Revelator: How Shikriwal is reshaping Bihar's musical identity and craft in a sensationalized genre

For most listeners, “Bhojpuri music” still means glossy videos, loud beats and lyrics built for quick virality. It’s a reputation so strong that the language itself often gets written off as incapable of nuance.

Sasaram-born rapper Sanket Shikriwal walks straight into that stereotype and scrambles it. Working in Bhojpuri and Hindi, he bends rap toward something slower and more cinematic – jazz chords, saxophone lines, and verses that feel more like letters than punchlines. “Real Baat”, his breakout track, pairs a soft, wandering sax with Bhojpuri bars in a way that feels closer to late-night jazz radio than to YouTube bangers.

Before all this, he was writing poems - small attempts to make sense of growing up in Bihar, of family, friendships, restlessness. Rap arrived later as a louder vessel for the same thoughts. That’s why his flow never sounds like it’s chasing a trend; the words decide the rhythm, not the other way round. The horns, pianos and brushed drums simply give those words a room to live in.

Natya Alaapika, his 18-track album, stretches that instinct into a full world. The record moves like theatre: ritual-like openings, sudden mood shifts, long passages where instruments seem to argue with his voice. It’s part folk memory, part protest, part private diary, and it rewards people who sit with it start to finish rather than skimming for singles.

What stands out with Shikriwal is how stubbornly he dodges both the standard hip-hop template and the loudest version of Bhojpuri pop. He leans into vulnerability, writes about fear, affection, faith and failure, and lets the language breathe instead of turning it into a gag. Even his use of saxophone feels like a quiet argument with the idea that Bhojpuri has to shout to be heard.

If you’ve never willingly played a Bhojpuri track, he’s an ideal first step. Spend an evening with Natya Alaapika and you hear a different possibility: regional rap that feels global in its ambition yet rooted in its soil – proof that Bihar’s future sound doesn’t have to look, sound or behave like anyone else’s.