Brodha V is an Indian rapper, songwriter and music producer. Brodha V is popular for creating music derived from his personal experiences and is considered one of the fastest rappers in India. He can rap in English, Hindi and Kannada languages. He is a singer trained in Indian classical music and has lent his voice to many classical and devotional songs, which are based on ragas.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Brodha V was born as Vignesh Shivanand on Tuesday, 27 March 1990 (age 32 years; as in 2022) in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India. His zodiac sign is Aries. He did his schooling from Bishop Cotton Boys School, Bengaluru. When he was studying in 12th class, he started rapping and decided to make a career in it; However, his family did not support him as they did not see any useful career in rapping. They wanted him to choose a secure career and asked him to pursue a degree in engineering; However, he left his engineering studies midway. Later, he earned a degree in Recording Arts and Digital Film Making from SAE. 
Brodha V’s childhood picture
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 6″
Weight (Approx): 60 kg
Hair Color: Black
Eye colour: black
Body Measurements (Approx): Chest: 42 inches, Waist: 32 inches, Biceps: 15 inches
Family
Brodha V belongs to a Tamil family.
parents and siblings
Brodha V with her mother in front of Taj Mahal
livelihood
Brodha V was introduced to rap through the song ‘Pettai Rap’ from the 1994 Tamil film ‘Kadhalan’; The music of the song was composed by AR Rahman. This was the first film he saw in the theatre.
rapper
In his early years of rapping, Vignesh started frequently participating in ‘text battles’ on Orkut, which was a social networking service at the time. In 2008, he came across ‘Insignia Rap Combat’, a forum on Orkut that was started by two Delhi-based rappers, Speed Ice and D’Brasic. This helped him find a place to write rap battles. After gaining some popularity from rap battles on Orkut, he started creating his own songs.
Brodha V performing at a girls’ college with fellow rappers in Bangalore in 2008
Band: Machas With Attitude (MWA)
He founded the hip-hop group ‘Machas with Attitude’ (MWA) in 2008 with two other rappers, Smokey the Ghost and Big Nik. In the song “Dheon Dhion” from the 2011 film ‘Mujhse Friendship Karoge’, he worked with Raghu Dixit and delivered rap verses. After winning the Radio City Freedom Award in 2013, the group met Vishal Dadlani and he offered them a role in the Bollywood film Chennai Express. He created the song “Ready Steady Poe” for the film as a result of their collaboration, which helped him gain more fame in the music business. In 2013, the group disbanded to pursue their solo careers.
Hip-hop band Machas with Attitude (MWA)
solo artist
In 2011, he released his first mixtape ‘Death Punch’ as a solo artist. In 2012, she released her single track ‘On My Own’ featuring Avinash Bhatt. In the same year, he released his second single track ‘Athma Ram’, which received 12 million views on YouTube. In 2013, she released another single ‘After Party’, following which she released her single ‘Aigiri Nandini’ in 2014 under the music label Sony Music India; However, in 2015, he terminated the contract due to some differences.
Poster of the song ‘Aigiri Nandini’
In 2010, she acted in the song ‘Vanaavilam’ from the Tamil film ‘Nil Gaavani Selathe’. In 2015, she worked with Anirudh Ravichander on the song ‘Shake That’ from the film ‘Kaaki Sattai’. In 2018, he rapped in the song ‘Turn This Party Up’ from the Telugu film ‘Krishnarjuna Yuddham’. She acted in the song ‘Padhe Padhe’ from the 2019 Telugu film ‘Jersey’. Some of her other famous songs are ‘Let Em Talk,’ ‘Way Too Easy,’ ‘Vaishnav Jan Too,’ ‘Flex,’ ‘Aaram,’ ‘Booyah for Your City,’ and ‘All Divine.’
Poster of the song ‘All Divine’ released in 2022
Collaboration
In 2015, he released a song ‘Round Round’ in collaboration with singer Benny Dayal and it was listed in the top 10 tracks on Saavn. In 2017, Brodha V and singer Sanjeev T collaborated with each other to spread awareness about congenital heart disease (CHD), and they created a song using real heartbeats; The song became part of the #GiveABeat initiative. In 2018, he released a song titled ‘Young and Restless’ in collaboration with Spiker Jeans, India. In 2019, Brodha V collaborated with rapper Raftaar and released the single ‘Hobby to Dance;’ Released the song. He rapped in both English and Hindi languages in the song. The song received 47 million views on YouTube, making their collaboration a success. The same year, he collaborated with clothing brand Puma to promote hip-hop in India. In 2019, he released the song ‘Venko’ featuring musical duo Nasser Al Azeh and Vineeth “Beep” Kumar, a duo popularly known as The Jordanians; The song performed well and received over 20 million views on YouTube.
Poster of Brodha V and Jordanian’s song ‘Venko’
music producer
Along with Varun Agarwal, a novelist, filmmaker and businessman, and stand-up comedians Sanjay Manaktala and Sumukhi Suresh and others, Brodha V composed the music for “Anu Aunty – The Engineering Anthem”, a parody of Iggy Azalea. Is. Fancy” which quickly gained popularity on social media. He has also composed music for many anthems and jingles.
Awards and Nominations
- Won Best Hip Hop/Rap Artist for the song ‘Indian Flava’ at the Radio City Freedom Awards (2013).
- Nominated for Best Hip Hop/Rap Artist for the song ‘After Party’ at the Radio City Freedom Awards (2014)
- Nominated for Best Hip Hop/Rap Artist for the song ‘Aigiri Nandini’ at Radio City Freedom Awards (2015)
- Nominated for Best Music Debut Non-Film for the song ‘Aigiri Nandini’ at the Global Indian Music Academy Awards (2015).
- Won the Renault Free Music Award for contribution to independent music (2015)
- Nominated for Best Indie Collaboration of the Year for the song ‘Round Round’ at the Radio City Music Awards (2016)
- Won Best Hip Hop Artist of the Year (Jury Award) for the song ‘Let Em Talk’ at the Radio City Music Awards (2018).
- Won Best Hip Hop Artist of the Year (Jury Award) for the song ‘Way Too Easy’ at the Radio City Music Awards (2018).
Favorite
- Rappers: Eminem, 2Pac, Rakim, Nas, Jay-Z, Wu-Tang Clan
- Music Producer: Timbaland
Facts/General Knowledge
- In an interview, he revealed that his stage name, Brodha V, is composed of two elements, the first element Brodha means brotherhood, and the second element V is the initial letter of his original name, Vignesh.
- The music of his songs is based on a blend of hip hop music with Indian folk, Carnatic and Hindustani elements.
- According to Rolling Stone India, he is part of “hip-hop’s elite”.
- In 2014, Storypick, a media company, called him “one of the best rappers in the country”.
- In 2016, he was listed among the top 10 underappreciated Indian hip-hop musicians by ScoopWhoop.
- The 2019 film ‘Gully Boy’ was based on the life story of two Mumbai-based rappers, Divine and Naezy. Divine says that Brodha V is an inspiration to him, and is one of the reasons why he came out and became a rapper. Brodha V also appeared as himself in the film.
- In 2014, Brodha V arranged the first Indian rap cypher in Bengaluru to promote hip-hop in India.
- Brodha V performed at the Music Matters Festival in Singapore in 2018.
- He wants to rap in a song of Rajinikanth’s film and also wants Rajinikanth to rap in one of his songs.
- His worst nightmare is losing his voice or hearing.
- In 2014, Micromax, an Indian consumer electronics company, released a song titled ‘Rubaroo – Micromax Unite Anthem’ which featured Broda V along with Raghu Dixit, Benny Dayal, Neeti Mohan and other music artists.
- The news headline he wants to see about himself is “Bronda V wins Grammy for Best Rap Album.”
- In a social media post, Brodha V responded to netizens who often troll him for not rapping in the Hindi language as most of his raps are in the English language.
- When asked about the one thing that can always be found in his bedroom, he replied,
My entire studio setup. A lot of thoughts come to my mind when I am sleeping. So I keep my Mac, my MIDI keyboard, and my microphone nearby at all times.
- In an interview, when asked if he had to choose one social issue to rap about, he said,
Classism, casteism, discrimination. As an indie rapper from South India who does not rap in Hindi, I am subjected to a lot of prejudice on a daily basis when it comes to the media, press, radio and TV channels. I can only imagine what other people in this country are going through when they are denied education, employment, respect and the right to worship and eat as they wish. I want everyone to be treated equally.”
- Recalling his days of struggle in an interview, he said,
It was very difficult for me to make money and get shows for most of my career. Earlier, we did not even have proper contracts for the projects we started. It was just word of mouth and people would pay us only if they liked us. Even going to a college fest and convincing the organizers to give us 15-30 minutes of time was very difficult. It’s only in the last four or five years that people have started accepting rap music. The struggle is not over, because now there are new struggles, which are of a higher level.”
- In 2018, he released a solo track titled ‘Shook Once- Freestyle’ in which he mentioned the inequality faced by North-East and South Indian artists. In the same track, he criticized those artists who steal the work of other artists. Talking about this in an interview he said,
Most of the rappers and musicians who have become famous are from North India, and are Hindi-speaking artists. We want to showcase that this is what India has to offer in terms of rap culture. But it is not true. Artists from North-East and South India are better. Their shows are usually sold out, even if they perform in other languages. They also need to be in the limelight.”
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn