Dee MC is an Indian rapper, singer, songwriter, and hip-hop artist. She is one of the female rappers who are considered the torch bearers for other aspiring female rappers. She is a pioneer of feminist rap and has represented India internationally in the Alchemy Festival by Southbank Centre in the UK in 2017, La Belle Hip Hop Festival in Belgium in 2018, and DesiFest in Canada in 2019. She appeared as herself in the film “Gully Boy” released in 2019.
Wiki/Biography
Dee MC was born as Deepa Unnikrishnan on Monday, 14 February 1994 (age 28 years; as of 2022) in Mumbai. Her zodiac sign is Aquarius. She went to Lok Kalyan Public School in Kalyan, Maharashtra, where she participated in poetry writing, elocution, and debate competitions. At the age of 5, she started learning Bharatnatyam. She started listening to hip-hop when she was in the sixth standard. Her parents wanted her to pursue chartered accountancy and get a decent job. She studied to become a CA and cleared the entrance for CA but lost the qualifying test, two times.
A childhood photo of Deepa with her elder sister
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 2″
Weight (approx.): 45 kg
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Dee MC belongs to a Malayali family in Mumbai.
Parents & Siblings
Her father, Unnikrishnan Pisharody, works in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. He is an NRI, who was born in Kerala but brought up in Mumbai. Her mother, Jayasree, is a homemaker. She has an elder sister named Divya.
Deepa with her parents and elder sister, Divya
Relationships/Affairs
In an interview, she revealed about her long-term relationship she had. She talked about this relationship in an interview when she was asked, has she ever been on tinder? She replied,
I was involved in a relationship for the longest time so I personally have not used it yet but I know of people around me, my friends and family members, who have used it and have some amazing relationships through online dating but I personally, not yet. But maybe, never say never.”
Career
Rapper
At the age of 18, she wrote her first song when she was in her first year of college. In 2011, she uploaded a cover video of Nicki Minaj’s song; someone replied to her after watching her cover video and advised her that if she is serious about rapping, she should get out of Kalyan and get in contact with the hip-hop scene in Mumbai.
Dee MC performing at an event in the initial years of her rapping career
Singles
She debuted with the song “Talk My Way” on 30 October 2013, which was the first video released on her YouTube channel. After one year, on 30 October 2014, she released her second single “Greenhouse Effect.” In the same year, she released the song titled “Kal” in which she rapped in both Hindi and English languages. She came up with the song “Chaar Logo Ki Baatein” in 2015. In 2017, Deepa rapped in the song “Taking My Time” produced by Kru172. In 2021, Dee MC released the song “PRETTY EYES,” and it gained more than 400k views on YouTube in one year. She released the song “Haath Hi Mera Saathi” in 2022, which was written, conceptualised, and performed by herself.
Poster of the song ‘Haath Hi Mera Saathi’
Albums
In 2019, she released her debut album “Dee=MC2.” The album contained seven tracks in total and featured artists including MC Altaf, D’Evil, Poetik Justis, and more. The whole album was produced by Sunit Music.
Cover of Dee MC’s debut album ‘DEE=MC2’
Collaborations
In 2018, she released the song “DEKH” featuring Yungsta and Seedhe Maut. In 2019, she wrote and performed the song “AADATEIN,” which is a single track from Aakash Ravikrishnan’s album ‘Overseas.’ In 2020, she came out with the song “REWIND” featuring a rapper duo, Full Power. On 21 June 2021, Raja Kumari put out the song “Rani Cypher” on her YouTube Channel; the song featured three other female rappers including SIRI, Meba Ofilia, and Dee MC; the music video gained more than 2 million views. In 2022, Dee MC, Wild Wild Women, and Instine came together and released the song “Doing Okay.”
Poster of the 2022 song ‘Doing Okay’
Awards
- Won a Shorty Award for “No More Limits” at the 3rd Annual Shorty Social Good Awards in 2018
- Won Best Electronic- Jury Choice Award for “Tu Bas Naach” at the 6th Radio City India Freedom Awards 2019
- Won Best Indie Collaboration- Jury Choice Award for “Tu Bas Naach” at the 6th Radio City India Freedom Awards 2019
Picture of Freedom Awards won by Dee MC in 2019
Favourites
- Rapper (s): Mos Def, Eve, Nicki Minaj, Mike Shinoda, Jay Z, Crooked I, Eminem, D’Evil, Poetik Justis, Encore, Divine, Kinga Rhymes
Car Collection
Deepa bought a Renault KWID in July 2021.
Deepa with her car, Renault KWID
Facts/Trivia
- Earlier, she decided her stage name to be “Aura,” but later, she changed it to Dee MC in which Dee comes from her name Deepa, and MC stands for microphone controller.
- Kardinal Offishall, Akon, and Mike Shinoda were the first hip-hop artists that Dee MC listened to.
- In her initial years of rapping, she had to go to the rapping events for performance and most of them used to happen at night time due to which her parents did not allow her to perform anywhere.
- On 31 October 2018, she released a song, “No More Limits,” in collaboration with WASH United, a nonprofit organization to spread awareness about intimate hygiene on Menstrual Hygiene Day.
- In 2020, Glow & Lovely, which is a cosmetics company, collaborated with Dee MC and released a song titled “Glow Ko Na Roko” to encourage women to follow their dreams and break the stereotypical norms of society.
- Dee MC was featured in the music video of the song “Swipe Right Material” alongside Guru Randhawa and Anirudh. The song was made in collaboration with the online dating app, Tinder.
- She has been one of the judges on the Red Bull Spotlight, which was a nationwide competition for aspiring rappers.
- Dee MC did not have any professional training for learning to rap. she learned everything on her own with the help of the internet. In an interview, she said,
Since my Dad was working abroad (Saudi), I was one of those lucky teens to have the luxury of the Internet very early in life. I was in sixth grade when I would download music from the Internet; some of those sites don’t even exist now.”
- In an interview, when Dee was asked about how she got inspired and decided to become a hip-hop artist, she replied,
My journey towards dance inspired me a lot. I ventured into hip hop through dancing. I have been dancing since I was 5 years old. I am a trained Bharatnatyam dancer, so the stage isn’t a new place for me. The enthusiasm to perform in front of an audience and the artistic inclination was already inside me. I took up BBoying (b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance from the United States) when I was 17 but I could not carry it forward. After that I was extremely interested in rapping, and I started back in 2011. This was after someone saw my cover and introduced me to the rapping industry in Bombay.”
- She lost the qualifying test for CA two times. She blamed the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and tried to convince her parents that it was not her fault that she failed twice. She said,
I told them the (The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) institute deliberately fails students for a few marks. It was very depressing. I was failed for two and three marks. My parents didn’t want to understand that it can’t be my fault all the time.”
- From 2014 to 2016, she did a part-time job as a writer for websites for earning money and polish her rapping skills by practising far from home. She shared,
I’d travel from Kalyan to Grant Road (south Mumbai) for the job. Kalyan is super far, you know? I hated it. And then I had to write about how much money a Hollywood or Malayalam film made. It wasn’t exciting at all; I did it only for the money.”
- Dee MC appeared as herself in the 2019 musical drama film “Gully Boy,” which was based on the hip-hop scene in India. She talked about the film, and said,
We (artists) don’t really want to talk about our struggles; things that happened more than 10 years ago. I mean, where were you guys when we wanted exposure, a platform to support us? Now that a film has released and some actor is promoting it, between January and February people are suddenly reaching out to us, wanting to know our stories. With all due respect, I want to say that Gully Boy has just scraped the surface for us. Until a few years ago, people have laughed, mocked and written us off. We found and built our own support group. We’d inspire and perform in each other’s videos lifting and promoting each other’s works.”
