Deepa Unnikrishnan (Dee MC)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Deepa Unnikrishnan (Dee MC)

• Deepa Unnikrishnan’s (Dee MC) parents moved from Irinjalakuda, Kerala to Mumbai for better work opportunities.

• She started learning Bharatanatyam at the age of five.

• She enjoyed participating in debates and elocution competitions in school.

• Deepa Unnikrishnan’s father, Unnikrishnan Pisharody started working in Dammam, Saudi Arabia when Deepa was one year old. She grew up in a middle-class family and lived with her mother and elder sister in Kalyan.

  

• Her parents wished for her to be a Chartered Accountant. She cleared the entrance exam for CA twice but failed the qualifying test.

• She started learning b-boying when she entered college. After realising it was too late to learn the dance form, she turned to music.

• At the age of 18, she wrote her first song, which was about teenage emotions and heartbreak.

• Her first stage name was ‘Aura;’ she later changed it to Dee MC.

• In 2012, she posted her first cover song video of Nicki Minaj‘s song. After discovering her video, another MC from Dombivali, Mumbai reached out to her and suggested she connect with the Mumbai hip-hop scene.

• Her early influences from the desi hip hop (DHH) were Divine, D-Evil, Poetik Justis, Enkore, and Kinga Rhymes.

• She worked as the Editor-in-Chief at Desi Hip Hop, a South Asian Hip Hop news website, in the early years of her career. Before this, she was associated with Iris Weddings, a wedding planning company. 

• Deepa (Dee MC) wrote the song No More Limits for Menstrual Hygiene Day in 2018. This song was nominated for the 33rd annual Shorty Social Good Awards in the Music and Dance category.

  

• She represented India at various international music festivals such as the UK (Alchemy Festival by Southbank Centre), Canada (DesiFest), Belgium (La Belle Hip Hop Festival), and Desifest (Canada).

• She performed at many Hip-Hop festivals such as Gully Fest by Divine, and Breezer’s Vivid Shuffle in 2018.

  

• She worked on the soundtrack of the short film ‘What the Fish!!’ by Sasha Chettri in 2018.

•  She collaborated with a UK-based producer, Sunit Music, for her debut album, ‘Dee=MC².’ This album included seven tracks. She directed her first music video for the song ‘Rang’ from the album for Women’s Day in association with Nykaa in 2020.

• Her debut album, ‘Dee=MC²,’ charted 17th on Apple Music under the Hip-Hop genre.

  

• Her dream artist to collaborate with is Pharrell Williams, an American record producer.

• She appeared in the movie Gully Boy (2019) starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. While talking about the impact of the movie on awareness of the Hip Hop culture in India, she said,
  

  I wouldn’t say everything has changed, but people’s ignorance has reduced.”

  

• Dee MC has also worked as a playback singer in Kollywood and Tamil-language films.

• She was featured on the Cosmopolitan India Spicy Noodle List 2020.

• She was a mentor at the 2020 Red Bull Spotlight, a nationwide competition for emerging rappers in India.

• In 2020, she was part of the launching event for Maruti Suzuki’s new car IGNIS at the Auto Expo in Delhi.

• She released her first EP, ‘Naseeb,’ in 2021, consisting of five tracks, for which she collaborated with artists like Frappe Ash, Mr. Doss, and many more.

• She collaborated with Guru Randhawa and Anirudh Ravichander for the brand anthem of Tinder India. The music video for the anthem ‘Swipe Right Material’ was released in March 2022.

  

• She collaborated with Tanishq for a brand film named ‘This is Me’ released on 8 October 2022. She was the face of Mia by Tanishq.

  

• She released her second EP in 2022 named ‘MMM (Money Made Maniac)’ including four songs.

• Dee MC worked on the song ‘Join the Revolution’ for a commercial for a crypto app named CoinSwitch; the song was released on International Women’s Day in 2022.

• She has worked with many popular brands including Puma, Converse, Nykaa, Glow & Lovely, Bacardi, Mahindra, Skechers, AC Delco, Myntra, and Global Desi.

• She appeared in the Indian reality show ‘MTV Hustle’ as a squad boss in Season 2 (2022) and Season 3 (2023). She also featured in the Hustle anthem alongside Badshah, Dino James, EPR, and Ikka. She also appeared on other reality shows such as Color’s Rising Star and MTV’s Antisocial.

  

• In 2023, she was photographed for the first issue of Word magazine. The issue featured many idea-shapers and game-changers from the fields of art, film, fashion, food, music, and content creation. She has also featured on the covers of Vogue and Harper Bazaar’s magazines.

  

• She was part of a mentorship program by Tuborg in Los Angeles, where she met popular American singer Jason Derulo in 2023.

  

• She directed the music video for her songs ‘Khoyi si’ featuring Pratika in 2023 and ‘Beautiful Mind’ featuring EPR in 2024. She also directed the documentary for MTV Hustle Season 3.

• Deepa Unnikrishnan (Dee MC) has lent her voice to Bollywood hits such as ‘Jagga Jiteya’ from the film Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019), ‘Shuru Karein Kya’ from Article 15 (2019), the title track of the movie ‘Blurr’ (2022), and ‘Phatega’ from Minus 31: The Nagpur Files (2023).

  

• She performed twice for TEDxGateway in Mumbai, in 2023, and 2019.