(Standing, from left) Pratika, Krantinari, Hashtagpreeti, MC Mahila, Jaqueen. (Bottom, left) Breakdancer Floreau, (right) MGK, (middle) Skateboarder Shruti Bhosle. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Growing up, Ashwini Hiremath often visited her native place in Hubli, Karnataka with her younger sister Vijayalakshmi. putty (means small in Kannada), as he is fondly called. His antics as children included scaling a cupboard to reach the top shelf, where an elder member of the family’s carefully folded sarees were kept. Having successfully picked out a colorful saree from the rack, the siblings took turns to drape themselves in the cloth, which reflected their perception of “the authentic image of a woman”.

Years later, 29-year-old Ashwini, known as Krantinari on stage, has been joined by four other women wearing sarees and reciting powerful poems on stage to form Wild Wild Women. Considered to be India’s first all-female hip-hop band, the group consists of five rappers – Krantinari, Hashtagpreeti (Preeti Ann Sutar), MC Female (Shruti Raut), Jacqueen (Jacqueline Lucas), and Pratika (Prathika E. Prabhu ), two break-dancers, Floraav (Deepa Singh) and MGK (Mugdha Mangaonkar), a graffiti artist Gauri Dabholkar and a Skateboarder Shruti Bhosle – is “reviving and re-questioning” the hip-hop movement in India.

Since their inception in 2021, Mumbai-based Wild Wild Women have produced five singles and three tracks in collaboration with other artists. Across their discography, ranging from their debut single ‘I Do It for Hip Hop’, the crew explored a variety of topics from women’s rights to mental health issues with verses in languages ​​such as English, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada and Tamil. Is. The crew’s live performances consist only of their original songs and tracks they have personally produced, sometimes accompanied by dancing, art and skateboarding.

In 2023, Wild Wild Women performed at over 75 events and are currently preparing to perform at the 3rd International Independent Music Festival 2024 to be held in Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram from 22 to 24 November.

Krantinari says Wild Wild Women originated during a conversation between her and Hashtagpreeti while they were enjoying dosa after meeting at a women’s street art festival called Ladies First in Mumbai. “We were discussing why there are no women in Cyphers (a group of rappers where they make music and freestyle lyrics),” she says.

Later, the two called women they knew to meet on the coming Sunday without any expectations. However, this gathering eventually evolved into a WhatsApp group that eventually became the hip-hop crew, Wild Wild Women. “The aim was just to make a video,” says Preeti. However, the reaction to the video was just the spark the collective needed to continue.

For many band members, music was not a part of their growing up years. “Nobody in my family has anything to do with music. But as a child, I have always been a listener and fan of different types of music. I never thought I would be writing music or even rapping,” says Preeti, who is also an entrepreneur. The 23-year-old MC, another rapper and the youngest in the crew, says, “The isolation in life started from college, I spent time alone and got involved with music during that period; Whatever I felt I expressed it in a song or poem and in that process I realized I could write songs. Rapper Krantinari, who performed at the Roskilde Music Festival in Denmark in 2023, was a design student at IIT Bombay and later a Microsoft employee before making her mark in music.

The group also has members who were interested in music from a young age. Pratika, one of the rappers, has been a musician since the ninth grade and used to perform with her brother as a teenager. “I grew up listening to heavy metal music and found rap through it along with other popular music on TV. “Rap is still one of those things that I find as an expressive medium,” says Pratika.

(From left) Krantinari, MC Lady, Hashtagpreeti, Jaqueen, Pratika. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

However, it has not always been easy for the artists despite their backgrounds, with challenges ranging from their parents’ need to lead double lives to the misogynistic prejudices of their male counterparts. Krantinari says that for rapper Jaqueen, it was only when her family saw Wild Wild Women perform at her sister’s wedding that they became accepting of rap music.

The group also initially had to overcome a lack of trust from male rappers, who were under the impression that women were viewing music as a hobby rather than a career. “No one was really interested in teaching the art and they were like, ‘Anyway, you are going to get married in four years’,” says Krantinari, explaining that only after persistent efforts He was taken seriously.

Wild Wild Women has also created a safe space for women to participate in their programs. “We are actually seeing more women in the front row of the audience,” says Preeti. She adds, “The more you encourage women to come on stage, the more change you will see in the audience. ”

“It is definitely a male-dominated space,” says Pratika. Defying norms, and breaking boundaries, women in hip hop, including us, will be a mainstay and something that will speak volumes just like our music.

The collective aims to be inclusive of women of all ages, and an attempt to convey this message is their selection of sarees as their performance attire. “It was Krantinari’s idea to wear a saree on stage,” says Preeti. An Indian woman in a saree can connect with us more strongly, whether she is an old woman or a child, says Preeti.

Wild Wild Women will perform at the International Independent Music Festival 2024 at Kerala Arts and Crafts Village, Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram on November 24. Tickets are available on Insider.in.