walking upstream…
Badshah
Born Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia in 1985 in Delhi, Badshah studied civil engineering at Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh, where exposure to the region's Punjabi music scene pulled him toward rap; he broke into the industry in 2006, co-founding the Mafia Mundeer collective with Yo Yo Honey Singh, Raftaar and Ikka before splitting off as a solo act. His hook-driven, high-energy pop-rap singles — 'DJ Waley Babu,' 'Mercy,' 'Genda Phool,' 'Paani Paani' — made him one of India's most-streamed artists and a face of mainstream Desi hip-hop through the 2010s and into the 2020s.
the sound in question
2020
Genda PhoolBadshah
walk the tributaries ↓
Backstreet Boys1990s · Pop / Dance-pop / Teen pop
Badshah has said his favorite song growing up was the Backstreet Boys' 'Get Down (You're the One for Me)' and that it's what first made him want to be a musician. The boy band's radio-ready pop-hook sensibility — a huge, simple, singalong chorus wrapped around the verses — runs through Badshah's own chart-topping pop-rap, which is built almost entirely around one inescapable hook per song.
listen: upstream & heresource: "Eminem vs Backstreet Boys ↗
1996
Get Down (You're the One for Me)Backstreet Boys
2015
DJ Waley BabuBadshah
listen forBackstreet Boys stack a rap verse (from Fun Factory's Smooth T.) underneath a soaring boy-band chorus on 'Get Down'; Badshah's 'DJ Waley Babu' runs the same trick in miniature — a chanted, almost novelty hook ('Ek do teen chaar, DJ waley babu') that dominates the memory of the song far more than any verse does.
Drake2010s · Hip hop / Contemporary R&B / Pop rap
Badshah has said he finds Eminem's music unrelatable but keeps returning to Drake and Kendrick Lamar because their lyrics hit closer to home — he writes his own songs from "his life, past experiences and heartbreaks," the same confessional, first-person mode Drake built a career on.
listen: upstream & here
2011
Marvin's RoomDrake
2018
HeartlessBadshah
listen forDrake's 'Marvin's Room' is a woozy, after-the-party confession about calling an ex while drunk and lonely; Badshah's 'Heartless' works the same vein in Hindi-Punjabi pop-R&B terms, trading Drake's half-sung ache for his own plainspoken account of a relationship coming apart.
Kendrick Lamar2010s · West Coast hip-hop / Conscious hip-hop / Jazz rap
In the same interview where he dismissed Eminem, Badshah named Kendrick Lamar as one of the rappers he actually relates to and returns to — a rapper drawn more to Kendrick's rhythmic, conversational flow than to Eminem's technical wordplay.
listen: upstream & here
2012
Swimming Pools (Drank)Kendrick Lamar
2017
MercyBadshah
listen forKendrick's 'Swimming Pools (Drank)' rides a hooky, almost sung-rap cadence that alternates confiding verses with a big chanted refrain; Badshah's 'Mercy' leans on that same push-pull between a rapped verse and an anthemic, repeated hook line.