Divya Kaushik (BOMBAY TIMES; January 11, 2020)

Raftaar is known for voicing his opinion on social issues, and, like many from the entertainment industry, he also recently spoke about his opinion on the current political scenario. Last month, in a viral video clip from one of his concerts, Raftaar introduced his friend and bodyguard Arshad and told the audience, “Ek baat bilkul seriously clear kar raha hoon. Chahe kal career chale chahe na chale, koi dikkat nahi. Itna kama liya hai ki end tak bhookha nahi marunga. Iss insaan ka naam hai Arshad. Yeh mera aisa khyal rakhta hai ki koi mereko dhakka bhi nahi maar sakta. Agar isko koi desh se nikalne ki baat karega na toh samne goli khaunga. Chahe Hindu hai, chahe Sikh hai, chahe Isaai hai, chahe Muslim hai, sab hamare bhai hain. Kisi ko bhi bahar nahi jaane dunga. Aur iske baad jo bhi mere career ka hoga na, wo tum khud dekh lena. Mere ko koi parwah nahi hai…”

In Delhi, Raftaar recently said that he doesn’t regret what he expressed on the stage. “I had no agenda behind what I did. For me it was a platform to say something that I have been wanting to say,” he said, adding, “I don’t care about how people reacted to it.”

In the video, Raftaar ended his message with a cuss word, which drew criticism from many. In a tweet later he apologised saying, “Before everyone starts jumping in and fighting on who agrees or disagrees with me. I want to apologise for abusing on stage. That is something I shouldn’t have done...” He told us, “My only fault was that I used a cuss word and I apologised for it, but I was in rage. That very day, I had read somebody’s Instagram post about a kid who said, ‘Aaj main school gaya aur chaar doston ne mujhe ye bola ki tere gharwalon ko toh bhejne waale hain, tu nikal.’ That post broke my heart. At that moment, I didn’t know how to respond to it. I just spoke my mind on stage.”

Clarifying that he never affiliates himself with any political party, he added, “I am not on this side or that side, left wing or right wing. Apna woh chakkar hi nahi hai. Main toh insaniyat mein believe karta hoon. I just can’t tolerate discrimination at any level. Since the beginning of my career, I have been very vocal about discrimination. I have always believed that every person is equal. Following your faith doesn’t mean that you have to prove that somebody else’s faith is any lesser than yours.” Raftaar added that he is worried about the kind of example the current events are setting for children. “My problem is the mentality that comes when all these things happen, and I am not pointing at any one particular incident. This mindset corrupts the future of the nation. I don’t care about political parties, all I care about is that there should be a change,” he said.

Raftaar said that he might write a song about the current political scenario if he feels the time is right. “It is good that there are young people writing about it, coming up with protest poetry, but I just want to say that educate yourself and then be vocal about it,” he concluded.

Soumya Vajpayee (BOMBAY TIMES; May 11, 2019)

Rap music has garnered a lot of attention in India, of late. Ask him about the genre featuring prominently in the desi music scenario, and Raftaar cannot contain his excitement. “I’m loving it. After all these years, there is finally some momentum towards a more positive and optimistic avenue. It’s time rappers get their due credit. Everybody now can support their families because of this rap revolution, so it’s good,” says the musician, as he speaks about his mother’s love for rap, its evolution, the need for more representation of music from the Northeast and more. Excerpts:

Do you think that rappers have started getting their due in the country?
Yes they have, but there is scope for improvement and growth. The movement shouldn’t stop here and we shouldn’t be happy with the five-minute fame theory. It’s just the beginning and a perfect one at that.

Music in India is often synonymous with classical and popular film music. So, while modern musical genres like beat-boxing and rapping are emerging, they could be taken more seriously as the other two, right?
I believe rap music is already being taken seriously. If you see the list of top 10 Indian music artistes, you will definitely find three-four rappers dominating the charts, and that speaks for itself. There was an era when every song felt like a Pakistani singer has sung it. All the Pakistani bands were coming to India and doing a lot of work. At that time, it was the wave of rock. I hope rap is not a rage, because musical genres should stay.

There has been an new-found interest in rapping even in Bollywood. Has that helped in changing the way rappers are perceived?
Of course, let’s take Gully Boy for instance. Apart from the mainstream rappers, what the film has done is that it has put the spotlight on those who are still raw, like a person who is yet to find a way out of home.

Words play a major role in rap music. However, in India, the major grouse being attributed to the genre is its lyrics, which often border on vulgarity...
I don’t want to be a hypocrite, but a realist. Indians seem to have no problem enjoying western songs like Gucci Gang. In fact, the video of Ed Sheeran’s Closer has been portrayed in a rather hypocritical manner. It objectifies a woman’s body, constantly making sexual remarks. I don’t think you walk up to a girl and say your body looks like so and so. There’s a thin line between romancing and exploiting.

Is there a difference between the rap scene in Mumbai and Delhi?
There’s only a difference in the diction — Mumbai’s Hindi rap has Marathi influences, while Delhi’s Hindi rap has a Punjabi touch. There’s a difference in the tone. A rapper from Atlanta (USA) sounds different when compared to a rapper from California (USA), but, at the end of the day, we are all same. We all have a common cause — progress and diversification. No matter where we come from, we want a better place for our parents to live in and a better lifestyle.

Have your parents ever tried rapping with you?
They always do. One day, my mom was listening to Naachne Ka Shauk Hai. She loves this kind of music. Even when I was a kid, I used to play Eminem’s songs and she would enjoy them with me. Once she asked, ‘What are these words like f*** in the songs?’ (laughs!) I remember, I made her listen to White America and explained the lyrics. She said, ‘Yeh achhi cheez hai, yeh sab sunna chahiye.’ My parents were very supportive when I decided to pursue a career as a rapper. They said, ‘Tereko jo karna hai, woh kar… Kuch nahin hoga toh hum ek roti mein kaam chala lenge, but you follow your dreams.’

You shared a close bond with Yo Yo Honey Singh, but things turned sour a few years ago. How’s your equation with him now?
I met him on a flight recently and we greeted each other. He was seated next to me throughout the journey. You need to evolve, let the maturity get the better of you and let bygones be bygones. At least, I’d like to be the bigger person. Life doesn’t keep giving you chances and when you do have the chance, make the most of it.

From testing his rap material on Orkut to bagging a track in the movie Manto, Dilin Nair aka Raftaar feels future rappers will emerge from the hinterland
Anuka Roy (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 21, 2018)


Dilin Nair first discovered Eminem when he was a teenager. When he heard Eminem and Mike Shinoda rap, he “was, like, bro, I can do this!”.

And then, he moved onto posting his compositions on Orkut, the now defunct social media platform, where he duelled with other rappers and upcoming stars such as Yo Yo Honey Singh kept a tab on rap communities.

In 2007, Singh got in touch with him — “like randomly” — and along with a few others including Badshah, Mafia Mundeer. Nair, whose father was a railway janitor and mother a stenographer, also took on the moniker Raftaar. “You could pronounce it in so many ways, and if you are a rapper whose name rhymes with a lot of stuff, it’s always good, man.” Today, Nair is among the country’s best-known rappers. In about ten years since he first started taking rap seriously, he’s had an adventurous run: falling out with Honey Singh and exiting Mafia Mundeer, composing a track for a national hip hop festival and acquiring the lucrative tag of a youth icon and thus being widely courted by brands. But the song that really launched him into the rap lovers’s imagination was his debut number Swag Mera Desi, his way of announcing, he says, that he didn’t need a band to make it big. The song was such a hit that Bollywood took note and in 2016, he sang Dhakkad for Aamir Khan’s Dangal.

“I had hit songs before that but they weren’t iconic. Pritam-da (composer) was already working with me and when he heard my tonal structure, he said, ‘I have a song for you’. When I heard that it would have a Haryanvi touch, I was happy because I knew the language,” says Nair, who has also sung in Bengali, Tamil and Telugu. Currently, his song Mantoiyat for the film Manto has garnered almost 16 million views in about two months. “I hadn’t read [Saadat Hasan] Manto. I had just heard about him,” says the rapper, who sports a tattoo of The Game, his idol, on his left hand. Nair says he was “blown” when he researched Manto. “I knew that lit fans would be apprehensive of a rapper in Manto. But, essentially, we are saying the same stuff.” Nair says his composition for the movie mirrors Manto’s frustrations with society. “In many ways, things are still the same.”

The Delhi-based rapper says he has no plans of moving to Mumbai. “Why should I? To be seen at Page 3 parties? I’m not interested, man. I have my own studio at home, I’ll make the music and send it across,” says Nair, who is in his late 20s. His next gig, he says, is mentoring, and he already has several youngsters under his wing. “I’m showing them the way,” he says. The next wave of rappers, he says, will come from the hinterland. “There are many youngsters who are now telling their personal stories through rap, and they need to be heard.”

Fan girls say their hearts beat for him, but rapper Raftaar knows fame and love is transient. It’s why he wrote Instagram Love
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; June 19, 2016)

Rapper Raftaar’s new single, Instagram Love (pictured above) is all about love aaj kal and all that, he says. Dancing amid hot young things with pop colours surrounding them, he sways and sings, “In the morning, uthte hi dekhoon tera update kya, kiya follow tujhe hi, I love to see your Instagram”. It’s a tune that is now stuck in our head.

He says his inspiration comes from his own experiences with female fans on the photo social networking site. “Initially, I wouldn’t check the notifications; there are too many. Then, one day, at the insistence of some friends, I checked my direct messages…” he smiles, seated opposite us in his vanity van on the sets of television show, Comedy Nights Bachao. What he found was expected, but still surprising. “There were girls telling me they love me. ‘truly, madly, deeply’. They would say things like, ‘It’s not because you are a rapper, but because I fell in love with you’. How could that be? They don’t even know me. All they see is the filter. You see the best side of a person, and that’s not love.” It’s why Instagram Love, produced and released by One Digital Entertainment two weeks ago, came into being. It’s Raftaar’s first-ever solo single.

The 27-year-old, whose real name is Dilin Nair, hails from Trichur in Kerala and is no  stranger to fame. He started his career in 2009 with Yo Yo Honey Singh and RDB, with songs like Beer Bar, Gadbad and Tamanche Pe Disco. His first big hit was Swag Mera Desi Hai with Manj Musik. Ever since, he is known for his smooth rap and effortless swag. “I never call myself a rapper. Actually, my Instagram bio says ‘a poet with a little bit of swag’.” His story is a rags-to-riches one, and he admits that that it could be the reason he is grounded. “I call all my fans my brothers, because I am one of them.”

His father was a janitor in the Indian Railways in Delhi, and mother, a typist. “All their money went into sending me to good schools. Now, they are happy with my success. My mom calls me and says, ‘I need the latest iPhone!’” But, in Delhi, an expensive school meant his classmates would show off their fancy “lunch boxes”. “They would tease me, calling me a poor Malyali.” It was then that Raftaar’s aggressive side took charge. “I used to pick fights all the time. I got thrown out of many schools and was eventually sent to a school in Sonepat. That’s why I am so good with my Haryanvi, Hindi and Punjabi. I have travelled on Haryana Roadways, after all!” he laughs.

One day, though, he woke up and realised he didn’t want to fight anymore. “I think it’s a matter of getting it out of your system,” he says. It could be a lucky coincidence that this decision was made around the time he started rhyming. “My father, during his cleaning days, used to bring home all the comics and books people left behind on trains. He wanted me to read. That’s how my vocabulary improved. I used to find rhyme in everything — even things like ‘hat, rat’ sounded magical to me.”

While he was pursuing a degree in English (Hons) and Bachelor of Computer Applications through correspondence from Delhi University, his friends introduced him to Eminem. “That changed my life. Eminem, The Game (he points to the tattoo of the same on his arm), Lupe Fiasco… I knew this was it.” He started recording on his laptop with flimsy headphones and uploading his music on Reverb Nation. In 2009, he met Honey, and started singing professionally. After working with him till 2013, he split. He claims Honey hogged the credit. He then got involved in an ugly spat with the star rapper, who after making a comeback last year from what most suggest was rehab, he said he didn’t even know who Raftaar was.

He was reacting to reports of Raftaar calling him an “insecure little girl”. “I am so over that. What happened, happened. We won’t work together again, but we are all doing our own thing musically.”

What Raftaar plans to do next is release many more singles, because “albums don’t work anymore”. But he also wants to keep true to what his rapping really wants to achieve. “Everyone sings about girls and parties. I do too, but I do it with respect. In one of my songs, I say, charm a girl, patao her, but like a gentleman…” he says adding, “But the true aim is to make songs about social injustice, global warming, and subjects that are important to us. In my song Mother Nature, I sang ‘rone ka kya fayda, galti humari hai’. I do the sexy songs so people can listen to songs like these. It’s the only way it will work.”

Tanvi Trivedi (BOMBAY TIMES; April 15, 2016)