Rap it again, Sid!

Zoya Akhtar’s recent film Gully Boy may have thrust Indian street rapping into the limelight. But MC Sid a.k.a Siddharth Sood was already a heavyweight in the field of wedding rapping much before the movie made the genre mainstream. Sood, who has been adding a dose of modernity into Indian weddings with his rap style since 2006, has had quite a career ever since he first started. He’s been a Video Jockey with VJ Freshers on Channel [V] and has also done a 35-city tour with Kingfisher and Radio Mirchi called ‘Rap it up with MC Sid’ and performed across India at most of the major nightclubs. He even opened for the first ever performance in India by acclaimed international musician Akon in 2011.

 This colourful rap journey apparently started with a love rap created for a childhood crush. With the ladies digging his rap game, the young Sid, an Eminem fan and self-confessed ‘Delhi Boy’, finessed his oeuvre and got his first break at a cousin’s sangeet. He elaborates, “My journey began by chance. I had been performing as a freestyle rapper at various nightclubs for a few years and had just started doing a few private parties. At one of them, someone asked me to do a wedding performance and I agreed. I did my thing there and it was a smash hit! So much so that they called me back for their next function a day later.”

 That first success gave Sid direction and soon Siddharth Sood ‘Delhi Boy’ transformed into MC Sid, who was a hit on the wedding circuit. He has since performed at over 500 weddings at popular wedding destinations across the globe.  When asked how he developed his talent, Sid replies, “I have never studied music, and everything I have done is basically by listening very carefully to music over many years. When I was in school, I used to download and learn all the lyrics of the rap songs and learn them by heart.” He explains how the freestyle thing works for him, “My technique at weddings is that I observe the audience and then, during my performance, I make up my freestyle rap on them. It’s very engaging and interactive at the same time.”  MC Sid is about to launch his first English rap single – Gold Digger. “It’s a very special track. It’s completely in English and is about my life experiences dealing with folks who associate with you to simply use you. It involves college stories and is just a fun dance tra
ck to liven up the mood on the dance floor,” he says, visibly excited about the impending release.