Sidhu Moosewala’s political commentary in rap

In a career spanning roughly five years, Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, 27, belted out over 60 sing

In a career spanning roughly five years, Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, 27, belted out over 60 singles, three albums and collaborated with musicians like Raja Kumari and rapper Bohemia.

The controversial hiphop artiste of Punjabi music, who was shot dead on Sunday evening, was a quintessential, eclectic mix of much that is problematic with the industry, starting from propagating gun culture to a troubling display of toxic male machismo and caste supremacy. Moosewala’s recent songs, however, showed a slight shift from his initial (2017) releases like ‘Lifestyle’ and ‘So High’.

This year, Sidhu contested the Punjab Legislative Assembly elections and released eight songs, all under his independent label called Sidhu Moosewala. A stinging, not-so-cryptic commentary on the political churning in the once terrorism-hit Punjab, his month-old song ‘Scapegoat’ is an explicit, evocative rebuttal to all those questioning his defeat in the Assembly polls. That’s not all, though.

Moosewala, like many other Punjabi singers, tuned in to the cultural zeitgeist of the farmers protest in 2020. His song ‘Punjab - My Motherland’ was the second offering from his independent label, the first one being ‘Legend’ which won Track of the Year (2019–2020) at the Brit Asia TV Music Awards.

The lyrics of ‘Punjab - My Motherland’ courted controversy for nuanced references to Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale — a controversial, yet iconic politico-spiritual cult leader who emerged during the turbulent and volatile 1980s in Punjab — and ‘takkay naal jinnu dab longay, Kashmir de varga nai ’, which loosely translates to ‘you cannot suppress Punjab, unlike Kashmir’. The song triggered speculations over Moosewala’s political leanings and his stance on Khalistan.

A year later he independently released ‘295’ in his third and final album Moosetape. The song delves into Punjab’s politico-religious hegemony through compelling lyrics: ‘sach bolenga tah milu 295, je karenga tarakki putt hate milugi’ (If you speak the truth, you’ll be booked under Section 295. If you succeed, you’ll get hate). Section 295 of the Indian Penal Code deals with hurting religious feelings.

Sidhu Moosewala became the first mainstream Punjabi R&B musician to voice his opinion on Punjab’s Sikh politics in no subtle words.