Delhi-NCR rappers Fotty Seven and Bali vividly remember the first time they met in 2019. “I still rue the day,” jokes Fotty Seven, before Bali immediately responds: “It was the best day for me.” During their Apple Music interview, the pair elaborate on how they bonded over their common love for gaming and nerd culture. “It turned out he hates the same people as me,” says Fotty Seven, aka Ankit Gudwani. “I thought that this could be the start of a very long friendship.” That’s the kind of playful banter that characterises the typical exchanges between the celebrated Indian hip-hop artists. In fact, that same playful tone pervades their collaborative 2024 EP, Jai Veeru. The pair named the collection after the characters played by Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra in the classic 1975 Hindi film Sholay, whose on-screen friendship they’d likely claim is almost as iconic as their own. Despite their occasional love-hate teasing, Fotty Seven and Bali have always been admirers of each other’s talent. Working together, however, didn’t cross their minds until recently. “He was busy with his projects,” says Bali, aka Sachin Bali, “and I was busy with mine.” While hanging out together one day, they both started to freestyle over a beat they found on the internet. Fotty Seven says: “I told him, ‘Dude, you sound good,’ and he said, ‘Dude, you sound good. We should do something about it.’” Like any good friends, they share the mic equally, with Fotty Seven and Bali taking the lead on three tracks each. “You’ll be able to guess which song was initiated by whom,” the former says. “The ones that have more pop-culture references and humour are by Bali. Comedy comes very naturally to him.” Featuring a liberal use of north Indian slang and explicit language, the sharp and snarky lyrics will hit home with residents of the National Capital Region. “All we had to do was rhyme the things that we say in our daily lives,” Fotty Seven says. The pair had immense confidence in each other’s ability to bring their A game to the project. “[We told each other:] ‘You do you, I believe in you,’” Fotty Seven says. Below, the dynamic duo take Apple Music through the making of the EP, track by track. “Bhai Hai” Bali: “When I heard it, I was like, ‘Is this about me?’” Fotty Seven: “This was the first song we finished, after which we laid out the map for the EP, [where] every track belongs to the theme of bhaichara [brotherhood]. My verse is [about] him. My relationship [with Bali] is: You annoy me, but you’re still the only friend who actually understands me.” Bali: “I wanted to keep it like a conversation between two friends. Whatever he’s saying, I do those things. I make uncomfortable jokes in public. I said: ‘Okay, I’ll take the blame but so what? Am I not your bro? Haven’t I kept your secrets safe?’” “Aji Mera Ghanta” Bali: “People are constantly giving others advice—don’t do this, don’t do that. The point was to tell people to shut up and let me do what I want to do. It’s an angry perspective that listeners will relate to. I’ve heard a lot of tracks that say ‘mujhe mat sikha’ [‘don’t teach me’], but I wanted to put in something catchy. ‘Aji Mera Ghanta’ is a slang term used a lot in Delhi and the north of India. That’s how the hook came about.” Fotty Seven: “His verse was great, so I had to do something [along the same lines]. I had to bring out my pseudo-gangster and write it from that point of view. I had to get into the character of a guy who brawls all the time and portray how he would talk to somebody with whom he’s got beef.” “Pump Dekh” Fotty Seven: “I started working on this after I heard the beat by AN1K8T, who’s a very underrated producer. I wanted to make something aggressive but very groovy at the same time. You just can’t help yourself from head-bopping to ‘Pump Dekh’. I’m not really talking about the gym pump but about how energetic and strong we are. Whenever people see us, they get hyped. I had to bring all my Gurgaon energy to it. It’s [about] how we are in G-town.” Bali: “When he brought ‘Pump Dekh’ to me, I knew I couldn’t go all comic on it, so I wrote a very gangster-type verse. This is my best verse on the EP and it’s all thanks to Fotty.” “Lathi Charge” Bali: “We had made six tracks but there was one that didn’t [quite] fit the EP, so we had to take it out. I had this [song] in my bank. It was supposed to be the title cut of my next solo EP. I played it to Fotty and he said: ‘I want this.’ With ‘Lathi Charge’, I wanted to invoke some ruckus and make something for people to get hyped about—but in a fun way. This is the only track that doesn’t have any abusive words.” Fotty Seven: “The song we replaced with ‘Lathi Charge’ was ‘Kat Gaya’. It’s amazing but wasn’t going with the vibe of the EP, for which we wanted six songs that everybody can mosh to, bounce to, go crazy to and scream all the punchlines. We had to replace it with something more energetic. When he played ‘Lathi Charge’, I was like: ‘Dude, stop being selfish, stop benching this banger.’ It has my favourite verse from the entire EP. The words just rolled off my pen. I’ve not written anything that quickly ever. I’m very critical of my own writing and I end up deleting more than I like.” “Dikkat” Fotty Seven: “This is something I made back in 2020. The references are [a bit] dated but I didn’t change them because people will still get them, like ‘Atmanirbhar’. I wasn’t sure about including it because, in my mind, it’s not something fresh. But I played it to Bali and he really liked it.” Bali: “[He took so long to finish it because] he didn’t have a Bali with him.” Fotty Seven: “He’s definitely one of the reasons it was resurrected.” Bali: “I was jealous when I heard it. I felt I have to make this a part of my catalogue somehow and decided to write a very, very fun verse in which I’ve said all [sorts of] absurd things.” “Haramzada” Bali: “I feel ‘Haramzada’ is a word that’s been lost over time. When a friend called me a ‘haramzada’ recently, I felt nice. It’s a vintage insult. This track is about me being me, the way I am. The phrase ‘No.1 Haramzada’ was inspired by Govinda’s series of films with ‘No.1’ in their names. I’m a big fan of his movies.” Fotty Seven: “It was very easy to find the inspiration for the track. In the city where we live, every other person is a ‘haramzada’. What he felt for ‘Dikkat’, I felt for ‘Haramzada’. I wished I had made something like that.”