“Who are you?”

It’s a question I get asked often..

Although I think I’m still trying to find the right answer.

Not often do you find a 20-something-year-old Indian girl who can talk your ear off about Hip-Hop. I get asked all the time, typically with a tone of shock and wonder, “Who are you?!” when I find myself rambling about my favorite emcees, and often times, I have to stop and ask myself the same question.

It all started when I was the age of 15. I was sitting in the car with my older brother, who always knew anything and everything about music. I envied that about him, especially as I had to follow in his footsteps and attempt to live up to this musical passion. But I was lost. I could never connect with it the way he could, and I hated myself for it. That was until Common’s “Heidi Hoe” came on. I know, suddenly this story is not quite as cute and romantic. In fact, it was the final line in the song that caught my attention: “There’s a party in your mouth, bitch, and everybody’s cumming”. To my poor parents who are probably reading this in absolute disgust, yes, this is the line that made me curious about Hip-Hop. It was so crass, and yet so simply genius, that I was amazed. And I had to learn more.

From there, I dove mostly into Common, of course falling in absolute love with “The Light”, but also with his other classics such as “Be”, “Come Close”, and “I Used to Love H.E.R.”. I wrote papers on his music and learned every single one of his albums. Through him, I learned of the amazing J Dilla, who shaped my work ethic and passion, as well as the Soulquarian movement, which became the era of Hip-Hop that I could mostly relate to. It became my fuel in life, bringing me to the city of Philadelphia where my life and passion for music was just beginning.

I continued on to work numerous roles in the entertainment industry, from intern to joint roller to tour manager to A&R. No matter what I did, and trust me, I did a lot, I knew that my heart would always take me back to working with Hip-Hop artists. When I launched Spice on the Beat in 2019, it became a place for me to talk about my experiences working with these artists and in the numerous roles that I worked. There was no main purpose. It was just to ramble a bit. Those who I looked up to in the Philly music scene said I had a cool voice when it came to my love of Hip-Hop, so I took that, and I ran with it. Spice on the Beat was fun for me, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. That was until the pandemic hit. I realized that now more than ever, artists needed help. Not only did they need press, but they also needed guidance and encouragment. I wanted to provide those things. I didn’t need anything in return besides a couple of bucks to help maintain this domain and the satisfaction that I got from helping those with similar musical missions. Unless they asked for it, I didn’t need to direct their musical skills. I could sit back and enjoy the music that I fell in love with while helping artists further their goals. After a while, I made a place in the music industry for Spice on the Beat.