Dehradun based Team Evolution India, is a decade old performing arts team. Established in the year 2007, they started with stunt riding, took it to major competitive platforms, created a world record, defied the odds and imbibed music, dance, graffiti, and major hip hop elements into the team’s culture through the process. With artists like Dakait Shaddy, 2 Fistd and Aniket Raturi on the roster, the collective is now pushing out original hip-hop music. Their debut album ‘Meri Team’ has been spreading like fire on Youtube, and various streaming services, owing to the charged visuals that they’ve managed to produce in a completely DIY spirit.
“We’re young dreamers and doers, ready to take on all that comes our way. We take pride in being who we are and doing what we love. Watching ourselves stick together for over 10 years, makes us feel responsible for contributing to an artistically aware and ever-evolving world. We’re wolves who stick together no matter what. We always stand for each other no matter what.” says the team. We got in touch with them to know more about the team dynamics, their projects and their plans for the future.
1. How would you describe the hip-hop scene in your city?
All of us on the team are from Dehradun itself and have seen hip hop live here since the very beginning. Go back 10 odd years and you’ll see dance forms like those in the west, you’ll see freestyle rappers, stunt riders, graffiti artists and all sorts of artists living the hip hop lifestyle.
We take pride in being one of the first and oldest teams of Dehradun who have all the major elements of Hip Hop together.
The scene in the city is completely massive. There are a lot of beat producers, rappers, teams, dance crews, longboarders, skateboarders and many other such freestyle artists. Unity in the city and the support for each other amongst the artists is what makes our city different.
The Hip Hop scene here is on the rise and the neighboring villages and localities have also joined in with the vibe.
2. How many artists do you have on your roster/in your group? Tell us about them.
We are a team of about 40 people with different skill sets.
Dakait Shaddy, Aniket Raturi, 2FISTD , Upen Chaudhary, Vishal Rana , Karan Nawani, Shreyansh Rawat. Upen Chaudhary is one of our oldest members in the team and is a freestyle English rap artist. He organises Dehradun’s hip hop freestyle jam session every Sunday under the name of Dehraboom.
Vishal is a singer/ songwriter and music producer. Shreyansh is a singer-songwriter. All the artists on the team are from Dehradun.
3. Tell us what went behind in making the video for UK07 SE?
UK07 SE is one big dedication to the Hip Hop scene, the artists and the blissful vibe of the city.
The video was envisioned to be Uttarakhand’s biggest Hip Hop meet-up and a showcase of all these talents that thrive in the city. A shout out to these talents and a message to the world that the Himalayan valley is way more than affirmations and judgments of the world.
It is also one of the very first songs in Indian Hip Hop scene that has the International approach and speaks volumes about the hip hop scenario in the city.
You would not believe that the video has been shot in a day and edited in another. The entire process of shooting, editing and releasing the video is of 3 days in total. Our major agenda was to conduct a Hip Hop Cypher with performances from each group and art forms. The fact that the entire city collected at one place to celebrate their art and contribute to this video in itself is a great example of UK07’s unity.
We shot these while the cypher happened.
Dakait, Aniket and 2FISTD are really gifted performers as we didn’t have to redo any takes and they performed just the way you see in the video.
Their energy, especially Dakait’s, during the shoot and in the video is what makes the video so powerful.
Our team which organised the shoot, of course, had a lot to do in the background and we’re really glad to have such talented, skilled and hard-working brothers with us.
4. What kind of music does Team Evolution want to make/promote? Is it any different from the ones in Delhi/Mumbai?
We have no such boundations when it comes to making and promoting music. If it’s good, if it resonates with our vibe, we’re sure shot going ahead with it. We believe Hip Hop is the movement of truth, we’d always like to propagate our truth through music. We’re planning on collaborating with artists from all around the globe doing all genres in the coming future.
See, We believe every place or city has a vibe of their own. As Delhi’s vibe is entirely different from that of Mumbai, so is ours.
We carry our own vibe, our own stories, our own set of truths and this is what makes our music and songs different.
5. How do friends and family react to what you are trying to do?
Both, our friends and our families, are really supportive of what we do. You see, it is a lifestyle for us now. We spend about 14-16 hours of our day doing music and living this way, with our team members. This is who we are. And when the parents see this, they know it for a fact that this one’s really into his art. When one believes in themselves, the others do too.
6. What do you wish to achieve as Team Evolution in the future?
As Team Evolution our major objective is to become a full-fledged performing arts team that manages artists, operates as a label and is a major backbone of an artists evolution.
We wish to help the upcoming artists reach the platform they deserve and work hard for.
Team Evolution will in itself be a platform for the artists to share their content with the world.
