MUMBAI: Hip-Hop crew ‘Mumbai’s Finest’ has had the critics and fans sing their praises for over a decade, and the band’s journey and success finally earned its dues at the third edition of the Radio City Freedom Awards.
‘Mumbai’s Finest’ won the ‘Best Indie Collaboration’ (Jury Choice) for ‘Mumbai Cypher (Shudh Desi)’ – a collaboration featuring MC TOD FOD, SlumGods, Swadesi and few other rappers from the city.
‘Mumbai’s Finest’ also won the Popular Choice award for the ‘Best Hip-Hop Artist’ with over 1500 votes (the highest for any category). The band shared the Jury Choice award for the same category with Bengaluru-based artist BIG DEAL.
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With three awards for the night, ‘Mumbai’s Finest’ stole the show at the third edition of the Freedom Awards that celebrated the best artists from ten categories. Anand Bhaskar Collective bagged the Jury Choice and Popular Choice for the ‘Best Rock Artist’. For ‘Best Pop Artist’, Aditya Balani won it for Jury’s Choice, whereas Prateek Bhaduri walked away with the Popular Choice for the same category. Bengaluru-based Thrash Metal band Inner Sanctum was awarded the Jury Choice for ‘Best Metal Artist’, and the Popular Choice went to the young Heavy Metal band from Visakhapatnam – ‘Against Evil’. Indian Ocean received the judges’ nod for ‘Best Folk Fusion Artist’, whereas the votes chose Purple Fusion worthy of the award.
Indie/Alternative songwriter Gabriel Daniel went home with the ‘Best Young Indie Artist’ of the year. The jury – Luke Kenny, Atul Churamani, Subir Malik, Nandini Srikar and Yotam Agam – was split between Vice Versa and Jainam for the ‘Best Electronica Artist’, the award was shared by the two. However, the voters chose Paranox for the same category.
Under the non-music based categories, Laxmi Bomb won the ‘Best Album Art’, whereas Clinton Cerejo’s band indie pop project Ananthaal grabbed the ‘Best Video’ for the track ‘Inayat’. Vijay Basrur was awarded with ‘Best Indie-Genius’ award.
Held at Hard Rock Cafe Worli, host Gaurav Kapoor ensured the attendees had a smile throughout the night with his typical witty humour. While Kapoor managed with his humour, the bands performing at the night enthralled the audience with some original music, defining the soul of ‘indie’ music. Ganesh Talkies opened the set, followed by Alobo Naga and the Band, Laxmi Bomb, Neeraj Arya’s Kabir Cafe.
Sticking true to the theme of the Freedom Awards 3.0 – Music and Beyond – spoken word artist Rakesh Tiwari entertained the audience with a refreshing style of expression. Accompanied by violinist Ramya Pothuri, Tiwari impressed one-and-all with his flawless poetry in Hindi. The icing on the cake came through Bengaluru-based band ‘Swarathma’, and Vasu Dixit and his band mates concluded the night that celebrated the ‘Make in Indie’ initiative, an effort by Radio City to recognize and acknowledge indie talents from unheard corners of the country.
