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EXCLUSIVE: Raftaar talks about rap culture in Bollywood; Says Gully Boy gave mainstream angle to rap music
Raftaar is one of the renowned rappers in the industry and is currently basking in the success of his recently released album Mr Nair.
Bollywood is an industry that has been home to a variety of talent be it terms of movies, music, dance and what not. However, the Indian cinema has changed and even grown over the years and has opened its arms wholeheartedly to new talent. While we have seen the trend of content based movies prevailing in the industry, our music has also changed. These days, rap culture is the new trend of Bollywood. And several renowned artists deserve the credit for this new music trend including Badshah, Divine, Naezy, Raftaar etc. Recently, Raftaar got into an exclusive conversation with Pinkvilla and spoke about this new music trend in Bollywood, his journey and his new album Mr Nair.
Talking about the rap culture taking over Bollywood, Raftaar asserted that rap music has got a new expression the mainstream cinema. He even emphasised that movies like Ranveer Singh starrer Gully Boy plays a key role in giving the rap music a mainstream angle. “I’ve always told people a simple thing – Bollywood is an industry. It’s not a musical genre. It is a place where all genres can survive. Rap music has got a whole new expression because of Bollywood to a great extent. It’s given a mainstream angle to something that was viewed as underground because of my fellow friends Badshah, DIVINE and major credit goes Gully Boy as well.”
Furthermore, Raftaar also shared his views on remixing the old songs and said that it is like giving a new meaning to a song. He explained, “Some people like to preserve what is original and some people give it a new meaning. Coming to hip hop, the biggest of the artists use sampling. You are changing the genre of the song and to be able to give old music in a new package is also fair and people who have emotions attached to it - they are also not wrong.”
This renowned rapper also feels that hip hop culture which began during Baba Sehgal’s time has come a long way in the industry and has emerged as a new musical genre at the moment. He asserted that people are becoming more accepting of this genre now in India. “From listening to rappers in the West to accepting your own homegrown talent rapping in regional languages, the acceptance is slowly, but surely taking place. Hip hop and rap is a reflection of our society, the music is very relatable,” Raftaar added.
Interestingly, Raftaar’s journey to success has also been the talk of the town. After all, he is among the most successful rappers in the industry. Sharing the journey from rags to riches, the rappers said that his journey is “the classic story of struggle to success". Recalling his days of struggle, Raftaar asserted that there were times he had sleepless nights, but he worked hard, motivated himself and found success on his own terms. In fact, he even worked as a salesperson at a retail outlet and used to earn Rs 10,000. “My father used to earn Rs 12,000 as a cleaner with the Indian Railway. Our first home was a one-room apartment in a society in Munirka, Delhi, where we shared a kitchen and toilet with six other families. One day my father kept his entire one month’s salary under my pillow and told me to quit my job and told me to focus on my music. This was a massive move since at that time we came from a very middle class background with meagre savings. It was just the financial crunches but I always wanted to enter the rap business and if it wasn’t for that day when my father put his entire faith in me, I wouldn’t be here today. I have seen the struggle and the success and that’s why I will never take the success for granted nor will I crumble with failure,” Raftaar asserted.
As of now, Raftaar is garnering success of his new album Mr Nair. While the rapper is overwhelmed with the response for the album, he admitted that he called it a brand new experience and said that he had worked hard for the same for close to a year. Talking about the album, Raftaar stated, “This is a curtain raiser of my story, my struggles, my success and as authentic it can get. Mr Nair is an acronym I coined together that not stands for my surname but also means “National Ambassador Of Indian Rap”. It's an epiphany of how my life has shaped up with all the struggles and how far I've travelled irrespective of modest middle-class upbringing. In all honesty, I created Mr Nair to break a psychological barrier that most artists create for themselves unconsciously which hampers their success story. I wanted to distance myself from the whole 'what’s trending and current' rat race. This album pays homage to my roots and there is a sense of gratitude to my lineage.”
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