TLI Staff
New Delhi: Popular Punjabi rapper Raftaar has come a long way. From earning Rs 10,000 as a salesman to becoming a popular face in the world of rap and television, he is unstoppable.
In a recent conversation with Neha Dhupia on her radio show No Filter Neha, the Punjabi munda revealed how he started writing rap when he was in Class 7 and how his father asked him to quit his job and motivated him to pursue his dreams.
How Raftaar’s romance with rap started
“I started writing when I was in the 7th grade. I remember I was sent to a hostel. Meko nahi pata tha ki main rap likh raha hoon. Rap tha bhi nahi. (At that point, I didn’t know I was writing rap. Probably that was not rap). I was pretty good at the rhyming structures. That’s where it started, like writing songs. And, then in the 9th grade, MP3 ka zamana aaya.
This friend of mine gave me a CD. There were Eminem songs, Linkin Park songs and there was this remix of the band ‘Queen’ – ‘We Will Rock You’. Aur usmein ek chota sa rap ka portion aata hai. It was that and when I heard it, I was like yaar yeh toh bahut sahi hai. It was similar to the rhythm I was writing and it was similar to the thoughts I had. Matlab kyu baar baar sirf pyaar mohabbat kyuki I can’t relate to that. This, I can relate to. And, that’s where it started.”
How Raftaar’s father encouraged him to follow his heart
“In 2006, I was doing the job of a salesman. But something happened during that job because of which I decided that now he has given me the freedom, and I have to fight for my dreams. I was drawing a salary of Rs 10,000 and my father earned Rs 12,000. So what he did was he took out Rs 10,000 from his salary and kept it under my pillow saying you don’t need to go there, this is your salary.
That day I decided that now that he has given me freedom to pursue my dreams, I don’t have any excuses to say that I couldn’t pursue my goal because my parents didn’t support me. My parents used to say, try your luck and don’t worry about the rest. If nothing happens, we will open a grocery shop, we will manage. They said you might not have a lavish lifestyle maybe if you take a chance, but we will make sure you will stay comfortably. With their assurance, I was like man, I have no excuses to stop. So, that was like a better excuse for me. That I had nobody to say no.”