Sidhu Moose Wala has stirred the Punjabi music industry globally.
He raps about aggression. He raps about narcissism. He raps about critics and competitors.
The jury is still out on whether Sidhu Moose Wala qualifies as a professional rapper or a singer but the young Sikh from a Punjab village has surely disrupted the hip-hop scene at home and abroad.
Born as Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu in an obscure village called Moosa in Punjab's Mansa district, the performer in his mid-twenties now garners tens of millions of views on YouTube.
In his online interviews, he recounts singing heroic ballads as a fifth-grader and then later at college.
But Sidhu Moose Wala's spectacular rise happened in less than two years after he arrived in Canada in December 2016 on a study visa.
"Talent paves the way," Sidhu said in an interview in 2017. His friends in Canada's Punjabi music industry liked the songs he wrote. And he never looked back once they hit the market.
Sample this count: Around 220 million views for his Uchiyaan Ne Gallan Tere Yaar Diyan; some 138 million views for Tochan Da Jatt Vi Shokeen Mudd Toh; around 100 million for his Same Beef song; some 75 million for Jiton Ban Nahiyo Hunda Oho Sadde Mere Ton. His list of blockbusters is long.
"He has definitely caused a new disruption in the Punjabi music market spread across the world," said Dr Rawail Singh, a former secretary of the Punjabi Academy in Delhi. Currently, a professor of Punjabi in the Delhi University, Dr Singh tracks the journey of Punjabi music broadly in three major milestones since 1947: from the rich Lok Sangeet or folk songs popularized by the likes of Surinder Kaur and Asa Singh Mastana through Punjabi Sufi/pop, rap to now the Moose Wala phenomenon.
"There are two ways to look at it. Pop and rap killed the soul of Punjabi folk but the genres, at the same time, came across as a powerful consumer product that delivered Punjabi beats and words to consumers all across the world," the professor says.
In his interviews, Sidhu Moose Wala describes himself as an admirer of Tupac Shakur, the American rapper with a dynamic but short career of five years. Shakur's first album, 2Pacalypse Now, was released in November 1991. By September 13, 1996, he was dead. At age 25, the rapper was gunned down on a Las Vegas street.
"Pac was a street poet and he spoke for the people in the hood," CNN quoted writer Kevin Powell, who covered Shakur extensively, as saying in 2016. "He was constantly pushing the limits of what an artist could do in the tradition of a Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan and Nina Simone."
Dr Singh, an exponent of music, wouldn't classify Sidhu Moose Wala as a rapper though some call him the "Tupac of Punjabi music".
"He's a performer. His genre appears to be a mix of rap, pop and everything else that makes it heavy on rhythm. What he writes is not poetry either in the classic sense of the word. It's a disruption and it's a big one," says Dr Singh.
So what's Sidhu Moose Wala's secret recipe that attracts millions of eyeballs on YouTube, mostly the youth? Why his concerts are among the most crowded?
"Lyrics," says Bobby Sing, a film and music critic. "The punch lies in his powerful songwriting."
Sidhu Moose Wala, like Tupac, would rap about self-praise and take his critics and competitors head-on in his songs produced in pacey videos.
"Ho Unlimited Challde Aa Vair Ni; Limited Count Ne Breath De; Main Duniya De Opposite Challda, Te Parallel Challda Aa Death De (With unlimited enemies and limited breath, I walk opposite the world and parallel to death)," reads a Moose Wala song titled Legend.
The attitude in his writing has made him a darling of the rebellious young lot, industry observers say.
"Dogleyan Bandeyan Nu Munh Ni Laayida; Te Haisiyat Dekh Ke Ni Yaari Laayidi; Jealous Na Hoyie Doojeya Nu Dekh Kay Ho Assi Rabb Di Raza Ch Strong Balleya. (Hypocrite people are not worth a chat and friends are not made as per their social status/reputation. Don't be jealous over others' success, rather feel strong enjoying whatever is granted by God's will)," he declares.
Call it coincidence or inspiration, the 2Pac songs also embrace the similar fiery spirit. The late American rapper was equally unapologetic about his lifestyle and went right for the jugular by attacking his critics in song.
Released in 1996, Shakur's 'Hit 'Em Up' was loaded with vicious insults of rival East-Coast rappers. That song came to be known as one of the greatest 'diss tracks' ever recorded in America's music history. The word 'diss' is an abbreviation from disrespect. It typifies feud between rivals in music and art.
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