KARACHI (The Thursday Times) — Coke Studio Nu.WAV has closed its six-song series with Diwanay Dil, a track from the hip-hop duo Young Stunners with singer Sabaat Batin and producer Jokhay that turns Karachi’s gridlock into a music video.
The song was released on Friday and had passed six million views on YouTube by Sunday morning. Its video was directed by Talhah Yunus, one half of Young Stunners, and Abdul Wali Baloch.
Talha Anjum and Yunus rap over live instruments, with Batin on vocals. According to the platform, Jokhay built the track from a single guitar riff and chose to keep the loose feel of that first session instead of polishing it away. The three performers wrote the lyrics together, and the saxophone is played by Jermeas Naeem.
A jam under Lilly Bridge
The video is shot under Lilly Bridge, where a traffic jam traps a groom, commuters, rickshaws, and decorated buses. Anjum plays a man trying to get to a film shoot, and the scene grows stranger as a superhero, a gorilla, and a troupe of dancers turn up in the queue. The story then moves onto a film set, and the line between the shoot and the story starts to blur.
Batin arrives in a rickshaw, a nod to his own years of travelling to studios before he was noticed.
Kamal Khan, the series’ executive producer, said the film captured Karachi’s character, from its traffic and chance encounters to its larger-than-life moments, and called the track a fitting end to the season.
Six songs
Nu.WAV opened with Dil and went on to release Rangeen, Maheya, Shabnam and Qasam, pairing established names with newer artists.
Young Stunners, formed in 2012, did much to carry Urdu hip-hop out of Pakistan’s underground with songs such as Gumaan, Afsanay and Two Tone. Batin, who comes from Munianwala near Faisalabad, made his music on his own before Gal Sun brought him a wider audience, and Jokhay, whose album is Khana Badosh, has been the duo’s producer for years.
The release adds to a run of attention for Pakistani music abroad, as the world’s biggest DJs chase the Lahore sound.
