The genre Rap has always been perceived as a protest music, against the oppressors of any type, the fact that Telugu and Hindi rap is getting popular is akin to an underdog rising against all odds. Of late, there have been several upcoming rap artists in regional languages and it is a good sign that the music scene of our country is becoming diversified. 

They say talent often manifests itself when the person is young and it is true in the case of Mahadeva Sastry aka Maahaa, who is a 24-year-old rapper based out of Hyderabad, who is now joining the budding rappers who are bringing up the art form in Indian music. About his beginnings, he says, "My first introduction to rap and hip hop was in 9th standard, and I remember it having a tremendous hold over me. I would try and sing the lyrics and copy the beat of the song to make it sound as authentic as possible. I started writing my own stuff when I was in 11th!" 

While pursuing his engineering in SRM Chennai, he got his first opportunity to explore his form of music, as he explains, "It wasn't until engineering that I got my first opportunity. I used to rap occasionally before being asked to perform for fests and such, and that was the catapult pushing me towards a career in rap."

Over the past few years, Maahaa has come out with tracks in Telugu, Hindi and English that capture the essence of a local lad in addition to capturing the essence of Hyderabad, like in his recent track Hyderabadi Power, which he released just last week. In this track, he talks about how there's a lot more to Hyderabad than just biryani. "Whenever someone says Hyderabad or thinks about Hyderabad, the first thing people think of is Biryani but I wanted to talk about a lot of things that are there in this city that is why when we made the video, we shot at all sorts of places, capturing images like the rustic charm of Charminar to Golconda to the hustle of night life in posh areas of the city to the modernistic Gachibowli and Hitech City area. I wanted this video to connect to people, like I usually do and I believe there's something in the video for every Hyderabadi," says the rapper whose videos on YouTube have a collective view count of more than 2 lakhs.

Another interesting aspect of Maahaa's music is that he is as multilingual as a budding rapper can get. "I grew up in many cities and as a result, I speak multiple languages and that is why I want to make my music in various languages. I want to connect to a broader range of audiences and that is why my tracks also have a couple of languages in them at least. For instance, my latest track has English and Hyderabadi lingo in it," says Maahaa, who is now planning on a series of music videos talking about following one's passion and the struggle behind it.