All rapped up

Meet Bohemia,the active voice behind Akshay Kumar’s rap invasion

Had the credits not flashed his name,we would’ve continued being tone happy listeners of Akshay Kumar’s recent rap invasion and passed it off as the superstar’s own voice. You have to give it to Akshay – the man’s smart. And spot on when he flew in a certain artist who goes by the name of The Punjabi Rapper,Bohemia,all the way from California and gave Bollywood an active voice. “I received an e-mail from Pooka Batra telling me Akshay’s interested…I thought it’s just another prank! But he called me up,said he was a big fan and worked out on my music every morning! I was blown away,” soon,Chandni Chowk to China and 8×10 Tasveer happened,and “rest is history,” Bohemia chills out at KLG,Sector 43. Here for his latest album,Da Rap Star (it has the song Ek Tera Pyar),Roger David aka Bohemia doesn’t follow rules. “That’s why friends call me Bohemia,” says the unconventional rapper. Actually,make that an ironical rapper who raps by the day and holds mehfils on the harmonium singing ghazals and old melodies by the night. “It’s a tribute to the OG’s,the original Gurus like Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan,Jagjit Singh,Mukesh,Malkit Singh…” he hopes to be an OG too one day. “The original Punjabi rap star,” announces Bohemia whose albums including Vich Pardesan De and Pesa Nasha Pyar catapult you to the streets of California where an ‘American Desi’ does rounds of hardcore street-savvy Punjabi rap packed with verbal punches,funky basss lines and catchy tunes. “It’s desi hip-hop,a desi’s point of view giving you a taste of our lives,” Bohemia’s songs are a whirlwind of his life – days of playing the harmonium with his father,meeting with Michael Anand from Fiji and getting into music biz,coping with the loss of his mother,his musician friends including Chandigarh’s Suresh Mangoli to street thugs which resulted in depression,drugs and alcohol. “When I lost my friends,I shut the doors to music,and all I did was write,” which acted as a vent and Bohemia’s word spread. Music,he says,gave him a second life. “And rap,a window to self expression for I learnt it to pick English! It’s limited by taste and culture,but there’s life to it. It’s not gimmicky or decorative like regular music which protects you with layers of tempos,beats,core progression,chords et al. In rap,there’s no raga or ragini,no secrets,it’s plain speak,” he feels while the other music with its fanstasmal take shuts out the real world,rap opens it up. Looking forward to more work in Mumbai including Priyadarshan’s De Dhana Dhan,with his friend J Hind,another freestyle rapper who got his name when he won a street battle of the words,and with Akon,one thing that’s brought him closer to his art is Ghalib. “He’s an inspiration,especially his life story,” Bohemia leaves us with “Hazaaron khwahishein aisi…” .