Raftaar: ‘I'm a Paradox In This Industry

The hip-hop artist talks about the release of his fulllength album ‘Mr. Nair,’ why he doesn’t want to play a hero in a movie and how Indian rap can go global

- Anurag Tagat

STUCK IN MUMBAI due to the ongoing national lockdown, hip-hop artist Raftaar is not entirely unhappy but he wishes he was back home in New Delhi with family, his puppies and his studio at his beckoning. “It would’ve been different,” he says over the phone.

A lot would have been different if Raftaar had his way, considering he released his new album, Mr. Nair, last month, following up 2018’s Zero to Infinity. There were singles released beforehand like “Main Wahi Hoon,” getting Bengaluru-based rapper Brodha V on the mic for “Naachne ka Shaunq” and calling on his label Kalamkaar’s signee KRSNA for “Damn” all released via Zee Music, who have also released Mr. Nair. But Raftaar wanted this to be an album and he’s specifically leaving songs to have their own life, without being given the video treatment that many artists often indulge in, especially when they have label money. He says, “As an artist, we want to make each song count and not necessarily by giving it a single treatment or putting out a video for every song. For example, a song like ‘Proud’ or ‘Down,’ I’m expressing what’s in my heart. I started off as a writer and a rapper, so the core intention is to put everything in my heart out there for people to hear it.”

In his ambitious pursuit of creating a no-skips album, Mr. Nair is woven through personal stories and journeys of the rapper, producer and in this case, what Raftaar dubs “a director.” He explains, “I was directing the entire journey. From the last album to this one and the singles in between, the importance has been on learning. Self-dependency has to increase as well.”