Fotty Seven and Bali Bring Laughs and Dilli Launda Energy on ‘Jai Veeru’ EP

New Delhi hip-hop artists Fotty Seven and Bali forge a new rap partnership on their collaborative EP Jai Veeru, with six songs between them that ooze with attitude.

Teaming with their longtime producers including Enzo, Quan and An1k8t, there’s a bombastic, incorrigible intent with Jai Veeru, which takes its name from Bollywood’s iconic 1975 movie Sholay’s lead characters, Jai (played by Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (played by Dharmendra). Taking names and kicking ass in the way that you’d expect two typically Delhi blokes to do, the duo took questions from Rolling Stone India about the making of the EP and the things they wanted to get off their chest, including a cautionary tale about royalties and the music industry maze in “Haramzada.” Excerpts:  

Rolling Stone India: How long was a full project of songs like Jai Veeru with both of you together in the works? What was the first song off this project that was made?

Fotty Seven: It was stretched out for barely a month but if we remove the empty spaces, it won’t have taken more than a couple of days. Both of us started working on our own three tracks and showed it to each other but “Bhai Hai” was the first one to be locked.

Bali: For about a year I wanted this crossover and wanted us to build our own cinematic universe. It took only a month or two for us to figure out what tracks we wanted on the EP and then we focused on the fine tuning part of each track. “Bhai Hai” was the first track that was locked for this project and gave shape to the EP.

What draws you to each other as collaborators and cowriters for a project like this?

Fotty Seven: We never saw each other as artists. We were always friends first and that was everything that was required for us to work on this project. Sometimes we cancel each other out, the other times we’re fuel to the other person’s fire but we’re always in sync (mostly)

Bali: Before music, we were BFFs and after knowing each other for so long we rarely talked about doing music together (nerd culture took the front seat), I knew that if I ever do a project with another artist, it has to be him. (In tears as I speak)

It also feels like a project that has a very high energy throughout, nothing too serious in some senses. Would you agree that was the overall vibe you were going for?

Fotty Seven: Yes. This project is exactly how we envisioned it and we won’t change anything about it. The vibe, lyrics, music, everything came out exactly the way we wanted it to.

Bali: Yes absolutely, we wanted to give people something that they can just play and have fun with, we wanted to create a project that would live on forever and could be played from front to back without any filler tracks, something different from the whole music scene.

I think the essence of all these songs is that it’s also sometimes light-hearted, humorous and dripping with a Delhi launda attitude, pretty explicit and violent at times. How do you guys match each other’s level when it comes to things like that?

Fotty Seven: I think both of us are skilled in a very specific area of lyricism and at times, if a Venn diagram were to be made, these zones overlap each other by a considerable amount. It would never be too difficult for me to match Bali’s lyricism or the other way around. Also, we do not condone violence in any shape or form. We’re playing characters. Anything with violence in it is not to be taken literally. It’s art. Most of the EP is just metaphors, figure of speeches or senseless jokes because, why not?

Bali: We wanted to justify every track that we were on, even if certain (almost all) tracks are explicit, I wanted it to make sense. The humorous tone had to be just perfect so as to not cross into the “forced comedy” part.

“Haramzada” feels like it stems from some real experiences of people you perhaps you don’t want to name but still want to take down, with talks of royalties. How did that song come together?

Fotty Seven: Oh, no! I did the royalty bit because I wanted it to be meta when it came to the themes of haram-zadagi. I just wanted to break the fourth wall as I had never done it before so I broke character and put on another mask without announcing it. I think it was pretty cool and funny but then again, I really enjoy my own jokes a bit too much.

Bali: I want to name that person, that person is me. the incident described in “Haramzada” is something that I have recently been through (a balls-crushing experience). I think “Haramzada” was made in an hour and while recording the track everyone in the studio kept on laughing. As far as the “royalties” part goes, my legal team is looking into it. I’m looking at you, Fotty.

What else is coming up through 2024 for both of you individually as well as perhaps more projects together?

Fotty Seven: I am working on a couple more projects individually and might just be releasing EPs instead of singles. I’m starting to get a hang of it and it does open my mind more creatively.

Speaking of projects together, I think Jai Veeru might transcend into an Amar Prem or it might not. You never know.

Bali: I’ll be making my Bollywood debut (tears in my eyes again as I speak) with “Meri Baggi Mera Ghoda,” a track that I believe is some of the best work I’ve ever done, other than that I’m working on my debut album and an EP along with it.

Jai Veeru is just the beginning of this cinematic universe that we have created, more sequels to follow.

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