In 2000 Rappaz Union (Sammy Samrat and Nirnaya) created the first Nepalese rap album in English. In 2003 Nurbu Sherpa released his debut album Nurbu Sherpa Representin' K.T.M.C. (Kathmandu City), the first Nepalese hiphop album recorded in the US, for which he was nominated for a Best Music Video award. In 2004 TheUNity (Aidray and Da69) brought out their first album Girish n TheUNity presents X with Girish (Gorkhali G). It included "Shes the Bomb",[1] the music video of which was a major success in the local charts.
Rise of the Underground
In 2003 underground rapper Aroz, based in New York City, spearheaded the Nepalese underground hip hop movement through his website (now defunct) nephop.com. The term "Nephop" soon gained worldwide popularity and is accepted as referring to Nepalese hiphop in general.
In 2004 Aroz released his first underground single "Chudaina", produced by DJ AJ on nephop.com. In 2005 Nepsydaz had a commercial success as a rap group when they released their version of the same song. Aroz became "the most controversial"[2] rapper, experimenting with dirty rap in his next single "Katti Khep Vannu".[3] This had great success in the underground, after which he quickly released his next single, "Killin Terraces",[4] which the New Urban Music Blog[5] considered one of the best Nepalese political raps.
Aroz received some mainstream exposure after being featured in Nurbu Sherpa's single "Baby Gurl", from Nurbu's second album, Save Nepal. According to fursad.com, "Baby Gurl"[6] was voted one of the top ten songs of 2008. Nurbu also featured Aroz and other underground rappers in his next single, "When I'm around",[7] from his third album.
