Raftaar

Delhi gives you a lot of love. Bombay people don't care much because it's usual for them to see a TV serial guy or a movie actor.

I knew I had a sharper mind than most others and I had a sense of rhyme. One didn't even need to sing melodies. It felt like the perfect way to make my way out of the gutter.

Rapping is competitive. Even someone who is not particularly fond of my music, may claim to be my fan only because he hates Honey Singh.

When we are making our independent music, we know our directors and what's happening around as we are paying for it. When it's a movie song, it's not you who is doing everything it's the creative heads and production house.

Talking about remixes, some people like to preserve what is original and some people give it a new meaning. Coming to Hip Hop, the biggest of the artists use sampling. You are changing the genre of the song and to be able to give old music in new package is also fair and people who have emotions attached to it - they are also not wrong.

I like to live life in a way that I understand, it's satisfying. I understand you have to reach a mark where everyone likes you but in reality they don't like you, they like your work.

I don't want to just make music as I want to be legendary. I understand it has to be commercial as I have to feed my family. I am in between these two marks and they are not many people in this space. I want my work to my valued even if my face is forgotten.

You can't stop an artist from expressing his views through art.

When I rapped for 'Manto', I used cuss words and no one objected because it was an adult movie. I feel cuss words are also a way of expression.

I feel instead of censorship, we need to self-regulate ourselves while producing any kind of content.

Growing up in the north, it was natural for me to absorb the Punjabiness around me. I like their way of living, their large-heartedness. I know no other way.

Outside my house in Delhi, you will find at least 10 guys waiting to catch a glimpse of me.

But in Delhi, people love artists. They love any musician, any actor; anybody from the art field who visits from the entertainment industry, gets an amazing response in Delhi.

Mom makes South Indian food for me almost always, because I get it rarely,as I travel a lot for work.

First of all, I'm not a singer or rapper. I'm an artiste. Besides singing, I produce music, dance, write poetry, and sometimes I paint as well.

I always capture one aspect or the other of Delhi in my raps.

I don't mind getting mobbed, to be honest. I live in the real world.

You know you have made it as an artist when you have the power to say no.

My album is called 'Zero to Infinity' and none of my songs are going to have cheap, dirty lyrics. Every song, in a way, is a women empowerment song. Every song, even if it's a dance track, you'll be dancing on it, but it's the right thing.

My mom's not working, my dad doesn't want to stop working because he likes to be engrossed, so everybody is happy.

People are getting permanent tattoos of my name. It's madness. People come and touch my feet. Initially it was really weird, but now I think people see me as an inspiration. So I need to set the right example.

I hate it when people in India throw in an American or English accent while rapping without even a passport in possession.

I have lived my whole life in Delhi. I used to live in Rohini and then I moved to Munirka. I have seen north and south Delhi very closely. That's why my songs and raps have a Dilli waali feel to it. Delhi made me who I am today and I am proud of it.

I feel somewhere in 2016 every Bollywood movie was starting to have at least one hip-hop track which got it the mainstream vibe.

I'm not a materialistic person, to be honest. I'm all about the energy, man. I never had anything growing up, so I don't know what it means to lose anything.