नायाब

Nayaab (नायाब) is the title track that opens Seedhe Maut's second studio album of the same name, released on 27 May 2022 via Azadi Records / THE MVMNT, produced entirely by longtime collaborator Sez on the Beat and written and performed by the Delhi rap duo of Encore ABJ (Abhijay Negi) and Calm (Siddhant Sharma). Arriving roughly four years after their acclaimed 2018 debut album Bayaan, Nayaab was described by its makers as a vivid portrayal of Delhi life told through three creative minds, and was reportedly close to two years in the making. The title track sets the album's tone with a self-belief hook — 'the frame of mind should not be that one day I'll make it, the frame of mind is I've already made it' — and was released alongside an official lyric video and an accompanying NFT collection, Nayaab.World, as part of the rollout. The album went on to earn critical acclaim and helped land Seedhe Maut and Sez on the Beat on Lifted Asia's 'Best Emerging Artists of 2022' list.

Sez on the Beat builds the title track around a moody, bass-forward Delhi hip-hop production that gives Encore ABJ and Calm room to trade verses in a measured, confident cadence rather than a high-speed flex — establishing the album's overall tone as introspective and lyric-forward rather than club-oriented, a hallmark of the trio's long-running collaborative chemistry since Bayaan.

The lyrics work as a statement of arrival rather than aspiration — the hook's repeated insistence that success is already achieved, not merely hoped for, sets up the album's recurring theme of hard-earned self-worth. The Urdu-origin title word 'nayaab' (rare, precious) frames the duo's own artistic identity and their Delhi roots as something singular and irreplaceable, a framing that runs through much of the album that follows.

Nayaab arrived roughly four years after Seedhe Maut's debut album Bayaan (2018), a gap the duo used to develop a more mature, wide-ranging record — reportedly nearly two years in active development. The album was pitched by the group as a portrait of Delhi as experienced by three creative minds (Encore ABJ, Calm, and Sez on the Beat), and its rollout included the title track's lyric video, an accompanying visual identity (artwork by Jayesh Joshi), and a linked NFT project, Nayaab.World — an unusually tech-forward promotional push for an independent Hindi hip-hop release of the period.

The Nayaab album was released to critical acclaim, seen by press and fans as mirroring the impact of Seedhe Maut's breakout debut, and it helped the group (alongside Sez on the Beat) land a spot on Lifted Asia's 'Best Emerging Artists of 2022' list. The title track itself, while not released as a major stand-alone single, remains the thematic and tonal entry point to one of Indian independent hip-hop's most acclaimed records of 2022.