Photo: Emiway Bantai
Mumbai’s iconic emcee and Indian Hip-Hop superstar Emiway Bantai, real name Bilal Shaikh, has finally released his highly anticipated third rap album “King Of The Streets”.
The massive 17-track rap record arrives after Bantai teased the album for months and features guest appearances by Bantai Records’ affiliates and underground emcees Young Galib and V Break.
The entire album is driven by Bantai’s gruff lyricism and his distinct choppa flow. Notably, the entire rap album is curated independently by Bantai himself and runs for over fifty minutes – a rarity amidst the continued plummeting of album runtimes across the globe.
The LP consists of numerous lead singles that the hard-hitting rapper has released across the year. Besides entirely new rap records including “Roots”, “Classy Chapri”, “Meherbaani” and “Beta Karta Rap”, Bantai has featured his massive Indian Hip-Hop hits “Company”, “Chhod Dala”, “Scene Change”, “Kya Bolti Public” alongside Young Galib and “King of Hip-Hop”.
Further, the album consists of three distinct versions of “King of The Streets”. Stylized as “KOTS”, Bantai drops incendiary verses on “KOTS (Prelude)”, “KOTS (Intro)” and “KOTS (Freestyle)”. Check out the entire “King of The Streets” tracklist here.
While “King of The Streets” might seem like an easy rap record owing to several singles being released ahead of the album, the LP is an affecting documentary on poverty, Bantai’s ever-expanding influence on Indian rap music, the Mumbai street code and portrays his extraordinary rise as an independent rap artist.
The album has been mired by controversy across its rollout. Bantai’s flagrant beef with Kr$na still continues and his unapologetic verses are often construed as subliminal disses against the Kalamkaar affiliate.
On his most recent single, “King of The Streets”, Bantai didn’t fall short of dissing MC Stan on one verse and giving his flowers to Indian Hip-Hop royalty Divine on another.
Watch the leading visual treatments from Emiway Bantai’s sophomore album ‘King of The Streets’ here if you haven’t yet.
Listen to Emiway Bantai’s debut album ‘King of The Streets’ here via Spotify.
