The artist shapes Indian hip-hop with stories drawn from real life

As his most devoted fans know, hip-hop superstar Vivian Fernandes’ alias DIVINE originates from a brief gospel-rap phase at the start of his career. The title of his sprawling fifth album Walking on Water is a nod both to that early genre stint and to his status as an undisputed god of Indian rap. It’s an LP that digs deep into his gully rap roots while also branching into the many stylistic territories he’s conquered. He builds bangers and bars off Bollywood and Konkani pop samples, collabs with Punjabi MCs, parties hard with Hanumankind and goes back to the beginning on the spiritually themed “Drama”.