You are said to be the first of a kind. Explain.
Rap is usually sung in English, whether the song is in Hindi, Punjabi or English itself. My scene is rapping in Punjabi, which comes naturally to me. So I am not following a path, but have gone where people never went before I did.
Would you like to reveal your real name or is that a trade secret?
No, there’s no issue. My name is Roger David. I am from Punjab, where my great-grandfather converted from Sikhism to Christianity for some reason. However in my house, the Granth Sahib and the Bible were both there, though I was raised as a Christian. As for me, I believe in God, but I am not a religious person.
“Bohemia” as a term suggests breaking shackles and flouting traditional mores. And rap is all about personal angst or feelings.
Well, I lost my mom when I was just 14 or 15 and I was quite a momma’s boy. That made me mad and I was kinda pushed into negative things. I have to thank God for music, for that’s what finally made me wake up and gave a reason for living. Dad played the harmonium and I learnt the keyboard.
When we shifted to the USA, I lived a strange life. I was virtually living at the Milan Recording Studios in Sacramento and would even sleep there or in cars. Harjeet Mehndi, Daler Mehndi’s brother and I would go perform at occasions like birthdays and marriages, where I would play a bit of keyboards. I also worked with Jazzy B and many others. I was friends with Suresh Margoli, a tabla player and when he passed away at a young age and was replaced by another tabla player just as easily as if he was some inanimate object, I was mad again. I went and told the studio engineer that I was through with being a keyboard player who could go into anonymity if he died tomorrow. I wanted to do something where I would stand out!
My first album was Vich Pardesan De in 2002, which was about me in a foreign land. I spearheaded the Desi Hip-Hop genre then, because Hip-Hop was then limited to the underground. Then came Pesa Nasha Pyar in 2006 in India, the first-ever full-length desi rap album to be released worldwide and a major music label like Universal.
And what about the emotions in your songs?
They are at first-hand and are about what has happened either with me or people very close to me. My emotions tend to be on the edge of the extreme. Like a high when I am feeling pride in myself or places where I am very bitter, like when a coloured person in America is forced to even remove his socks while being frisked or is continually bothered by cops. I have never written my rap from sheer imagination or from fairytale land.
Rap is just a part of a song. Do you also compose and write the rest of the track?
I do. My new album Da Rap Star has some regular songs, like those sung by Devika Chawla.
Having moved to the USA many years ago, what is the kind of exposure you have to Indian music?
Oh, like all of us, I am a great fan of Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar and Jagjit Singh in particular. That’s the real gold to be treasured. It’s our heritage and I listen a lot to them.
Speaking of Punjabi pop, you have a tribute track to Malkit Singh’s Gur naal ishq. But pioneers like him and Rabbi Shergill are unhappy about the current Punjabi pop scenario.
But I am optimistic. Great things are happening and I am never against experimentation. Being proper or right is a vast statement. Like when a UK-born Sikh comes out with a bhangra-pop album, what is important to me is not that the Punjabi accent is not correct but that a UK-raised guy is actually singing in Punjabi. Years later, we will realise that the artistes of today represented our times well.
How would you describe Da Rap Star as an album?
As something that is me, without any samples used other than the Malkit Singh track in a way. I am showing off here how good a producer I am! I have used a lot of bass, beats and keyboards and I have even done the sequencing. My associate J.Hind has added the desi hip-hop. The album is my follow-up and progression to my first one and you see tracks like Charso bees that describes my journey. To sum up, it’s me saying, “I’m me! Look, I’m still here!”
We have to ask you this: You’ve struck up a bond with Akshay Kumar.
(Laughs) That was really like some fantasy come true! My dad loves Akshay Kumar for the edgy stuff that he does and when he was once watching a film he asked me, “Wouldn’t it be great if Akshay called you to do a song?” I agreed that it would, but asked him why it would happen at all? And it was bizarre that six weeks later Pooja Batra called up and stated that Akshay wanted to be in touch with me!
And then we actually met and he invited me to the Torano Film Festival where Singh Is Kinng was being premiered and we walked the red carpet together! I also met his wife Twinkle that day and we got along on a cool level. He told me that he always worked out to my music and we hopped into his limo and he told me that he needed a song for his film and gave me a brief. That same night, I started making a beat for Chandni Chowk To China. Some months later, he called up from Cape Town and got me to hear the synopsis of 8X10 Tasveer. We are working again in De Dhana Dhan.
Both these songs were your creations. How would you like singing under our composers?
I would think it would be fun to sing for A.R.Rahman, Bappi Lahiri and so many others.
What are your plans now?
Some other films are going to happen, but I can’t speak much about them right now. Besides, Da Rap Star needs to be promoted and right now I am planning several shows whereby I have to thank people for all the love they have given me through the years.
And what’s with the angry-cum-sad kind of look on your inlay cover?
(Laughs) Ha! That’s the music company’s choice! I had chosen another picture but they insisted on this one! You will have to pull them up for it!
