Even after Anil Adhikari’s death has been confirmed by his family members and the news is all over the media, it’s still hard to believe that he is gone. In some corner of our hearts, we are still hoping that it is all just a hoax. We’re more than ready to discover that it was a publicity stunt for his upcoming album ‘Khatra’ and hate him for entire life than to face the reality that he is no more.
Born in Leguwa, Dhankuta on May 30th, 1987; some part of his childhood was spent in Morang when his family shifted there when he was six. Then from grade six, he completed his high school from The Excelsior School in Sywoyambhu after his family moved to Kathmandu. He had a zeal for writing and poetry right from the school. His writings took a new shape when he realized his love for hiphop and rap music when he was just sixteen.
The brilliance of his writing can easily be seen right from the stage name he chose for himslef, Yama Buddha — Yama from Yama Raj who is considered the lord of death according to Hindu mythology and Buddha from lord Gautam Buddha who is the epitome of peace and good energy; and hence the term Yama Buddha symbolises the balance between good and evil or positivity and negativity. He was a lyrical genius who made the Nepali audience realize that hip-hop and rap is not about reciting some random lyrics very fast but it can be inspiring and meaningful as well. He was always conscious about his lyrics and made sure they are impactful enough unlike most of the rap artists who take the writing part very lightly.
Yama Buddha’s first single that he released was ‘Final Fantasy’ that almost went unnoticed. But it was his second single that he dropped in 2011 that instantly brought him all the attention, the song was called ‘Saathi’. It was a very emotional song that depicted what it feels like to lose a friend. It also reminded people how harmful and deadly can drugs be. After the success of ‘Sathi’, he released his debut album titled ‘Ekadeshma’ in 2012 and as they say, rest was history.
One of the best things about Yama Buddha as an artiste was that he observed human emotions very well and turned them into beautiful songs. Apart from ‘Saathi‘, his songs titled ‘Aama‘ and ‘Didi‘ prove the same. He was also different than most of the country’s other hip-hop artists in another way that he was doing something different and making songs that others didn’t think about; whether it was ‘Footpath Mero Ghar‘ that talked about how it feels like to be a homeless person or ‘Yo Prasanga‘ that revealed the ugly truth of human trafficking. Another song of his, Sipahi, was about a solider fighting a war, miles away from his loved ones, and how he starts remembering about all the good things in life that he had before he falls on the battlefield.
One of another achievements of Yama Buddha was that he was able to connect hip-hop, which is generally considered as an underground kind of genre, to mainstream music and even film industries. He had done a promotional song for director Nischal Basnet’s ‘Talakjung Vs Tulke‘ film that was Nepal’s official entry at the 2014 Oscars. He had also done another song for a film called ‘Aawaran‘ along with actress Priyanka Karki.
Yama Buddha was to soon release his new album titled ‘Khatra’ which many people were expecting to be the ‘game changer’ in hip-hop scene. It was definitely an album to look forward to and the rapper had been working hard on the same lately. Apparently, he was also to collaborate with international rapper Snoop Dogg this year. He already had collaborated with some international artistes such as Iraj, Chingy and Neha Kakkar.
His contributions were not only limited to making music but he was also able to give young rappers a magnificent platform that literally changed the lives of many artistes – Raw Barz, Nepal’s first rap-battle series. Along with the CEO Kolin Bikram Rana, he gave Nepal some of the most promising hip-hop artistes through the show.
Apart from being a good artiste and mentor, he was an equally good family man. He had been married to Asmita Adhikari and had been living with her in London lately.
Yama Buddha was someone who created music that will be remembered forever, took Nepali hip-hop scene to a whole new level and left behind a legacy that hopefully will be continued by the artistes who he inspired and gave a reason to do what they wanted to do.
You will be missed, Anil.
