Hip Hop show goes awry

Pasha Bhai, Clan stopped from performing by bouncers at Toca

Falah Faisal | NT

Bengaluru: Wanandaf, Pasha Bhai, and Clan Bokka Phod are names that became synonymous with hip hop in the city having performed at prestigious venues around the city and also across the nation, including the prestigious Ziro Festival of Music.

But last night they were stopped from performing at Toca, a club in Koramangala, which instead chose to play Bollywood tracks rather than let them perform.

“The key conflict was the headliner who went up early and kicked the stage monitor while performing. When the bouncer tried to pull him back from doing that, the artist got angry and left. The whole venue rallied behind the bouncer to not allow anyone else to perform. They put their own DJ on and continued the night afraid to make losses,” says an eyewitness who saw it all go down.

Being forced out of the venue, Pasha Bhai and the Clan began performing on the footpath outside due to which the police were called. They attempted to detain Pasha Bhai but with the sheer size of the crowd in his support, they were forced to let him go.

“Our only problem is that the show was dumped without informing any of us prior and when we went to work something out and reach a compromise they started disrespecting our fellow artistes and heckled us. That’s where they showed their true colours, they would rather play some Hindi/Bollywood trash than support good music produced by our own local artists,” posted Pasha Bhai on his social media as he shared videos of the incident.

“This was a waste of time, effort, and artistes' reputations at stake - who used their names to get people to come to the venue and even pay as high a cover charge as Rs 2,000 just to see these artistes not be allowed to perform. Close to 20 people that made the venue a business of over Rs 40,000 on just cover charge, were also asking for their refunds only to step back due to threats from bouncers,” says Ojas Shetty who manages the Clan.

On being contacted, the venue organisers chose not to comment upon the incident. It’s a shame to see local artistes denied a stage and treated poorly, especially as they try to promote the local dialect of Dakhni through their rap.