Dhanji and Dox : Changing the game with Boy Cut

A name as prolific as Dhanji requires no introduction to the listeners of Indian Hip-Hop, who is known for his distinctive and obscure style, with well equipped lyrical material that will make the listeners come for more. But even in conversations and through social media interactions, the 23 year old rapper’s distinct persona doesn’t fade away. Never speaking or indicating towards his personal life, only through his songs, or his ebonic sprinkled intellectual talks, the rapper is audacious with the way he carries himself. Especially when we look at how the artist puts little to none effort while promoting or releasing any of his project or song. Dhanji stated on multiple occasions about him not being a fan of limelight when it comes to speaking on his craft, as his craft speaks for itself.

The rapper has also pulled some incredulous feats of task when it comes to him dropping 5 mixtapes in seven months. Building his own universe which shows the growth of the rapper. And with his fourth installment, Boy-Cut, in his Mr. Five Mixtapes in a year series, the rapper finally mastered the style that made him such an off the top act.

Speaking on the idea behind the project, Dhanji stated “As soon as Dox reached out to me, I knew that this tape was going to be different. With this mixtape I was able to tell a more cohesive story, thanks to the ambient atmosphere that Dox created with his beats. I knew that Boy Cut is going to be the project on which I can show the side of Dhanji that people have never seen before.”

Produced by Chandigarh based producer Dox, who is known for his obscure style of production and sensuous loops of chopped samples. The 17-minutes long project is jam packed with jaw dropping bangers, courtesy of the synergy between Dox and Dhanji.
The rapper-producer duo takes over the listeners ears, ushering their attention to the right spot with the first song of the EP, “That House Party”. Accompanied by a minimalistic beat Dhanji initiates what he does best; meandering perfectly through all the complexity of any beat with an immaculate flow. The track also starts the loosely connected narrative of the EP, which revolves around love, heartbreak, moving on and relapse.

Speaking on the working experience , Dox says “Since I reached out to him and tried to understand his style, the creation of the beats wasn't much of a challenge. Even though some instruments felt empty before the recording, I knew that his voice is the element that is missing.” And that’s what “No Cap” is all about. Where Dhanji’s ever-surprising voice ensconced into the homespun beat. Even though it gets devoured by the unbridled nature of Zobra’s verse, the song is still a testament of the coction of Dhanji and Dox.

Speaking of the unrestrained features, the mixtape only has two features in it. But the featured artists understood their roles properly before jumping in, as both Zorba and Vichar underpins Dhanji’s decision to use the only two of them. On “Irsha” and the aforementioned “No Cap” both Vichar and Zobra, respectively, fight Dhanji for playtime, spitting ridiculous amounts of bars and competing for the best verse on the entire tape.

With only two features throughout seven tracks of the mixtape, Boy Cut finds enough time on its hand to reflect the range it has. Tracks such “Mausambi Drip” and “Re:call” are two sides of the same coin, with sonics are loosely packed open to more interpretation and exploration. As both the tracks revolve around love and heartbreak from two different perspectives with Dox' malignant melodies.
The track “Baby”, which is also the closure of the album, leaves the listeners in an intoxicated state. Where Dhanji’s drunk voice mixed with a quivering beat from Dox creates an effect of walking through an acid trip, with patches of autotune on track makes it even more exhilarating.

Released over less than a year ago “Boy Cut” turned out to be the magnum opus of both Dhanji and Dox’ careers, yet. There is no moment where "Boy Cut" grabs your lapels and demands your attention, it's unrecognisable the yet familiar aura of the project that keeps the listeners hooked to the last second.