People didn’t understand it. For that, I had to go beyond the state.”
So he went solo. In 2011, Singh released the international villager, his album in small groups. Mixing folk Punjabi – its Dhol beats and string melodies – with world hip -hop, it has created something completely new.
For three months, it seemed that the formula had failed. Then everything changed. Overnight, the songs have become viral, the graphics overcome, won prizes – and catapulted Singh in Bollywood.
Brown sounded, a song on the global ambition of a brown man, became the most watched video of YouTube in 2012. Shot in Dubai with a budget of a million dollars, he presented many Indians at the hip -hop bling – fast cars, ample clothes, water watches and gold chains – regulated to puff.
Despite growing criticism of his misogynist words, Singh has packed stadiums and produced successes, entering Bollywood with songs for stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar.
“Often, my words were garbage, even I knew it. But people still listened to it because the sound was so good and fresh,” he told Lallantop.
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Singh (right) rubbed shoulders with several Bollywood celebrities, including Ranveer Singh (left)
But Singh’s ascent to glory coincided with his personal fall.
“I was drowning in drugs and alcohol, smoking 12 to 15 joints and bottles.
In 2017, Singh broke down halfway – a moment that rocked him. He left music and substances, returned to Delhi and started recovering with a world team of doctors and therapists. “I told my family that I was mentally painful. I can’t do anything before improving.”
Singh says he has been sober for seven years, with the exception of occasional beer.
“I went to hell and in return,” he said in famous. “Even now, I wake up blurred because of the drugs.”
Fans, however, appreciate Singh’s raw honesty on its self -destructive trends – and their efforts to overcome them.
“No one is perfect. But at least Singh tries to be better. He may have left the scene briefly, but his music has never stopped playing,” said Nandini Gupta, a student based in Delhi.
Others consider its transformation as a performative, noting that its new music remains problematic. “Although it is diminishing, he always objective of women and only talks about money and fame,” said Bushra Neyazi auditor.
No matter how you can see it, Singh’s redemption looks like another challenge – pushing them to accept their complicated past and give another chance to his music.
“I was absent for seven years, but I will make everyone angry in the next seven again,” he said recently.
“I’m back and I want the same love I received seven years ago.”
