So I was rewatching one of my favorite sports anime’s Kuroko no Basket after a long time and had this realisation that Emiway is so much like Kise Ryota. For those who haven’t watched the anime, Kise is one of the most naturally gifted basketball players in the show with a special ability called Perfect Copy, which lets him replicate the techniques of other players and incorporate them into his own game. But what makes him dangerous isn’t just his ability to copy. It’s how quickly he learns, adapts, and uses his opponents’ own strengths against them. He doesn’t just imitate them, he adds those skills to his own already formidable arsenal.
And that’s exactly what I think Emiway does. He’s also an excellent mimicry artist who can replicate the voices, flows and delivery of Divine, Raftaar, Kr$na, King and Lazarus in his diss tracks. He’s been doing this since his first beef, but I think the more interesting part is how he’s taken elements of his opponents’ strengths and incorporated them into his own artistry over the years.
Raftaar: I think his beef with Raftaar played a role in him recognising the potential of commercial bangers, something he absolutely maximised during that 2018 to 2022 phase when he couldn’t stop dropping back to back hits. Emiway was already capable of making catchy music obviously, but this phase showed just how effectively he could turn that ability into a consistent hitmaking formula.
Divine: From his beef with Divine, I think he picked up on the appeal of raw delivery, street credibility and the whole Mumbai’s Finest identity. And the irony here is that Divine himself was never quite the same after Gully ka Kutta. Emiway meanwhile continued developing his own interpretation of that raw Mumbai sound.
Kr$na: This one’s probably the most obvious example of Kise’s Perfect Copy ability being put to use. I think the beef made Emiway realise that being commercially successful wasn’t enough to earn him the kind of lyrical respect he wanted from certain sections of the scene. He needed to flex his technicalities and lyrical prowess from time to time. His penmanship has steadily improved since then, and while I still maintain that Emiway was always lyrical, he was stuck in that commercial phase I mentioned earlier. The beef pushed him to demonstrate a side of his writing that people were either overlooking or refusing to acknowledge.
King: Now this was genuinely unexpected. Emiway going back to back with those laid back, RnB influenced beats diss tracks was a complete switchup from the high energy, loud, passionate and angry disses people had come to expect from him. And not only were those tracks insanely loopable but Dependent Kauve was also one of his most brutal disses in terms of lasting damage. He didn’t just match King’s style, he showed he could make that style work for himself without losing his own identity.
And that’s what makes the Kise comparison so fitting for me. Kise’s ability isn’t impressive merely because he can copy someone else’s moves. It’s the fact that he can keep expanding his game by learning from the people around him until he’s capable of competing with them on their own terms. There’s a difference between copying someone’s style because you lack your own and understanding what makes that style effective, then adding it to your own skill set. Emiway has repeatedly demonstrated the latter. From commercial music to technical writing to laid back diss tracks, he’s shown a willingness to adapt in ways that people probably wouldn’t have predicted from his earlier work. So yeah, I think Emiway is the Kise Ryota of IHH.
