I'm not a materialistic person, to be honest. I'm all about the energy, man. I never had anything growing up, so I don't know what it means to lose anything.
— Raftaar
You know you have made it as an artist when you have the power to say no.
I have lived my whole life in Delhi. I used to live in Rohini and then I moved to Munirka. I have seen north and south Delhi very closely. That's why my songs and raps have a Dilli waali feel to it. Delhi made me who I am today and I am proud of it.
Mom makes South Indian food for me almost always, because I get it rarely,as I travel a lot for work.
Delhi gives you a lot of love. Bombay people don't care much because it's usual for them to see a TV serial guy or a movie actor.
You can't stop an artist from expressing his views through art.
Talking about remixes, 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 new package is also fair and people who have emotions attached to it - they are also not wrong.
Rapping is competitive. Even someone who is not particularly fond of my music, may claim to be my fan only because he hates Honey Singh.
I want to be like Chris Brown meets Jay Z. Chris is a singer, a dancer, a complete powerhouse on stage and Jay Z is not just a popular musician, but also a lyrical genius, a business mogul, who knows how to be classy.
I am my own parent when it comes to rapping and do impromptu stuff. Being a rapper, you have to be good at improvising, like you give me a word and I have to rhyme it quickly and then make sense out of the rhyme.
Living in Delhi, I head to the mountains or the seaside at every chance I get. I like bungee-jumping and rafting in Rishikesh.
My mom's not working, my dad doesn't want to stop working because he likes to be engrossed, so everybody is happy.
I think rap is all about what you feel about a situation and not just about cars, alcohol and women.
People are getting permanent tattoos of my name. It's madness. People come and touch my feet. Initially it was really weird, but now I think people see me as an inspiration. So I need to set the right example.
I feel somewhere in 2016 every Bollywood movie was starting to have at least one hip-hop track which got it the mainstream vibe.
I always capture one aspect or the other of Delhi in my raps.
But in Delhi, people love artists. They love any musician, any actor; anybody from the art field who visits from the entertainment industry, gets an amazing response in Delhi.
I feel instead of censorship, we need to self-regulate ourselves while producing any kind of content.
I don't want to just make music as I want to be legendary. I understand it has to be commercial as I have to feed my family. I am in between these two marks and they are not many people in this space. I want my work to my valued even if my face is forgotten.
When we are making our independent music, we know our directors and what's happening around as we are paying for it. When it's a movie song, it's not you who is doing everything it's the creative heads and production house.
I knew I had a sharper mind than most others and I had a sense of rhyme. One didn't even need to sing melodies. It felt like the perfect way to make my way out of the gutter.
While writing a normal song, we just pen four lines and then we have a chorus and some lines again. But rap is about storytelling and requires extra effort to write.
If you have another actor like Ranveer Singh, same energy and same vibe, you probably won't look at that person. There are a lot of people who can rap, it's just a different personality or sound that gets noticed.
I do rap and speak in Malayalam but only to save my life as my vocabulary in the language is not as good as it is in Hindi.
I come from an extremely modest background. So now I have way more than what I'm used to.
My album is called 'Zero to Infinity' and none of my songs are going to have cheap, dirty lyrics. Every song, in a way, is a women empowerment song. Every song, even if it's a dance track, you'll be dancing on it, but it's the right thing.
I don't mind getting mobbed, to be honest. I live in the real world.
First of all, I'm not a singer or rapper. I'm an artiste. Besides singing, I produce music, dance, write poetry, and sometimes I paint as well.
Outside my house in Delhi, you will find at least 10 guys waiting to catch a glimpse of me.
When I rapped for 'Manto', I used cuss words and no one objected because it was an adult movie. I feel cuss words are also a way of expression.
I like to live life in a way that I understand, it's satisfying. I understand you have to reach a mark where everyone likes you but in reality they don't like you, they like your work.
All my hits in Punjab and Haryana are about heartbreak.
Growing up in the north, it was natural for me to absorb the Punjabiness around me. I like their way of living, their large-heartedness. I know no other way.
I hate it when people in India throw in an American or English accent while rapping without even a passport in possession.
If you try to sound like somebody else, it will never work because we already have that person. You are noticed when you try to be an original sound.
Being a Malayali, I had to learn Punjabi and Haryanvi to be able to jump into the music scene.
What is offensive is different for everyone.
