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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →In a January 18, 2020 interview with Scroll, Mumbai rapper Naezy—Naved Shaikh—discussed his six-track debut album Maghreb, the mainstream attention brought by Gully Boy, and protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). His comments offer a snapshot of his views at that time, not a statement of his current position.
What Naezy said in the January 2020 interview
Scroll’s conversation with Naezy, published January 18, 2020, moved between music and politics. He talked about what he wanted Maghreb to express, the limits he saw in Bollywood’s approach to hip-hop, and why he used music to communicate amid public debate over the CAA and NRC.
The political remarks belong to Naezy personally. They are not legal analysis and should not be read as representing all Muslims, rappers, or protesters.
Why Naezy made Maghreb an album
Scroll described Maghreb as Naezy’s six-track debut album, released January 8, 2020—six years after his debut single, “Aafat.” Naezy said he had conceptualized the album only four months before its release. He wanted to convey messages that he could not fit into singles and hoped albums would become more common in Indian hip-hop.
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The production credits reflect a mix of collaborators: Mumbai producer Karan Kanchan made four tracks, while Canadian producer Big Byrd and UK producer Compa each produced one.
The songs and their subjects
- “Khamakha” addresses street life.
- “Jeeta Haara” explores life’s ups and downs.
- “Mere Bhantai” expresses affection for young people in Naezy’s community.
- “Kon Hard” takes up the hip-hop scene.
- “Pyaar Hai,” a love song that surprised some listeners, shows what Naezy described as a less-seen side of himself. He framed love broadly, encompassing family, friends, community, religion, and country.
What the title meant to him
In a March 10, 2020 interview with The Indian Express, Naezy said Maghreb means “West” in Urdu. He connected the title to Western musical influences and hip-hop’s origins, Mumbai’s place in western India, and his own roots. The title, in this account, links musical influence and personal geography rather than pointing to a single theme.
How Gully Boy shaped the conversation about street life
Scroll described the 2019 film Gully Boy as inspired by Naezy’s life and as a critical and commercial hit that helped bring hip-hop further into mainstream Indian culture. The article also reported that it was India’s official entry in the International Feature Film category for the 2020 Academy Awards.
Naezy’s response to the attention was mixed. He told The Indian Express that after the film, some people might think “being from the street is cool,” but that image obscures hardship. He said people still lacked meals and clean drinking water. Scroll also reported his comments that Bombay 70, in Kurla West, was short of proper schools, ration provisions, clean water, and healthy food. These are his observations in interviews, not independently quantified measures of conditions in the area.
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Why Naezy was wary of Bollywood’s version of hip-hop
Naezy said Bollywood often adapts genres to fit established conventions, which can make hip-hop less challenging. In the Scroll interview, he put it this way: “Bollywood has a set pattern within which it takes a genre like hip-hop and limits it thereby creating safe music.” He described the resulting music as adulterated in comparison with the music that inspired it.
He said he had received Bollywood offers but filtered projects rather than accepting work simply for money. As he told Scroll, “I do not want my creative freedom to be shackled by money.” The tension he described was between the reach and opportunities of mainstream work and the independence he wanted to preserve.
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What Naezy said about the CAA-NRC protests
In January 2020, protests against the CAA and proposed NRC, as well as attacks on students, formed part of the interview’s context. Naezy said he thought the relative silence of major rappers reflected fear and uncertainty about taking a public stance. He said he tried to communicate through art and pointed to a line in Maghreb’s title track.
Asked whether the CAA and NRC affected him, Naezy replied, “I am not affected by it.” He said he understood the laws as meant for infiltrators and added that he and his family were born and had lived in India. That is his reported interpretation in the interview—not a legal conclusion about either measure or an account of how the laws affect other people.
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Read the interviews
- Scroll: “‘What I wrote in my song is happening now’: Naezy on album ‘Maghreb’ and CAA-NRC protests” (January 18, 2020).
- The Indian Express: “Being from the street is not cool: Naezy” (March 10, 2020).
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