Machas With Attitude (MWA) was a

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

trio with members from

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

and

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

, India. Formed on 14 June 2008, it consisted of

Brodha V Vighnesh Shivanand (born 27 March 1990), better known by his stage name Brodha V, is an Indian rapper, songwriter, and music producer. Born in Kanchipuram, the Bengaluru-based artist started rapping at the age of 18 and took part in online ra ...

, Smokey and Bigg Nikk. MWA took influences from their various backgrounds, and although their songs were primarily in English, they usually featured lyrics in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

. The group's name was inspired by the American rapper group

N.W.A N.W.A (an abbreviation for Niggaz Wit Attitudes) was an American hip-hop group formed in Compton, California in 1987. Among the earliest and most significant figures of the gangsta rap subgenre, the group is widely considered one of the great ...

History

Formation

In early 2006, the three members – Bigg Nikk, Smokey and

met through an online battling community, before which, each artist was going solo. They primarily performed in the premier pubs like the Kyra Theatre in Bangalore and did live stage performances in events like 'Mr and Miss Bangalore Times' on occasion of the semi-finals as well as the finals. They have performed in various College Events and Corporate Events, spreading the trend of hip hop music all over South India. They were still in the underground scene and continued to be until they got their first breakthrough single "Oh Eesa (Club Mix)" in the film '' Aayirathil Oruvan'' and later made their

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

debut with "Dheaon Dheaon" from

Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge ''Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge'' () is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film directed by Nupur Asthana in her feature debut and produced by Ashish Patil under Y-Films, a subsidiary of Yash Raj Films. The film stars newcomers Saqib Salee ...

. Their devotion to the song of this movie is chronicled everywhere. Machas With Attitude was later featured in the 'Namma Chennai' Album, which also involved

Bobo Shashi Sasikanth, better known as Bobo Shashi (born 12 October 1981), is an Indian film composer and singer. Biography and career Sasikanth was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India to a musically affluent family. His father Murali Raj is a famous compos ...

Musical influences

The band, in many interviews cite

Tupac Shakur Tupac Amaru Shakur (; born Lesane Parish Crooks; June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor, regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all tim ...

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, he is credited with popula ...

A.R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinema ...

Rakim William Michael Griffin Jr. (born January 28, 1968), better known by his stage name Rakim (), is an American rapper. He is one half of Golden age hip-hop, golden age hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, with whom he released four albums: ''Paid in Full ...

Big L Lamont Coleman (May 30, 1974February 15, 1999), known professionally as Big L, was an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Emerging from Harlem in New York City in 1992, Big L became known among underground hip-hop fans for his f ...

Krs-one Lawrence "Kris" Parker (born August 20, 1965), better known by his stage names KRS-One (; an abbreviation of "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone") and Teacha, is an American rapper from the Bronx. He rose to prominence as part of the ...

Big Pun Christopher Lee Rios (November 10, 1971 – February 7, 2000), better known by his stage name Big Pun (short for Big Punisher), was an American rapper. Emerging from the underground hip hop scene in the Bronx, he came to prominence upon discover ...

and

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. ( ; born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Rooted in West Coast hip-hop, he is widely regarded as one of t ...

as their biggest musical influences.

Times Supastars

Machas With Attitude auditioned at the

Times Music Times Music is an Indian music record label copyright music publishing company, owned by The Times Group, Headquartered in Mumbai, India. Times Music started operations in 1998 and has a catalogue of more than 60,000 tracks in all languages an ...

's Supastars, India's first ever pop band hunt, which is a large-scale entertainment variety show. The show presented India's best unknown talents. Machas With Attitude, which was the only hip hop band in a pop band hunt, made their appearances on national newspapers and widespread public media after winning the South leg of the competition, from among hundreds of applicants. The finals, held at Hard Rock Café (HRC), Mumbai on 26 August 2010, was whipped up with frenzy performances by

Bombay Rockers Bombay Rockers is a Danish musical duo popular in India. Their debut album, ''Introducing'', has gone five times Platinum, with sales of over 100,000 records. History In 2003, Danish-Indian singer Navtej Singh Rehal (Naf) was introduced to the ...

, Ali Quili and compeered by Siddharth Kannan. In the name of music world,

Anu Malik Anwar Sardar "Anu" Malik (born 2 November 1960) is an Indian music composer, singer, music arranger and score composer. He is the recipient of a National Film Award and three Filmfare Awards, who primarily composes music for the Hindi film ...

Shibani Kashyap Shibani Kashyap (born 12 January 1979) is an Indian singer who works in the Hindi cinema. She has judged the reality singing show '' Bathroom Singer''. Kashyap achieved fame by singing the signature tune of the AIR FM channel of All India Radi ...

, Lesle Lewis,

DJ Suketu Suketu Radia, also known as DJ Suketu (born 19 November 1981) is an Indian DJ, music producer and content creator. Since the release of his critically acclaimed tracks 'Bin Tere Sanam'

, DJ Ryan Beck,

Ishq Bector Ishq Bector is an Indo Canadian composer, music producer, singer, songwriter, actor, director and Hip Hop artist. He is best known for his song "Aye Hip-Hopper" in which he collaborated with Sunidhi Chauhan. Recently, ishQ has composed and fe ...

and Raavi More were present. This platform was instrumental in introducing the Machas With Attitude to

Professional career

Machas With Attitude took Hip-Hop to

with their debut track 'Dheaon Dheaon' from

, which was released on 14 October 2011, in which they featured alongside

Vishal Dadlani Vishal Dadlani (born 28 June 1973) is an Indian singer, songwriter, music composer and occasional actor. He is one half of the duo Vishal–Shekhar, and frontman and vocalist of one of India's leading rock bands Pentagram. As a great singer, ...

of Vishal and Shekhar. Other achievements of the Machas With Attitude include various live stage performances and recordings for over a series of regional feature films. Apart from this, they have collaborated with other hip hop artists like

and Haji Springer. In early 2012 M.W.A. performed alongside Gangis Khan, aka Camoflauge, who got signed to the

Wu-Tang Clan Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop collective formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its members include RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and, until his death in 2004, O ...

. The Machas With Attitude are scheduled to go on floors with their debut album in late 2012. On 28 July 2012 Machas With Attitude were featured on an hour-long interview with

Radio One (India) 94.3 Radio One is a commercial radio network in India owned by HT Media. It has stations in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune. History The newspaper '' Mid-Day'' founded the station as Radio Midday in Mumbai, which ...

94.3 FM. They spoke about updates of the album and how they wrote their lyrics. On 30 May 2013 Brodha V and Smokey won the Radiocity freedom award for "Best Hip Hop Artists" for the track "Indian Flava" which was presented by Vishal Dadlani. Upon hearing the song, Vishal offered them to sing for

Chennai Express ''Chennai Express'' is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Rohit Shetty and produced by UTV Motion Pictures and Red Chillies Entertainment. It stars Deepika Padukone, Shah Rukh Khan and with Nikitin Dheer and Sath ...

, for which they readily agreed. It was announced in the following days that Brodha V, Smokey and Enkore would be singing alongside

Natalie Di Luccio Natalie Di Luccio (born 29 June 1989) is an Italian-Canadian classical-crossover singer from Toronto, Ontario. She is often referred to as "Bollywood's Soprano" because of her unique renditions of Indian classics. Her career began in 2010 whe ...

for the track "Ready Steady Po". Ready Steady Po being the slogan of the film, gave primetime focus to M.W.A. 3 July 2013 marked their break through in the Bollywood industry with

Vishal–Shekhar Vishal–Shekhar are an Indian music composition, production, singing, and songwriting duo consisting of Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani from Mumbai. Known predominantly for their work as music composers in Hindi cinema, Vishal–Shekhar h ...

for the movie

, which is a

Shah Rukh Khan Shah Rukh Khan (; born 2 November 1965), also known by the initialism SRK, is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi cinema. Referred to in the media as the "Padishah, Baadshah of Bollywood" and "King Khan", he has Shah Rukh K ...

starrer. The song "Ready Steady Po" alongside Vishal Dadlani and

received rave reviews as one of the best tracks in the film. In 2012, writing for ''Zomba'' (a

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

initiative), actor

Naren Weiss Naren Weiss (born March 15, 1991) is an actor, playwright, and former model. He played Osama bin Laden in Kamal Haasan's film on terrorism '' Vishwaroopam'', Dekker in the ABC series ''Deception'', and is known for his work in theatre in Indi ...

wrote a profile on Brodha V's life and career called ''The Brodha V Story''.

Discography

Movies OST

*2013: ''

– Ready Steady Po (Hindi)'' *2011: ''

(Hindi)'' *2012: '' Yen Endraal Kaadhal Enben (Tamil)'' *2011: ''Yuvan (Telugu/Tamil)'' *2011: ''Ragging (Telugu)'' *2011: ''

Aadukalam ''Aadukalam'' (; ) is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language action drama film directed by Vetrimaran, produced by S. Kathiresan and distributed by Sun Pictures. The film stars Dhanush in the lead role, alongside Taapsee (in her Tamil debut), Kishore, ...

(Tamil)'' *2011: '' Pilla Zamindar (Telugu)'' *2011: ''Maharaja (Tamil)'' *2011: '' Endhukante Premanta (Telugu)'' *2010: '' Aayirathil Oruvan(Tamil)'' *2010: ''Koffi Bar (Telugu/Kannada)'' *2010: ''

Thamizh Padam ''Tamizh Padam'' () is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language parody film written and directed by C. S. Amudhan in his directorial debut. The film stars Shiva and Disha Pandey. The film is the first full-length spoof in Tamil cinema. It parodies contempo ...

(Tamil)'' *2010: '' Darling (Telugu)'' *2010: ''

Kola Kolaya Mundhirika ''Kola Kolaya Mundhirika'' is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language comedy film written by Crazy Mohan and directed by Madhumitha. The film stars Jayaram, Karthik Kumar, and Shikha along with numerous popular Tamil comedy artists including M. S. Bhaska ...

(Tamil)'' *2010: ''Pappi Apaccha (Malayalam)'' *2010: ''

Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam ''Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam'' () is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language Western comedy film directed by Chimbu Deven, starring choreographer-turned-actor Raghava Lawrence in a double role alongside Padmapriya, Lakshmi Rai, and Sandhya alongside an e ...

(Tamil)'' *2010: ''Amara (Tamil)'' *2010: '' Drohi (Tamil)'' *2010: ''Asthamanam (Tamil)'' *2010: ''Veeravellait (Tamil)'' *2010: '' Nil Gavani Sellathey (Tamil)'' *2010: '' Velayadava (Tamil)'' *2009: ''

Nimidangal ''Koffi Bar'' in Telugu and ''Nimidangal'' () in Tamil, is a 2011 Indian thriller film directed by Geetha Krishna. The film was presented by Lakshmi Ganapathi Film. Cast * Shashank as Ramakrishna *Bianca Desai as Srijana *Atul Kulkarni as a ri ...

(Tamil)'' *2009: '' Ninivugal (Tamil)'' *2009: '' Ananda Tandavam(Tamil)'' *2009: ''Kadhalagi (Tamil)'' *2009: '' Arjun gauru (Telugu)'' *2009: '' Yuagniki Okkadu (Telugu)'' *2009: ''Namma Chennai (English/Tamil)'' *2008: ''If you are in Emergency'' ''(English)'' *2008: ''Saidapet Merke (Tamil)''

Studio albums

*2014: ''Red + Green = Brown'' *2011: ''Death Punch'' *2011: ''Cellotape''

Other appearances

*2012: ''

Dena Bank Dena Bank was a government-owned bank that in 2019 merged with Bank of Baroda. It was headquartered in Mumbai and had 1,874 branches. The bank was founded in 1938 as a privately owned Bank. In 1969 the Government of India nationalized ''Dena Ba ...

(Corporate)'' *2012: ''

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

(Corporate)'' *2012: ''Desi hip hop Mixtape – Enkore'' (Making our Money) *2012: '' BITS PILANI RAP WARS (Main Judges)'' *2012: ''One Bengaluru One Music'' (Interview on Radio One 94.3) *2010: ''

Chennai Sangamam Chennai Sangamam (Tamil: சென்னை சங்கமம்) is a large annual open Tamil cultural festival held in the city of Chennai. The festival is organized by the Tamil Maiyam and Department of Tourism and Culture of the Governmen ...

(Tamil – Main Concert)''

Tracks

Television

Bigg Nikk of the Machas with Attitude hosted a show called Machas Mix which was aired on Captain TV. The essence of the programme was to have an informal interaction with the chosen musicians. The idea was to create an atmosphere where the invitee would be at ease. Some of the eminent invitees interviewed were D.Imman, Sanjay Chandrashaker and Hip Hop Tamizha. The program, directed by Praveen Kumar and produced by Sam Anoton, was first aired in May 2010 and after completing 50 episodes, it went off air in October 2010. It was well received and obtained a decent TRP rating which made it the third most watched program on the channel. Machas With Attitude was also featured on MTV Wassup in February 2009, regarding the issue of Moral Policing.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Indian pop music groups Indian rappers Musical groups established in 2008 Indian hip-hop groups