Emiway Bantai

Emiway Bantai is the stage name of Bilal Shaikh, a hip-hop artist, rapper and producer born in Bengaluru in 1995. He moved to Mumbai with his father at about three and grew up in Antop Hill. He discovered hip-hop in 2010 through Eminem's Not Afraid, which inspired him as a teenager. After dropping out of school in class 12, he worked as a helper at the Hard Rock Cafe while he started making music.

He has remained independent and built his audience largely through social media, with videos for singles such as Machayenge in 2019 and Firse Machayenge in 2020. The Machayenge series later continued with further sequels. He has released music through his own label, Bantai Records, including the album 8 Saal in 2022, King of the Streets in 2023, Northern Nights and Wholeheartedly in 2024, FTSTTS in 2025 and CNSTNCY in 2026. He has worked with the American rappers Macklemore, Snoop Dogg and Token. Wikipedia also notes his public feuds with Raftaar, Divine, MC Stan and Krsna.