Inside Jamnapaar Cypher: How young men turn DDA park into a stage, angst into verse

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Written by: Upasika Singhal6 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Apr 17, 2026 03:45 PM IST Rap battle enthusiasts gather for an impromptu cypher at DDK Park, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi. (Express Photo by Haobijam Chinglemba) Make us preferred source on Google Whatsapp twitter Facebook Reddit PRINT On a breezy April evening, with the soft light of the setting sun on their backs, a group of around 20 young men gather in a nondescript DDA park in East Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar. One of them crackles a small Bluetooth speaker to life that begins to spit out beats and rhythms. Almost instinctively, the group forms a tight circle and begins nodding their heads to the beat. As the bodies around him start to sway, a tall boy in black comes out and begins rapping. He raps while scrolling through verses on his phone, his thumb moving in quick, nervous flicks as he tries to keep pace with his own words. The beat fades and loops into another, echoing faintly against the beams of the wooden gazebo the crowd gathers in. This time, a boy in a white shirt steps out of the circle and picks up where the previous boy left off. He raps lightly, almost playfully, riffing off of what he sees around him — joggers circling the park, strangers slowing down to watch, a child lingering too long at the edge of the gazebo. Then, without warning, the tone shifts. His voice tightens and words spill out faster. He raps about how suffocating his house feels, how heavily his parents’ expectations sit on his shoulders, and how he desperately wants to become “someone” before the world loses patience with him. This is the Jamnapaar Cypher. Every Wednesday evening, young men from across East Delhi drift into this park — not just to rap, but to be heard and to belong. The beats are borrowed, the space is temporary, but for a couple of hours, the circle holds. Started during the Covid-19 lockdown by two teenaged boys, the Jamnapaar Cypher has managed to garner 45,000 followers on Instagram and 1,000 members on their WhatsApp community in the last six years. “We started meeting in the park around two years ago,” says Sameer Khan, one of the founders. For Sameer, the Cypher was more than a passion project. “I wanted people to look at East Delhi differently. Everyone thinks Jamnapaar is a place where there’s only crime, drugs and gangs. I wanted people to know that Jamnapaar has so much talent to offer,” he says. He says he started practicing hip-hop when he was in school. “One of my friends would thump a beat on the desk and we would try to make rhymes on the go… Eminem’s ‘Rap God’ had just come out. We found it cool and thought we could do it too,” says Sameer. Then in 2016, East Delhi rapper Raga (also known as Ravi Mishra) broke into the mainstream with his song Jamnapaar. “His first two lines — Ghar se nikle lad jhagad ke, lad ke sar pakad ke, tadpe karte tutne, sar pe chadhke kutne (I storm out of my house after a quarrel, clutching my head in anguish, writhing in agony, I want to break out, I want to pummel someone) — really hit me here,” says Sameer, tapping his chest. “It was like he put my anger into words… he showed me I could turn my anger into words.” Raga’s rise also offered something more tangible: proof that it was possible to make it out of East Delhi and into the mainstream without abandoning one’s roots. Back in the DDA park, the cypher reaches a fever pitch. The boys take pot shots at each other with their acerbic lines, the crowd heckles and hoots to hype each other, and when one of them loses their flow mid-way, they pat them on their backs as if to say it’s alright. An older couple taking a walk beside the gazebo decide to take a look. They leave within a minute. The man frowns and says, “They’re using foul language. Very bad.” Aditya Dutt, also known as Ryugna, says his love for hip-hop flows from his father. “He introduced me to all the greats – Tupac and Bohemia… he passed away when I was 10 years old. I took up rap to feel closer to him,” he says. Aditya usually goes to Rohini to attend another cypher but dropped by Laxmi Nagar that day to see what East Delhi had to offer. “There’s definitely talent here,” the 21-year-old says, nodding solemnly. Behind Dutt, the crowd suddenly surges as Ritik, also known as Prince Kazania, starts rapping: “Ghar ka chota beta main, kursi hai haawi kandhon pe, rehti fikar, aa rahi neend, pi nahi kaafi arson se, dil ke bojh karta halke meri bhaari shadon se (I am the youngest son of the house, the responsibility weighs heavy on my shoulders, worry remains and I feel sleepy, I haven’t had a drink in ages, I lighten the burden of my heart through my heavy words). The crowd erupts into cheers and enthusiastically pats Ritik on the back as he continues. Sameer hangs back behind the crowd, his sunglasses perched on his nose. He keeps a close watch on what the cypher members are up to. A small group of three in the corner sneakily roll a joint but a look from Sameer is enough and they leave. “We’ve had trouble before. Some of the people in the park complained against us because people would openly smoke… we had to negotiate with them that our activities won’t disturb anyone else,” sighs Sameer. The rules are strict — no loud cursing and no smoking – although only a few follow them. “We don’t believe in curtailing anyone’s freedom, so we’ve told our members that they can smoke, but outside the gazebo… we tried to stop the cursing too to get more girls to participate, but that hasn’t stopped,” he says, as he rejoins the swaying crowd and adlibs a few lines along with the rappers. For now, he wants to encourage more girls into participating. “We have a few female members but not many… I think most of them get scared when they see such a big group of boys. But I think girls can be hard rappers, I want more of them to come here,” Sameer says, explaining hard means good, exceptional and hard-core. Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram