You don’t need a bad childhood to become a rapper, believes Raftaar
If I can’t write a song in my mother tongue, how can I pay respect to my people?” says singer-rapper Raftaar, adding as a child, he would hide his family name “to avoid being labelled as a Malayali”, because he “thought it was a sin to be a Malayali”.
Raftaar, who moved to Delhi with his family soon after he was born, says he didn’t have time to learn his mother tongue. So he decided on Mr Nair as the title of his latest album as he wanted to tell the world that he is a Malayali. “It is important to know who you are, where you come from, it gives you a sense of community. You will see my album cover, I am wearing chappals and gold, not because of a fashionista itch, but as I’m a Malayali. There lie my roots,” he says.
The album has 16 tracks and collaborations with KARMA, Deep Kalsi, Harjas and Rashmeet Kaur among others. Raftaar says he decided to make this album to leave a legacy. “We’re old-school, we come from the era of CDs and cassettes. They’re still safe, but nothing in the digital world is going to remain for a long time. A server can crash or anything else can happen. I just wanted to leave a legacy and, with this album, I wanted to pay tribute to my people,” adds the Dhaakad (Dangal; 2016) singer.
Raftaar says he wanted to distance himself from the ‘what’s trending’ scene, and the rat race. “It is not necessary that you have to struggle or have a bad childhood to be a rapper. You need to have a voice and the mind to weave a story. Ever since the rapping culture stepped in, people put up a façade that they come from smaller families, bad conditions and have seen a lot of struggle,” says the 31-year-old artiste.