Hip-hop has always been a platform for multiculturalism and worldly exploration with language itself as the guide.
But especially in a place like Oklahoma City, it still feels particularly fresh and unique to see an artist emerge like Sundeep Sharma, an Indian-born hip-hop experimentalist who writes and raps in Hindi.
Sharma attended English-language schools throughout his childhood in India before moving to America in early adulthood, but when he discovered and fell in love with rap, it was his native Hindi language that he says presented itself more clearly in his mind.
“I did try to do some English stuff back in the day when I first started,” says Sharma. “I just liked how I flow in Hindi and it was just, I felt more natural, even closer to the culture because I was rapping in Hindi, so I just kept it.”
After linking up with OKC-based MC eiDreveni the pair formed Finite Galaxy, a creatively spiritual, bi-lingual hip-hop duo that launched in 2021 and quickly found a surprising level of success in Oklahoma.
“What got us out was the Asian Night Market Festival. So we just applied for that, and now being in front of, like, 2000 people staring at you, half of them probably know the language,” says Sharma. “That’s when I started realizing that there is a market for, like, creative, more cultural music.”
But as Finite Galaxy’s star continued to explode and expand throughout 2023, Sundeep began to feel himself struggle with the pressures and expectations of collaborating, coordinating, and co-managing the rising group while also juggling his personal life.
“I’ve always battled with depression, like, that’s something I talk about in my music, too,” says Sharma. “You now, at some point, it catches up to you. That started creeping in, even with social media, and everything culminated to just me not being, kind of, me again. So I couldn’t write good music at that point. I need to start from scratch again.”
Starting from scratch meant taking a full year away from the stage and the rising stardom and focusing on his first ever fully solo efforts.
The result of that introspective and exploratory period can be heard on Sun Deep’s new debut solo single, “Suroor,” a song of romantic longing and isolation once again sung fully in his native Hindi language.
The track is a minimalist marriage of R&B, Soul, and hip-hop influences, all elements that Sundeep says he feels free to more deeply explore and refine through his new solo work.
“I want my music to be, from every side, the most perfect I can make it for myself,” says Sharma. “That’s what I kind of enjoy more with the solo stuff, because I have free reign to do whatever I want whenever I kind of want it.”
Even as he’s enjoying that newfound unfettered creative freedom, Sundeep reassures Finite Galaxy fans that the duo is already planning, writing, and recording for their imminent comeback, and that this time away will have only strengthened the power that he can bring to the group.
Age, he says, has given him the freedom and confidence to better confront his own mind and his own creativity in a way that’s become integral to being a better bandmate, better partner, and even a better cultural figure in the community.
“I did have some doubts in the beginning, or just, you know, kind of insecurities, like ‘man, I should have started earlier,’” says Sharma. “But at the end of the day, as soon as you start thinking about what do you want from music, those insecurities just go away.”
You can follow along with both avenues of Sundeep’s musical journey by following @finitegalaxy and @sundeep_music on Instagram.
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