It wouldn't be news to anyone that Yo Yo Honey Singh, currently India's most successful, well-paid music artist, isn't exactly politically correct with his lyrics. Singh got into major trouble a few years ago in the aftermath of the Delhi gangrape-murder, when his openly misogynistic songs, some of which seem to do everything short of actually encouraging rape, came to the fore. A few concerts were cancelled at the time, but Honey Singh remains a fixture, and is at the top of his Bollywood game.
Among his most recent songs are titles like Alcoholic ("Pee ke bhi seedha khada hoon/Kyunki main alcoholic hoon") and Tanning ("Tu hai sabse haseen/Sea-water si namkeen, janasheen"), one for a Bollywood film and the other on his own album, Desi Kalakar. The album features another song that asks where the music industry's "revolution" would have come from if Yo Yo hadn't been born.
This revolution hasn't thrilled everyone though, despite Singh's ability to get past the rape lyrics controversy. But if petitions and cancelled gigs don't do the job, maybe fire needs to be fought with fire. At least that's what St Stephen's College student Rene Sharanya Verma settled on, unleashing a tour-de-force tirade against Honey Singh as part of Delhi Poetry Slam.
Verma takes on Honey Singh's catchy tunes with some rap of her own, using his own lyrics to assert what she isn't: "I am not an afterthought, I am not an overpriced sweater in Zara, I'm not an ambraan di queen or a kudi namkeen... I am not blue eyes, hypnotise. Mein choti dress mein bomb nahin lagti, yaar. I am not a woofer and you sure as hell ain't my amplifier, what are you a f***king transformer? And dear Honey Singh, if you feed my dog a nashe-wali biskoot, I will cut you up."
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Among his most recent songs are titles like Alcoholic ("Pee ke bhi seedha khada hoon/Kyunki main alcoholic hoon") and Tanning ("Tu hai sabse haseen/Sea-water si namkeen, janasheen"), one for a Bollywood film and the other on his own album, Desi Kalakar. The album features another song that asks where the music industry's "revolution" would have come from if Yo Yo hadn't been born.
This revolution hasn't thrilled everyone though, despite Singh's ability to get past the rape lyrics controversy. But if petitions and cancelled gigs don't do the job, maybe fire needs to be fought with fire. At least that's what St Stephen's College student Rene Sharanya Verma settled on, unleashing a tour-de-force tirade against Honey Singh as part of Delhi Poetry Slam.
Verma takes on Honey Singh's catchy tunes with some rap of her own, using his own lyrics to assert what she isn't: "I am not an afterthought, I am not an overpriced sweater in Zara, I'm not an ambraan di queen or a kudi namkeen... I am not blue eyes, hypnotise. Mein choti dress mein bomb nahin lagti, yaar. I am not a woofer and you sure as hell ain't my amplifier, what are you a f***king transformer? And dear Honey Singh, if you feed my dog a nashe-wali biskoot, I will cut you up."