Strike while the iron's hot. That's pretty much what 7Bantai'z did in 2014. Back then, the young rap crew's members were merely a bunch of 14-year-olds studying in a Dharavi school while deciding to dabble in hip-hop music. The genre had just found its feet in India. But it was far from a runaway success. That started changing a year later when a major music company sensed a business opportunity in giving rap music a shot in the arm. Artistes like Divine and Naezy gained the oxygen of publicity. And then the canny marketing team of Gully Boy subliminally put rap in the mainstream consciousness in 2018 with catchy promotional phrases like "Apna time aayega".

And then the canny marketing team of Gully Boy subliminally put rap in the mainstream consciousness in 2018 with catchy promotional phrases like "Apna time aayega". Of course, the film's launch in 2019 made even aunties and uncles fed on a diet of S Balasubramaniam realise that the meaning of "rap" isn't restricted to what they give their kids when they return home with failed grades. So by the time the members of 7Bantai'z had polished their craft to a professional level, they were in a place where they could confidently look forward to a bona-fide career in hip-hop music.