Jammu-based hip hop singer Shen B’s never-say-die attitude

Jammu-based hip hop singer Shen B takes on the bullies, censorship and corruption in his four-track EP

Protest music is not new to Shayaan Bhat aka Shen B. In Class IX, the Jammu-based hip hop singer had sat in a dharna with his friends demanding a drum kit for their school’s music department. Now, in a four-track debut EP album, the singer questions the censorship, bullying and corruption that he experienced and asks why things do not change for artistes in Jammu, his hometown. The 2020 lockdown was particularly hard on Shen: the family battled COVID-19 and he lost his mother to the virus. He wrote the lyrics of ‘Zamaana’, one of the tracks, during his 20-day stay at the hospital. “I could survive only because of music,” he adds.