« New Music > Addy Ponty Ft. Dougie > Turnt Up | New Music > Penelops Ft. Supoks and Swaggical Rapstha > Romeo N Juliet »

Interview With Rocky Da Rapper

July 29th, 2012 | By NepHop

While every rapper dreams of making it big in the west one day, Rocky Da Rapper looks set to take a different route. The India born Nepali rapper aims to conquer the second-most populous country in the world. Nephop.net spoke with RDR about keeping true to his roots and his love for Hip-hop.

For those who don’t know you, please introduce yourself

My real name is Anand Lama… I was knick named as Rocky at home. When I started doing rap music I called myself Rocky Da Rapper as my stage name. People remembered me with this name and then later I summed it in to RDR aka Rocky Da Rapper. RDR can be defined as me being me because it’s just representing my name and quality in it; ROCKY (me) DA RAPPER (my quality in it).

In India I have been living here like over 19 years now. My family permanently settled down in India. I’ve been raised in here. My grandfather, my grandma and dad hailed from Darjeeling but later my parents moved to the middle-east India in a small state called Chhattisgarh for my dad’s services. I was born and brought up completely here in small town undertaking schooling before moving out to Pune for my higher studies.

I am a mechanical engineering student as well as a rapper. I am really down to earth. I started rapping at late 13 and I got famous in the Indian underground Hip-hop scene after my hit track “Across the Room” back in 2010. I am a multilingual rap artist rapping in Nepali, Hindi and English.

How is the Hip-hop scene across India?

The underground Hip-hop scene is good enough and the big artists from India are getting name worldwide like Gangis Khan aka Camoflauge, Bohemia, Drega, J Hind, Honey Singh and Imran Khan so it’s going good down here. Recently when Gangis Khan (Wu Tang Clan’s official Canadian artist) was on his India Tour I met him in Pune. He gave me a word that he will feature me on his track soon. So I’m just upping for it.

Where your love for hip-hop comes from, music you listened to growing up and who you listen to now?

My elder brother made me listen to the very first Hip-hop song in my life, 50 Cent’s “Disco Inferno” and I kinda liked it. Then “Encore” by Dr. Dre, Eminem and 50 Cent. It blew my mind and later “Loose Yourself” from Eminem’s ‘8 Miles Soundtrack’ just made me learn the lyrics and imitate the words and delivery exactly the way he did in it. I was fully into urban culture after playing the best video game I ever played, GTA San Andreas… That’s crazy thought but it was so cool.

I know Indian Streets ain’t like those ones in USA or UK but still I keep it real. I came across a long way from a small remote area and it’s just the beginning. I listen to new skool more these days such as Tyga, New Boyz, Wiz Khalifa, Bow Wow are always mostly played in my playlist.

You’re not one to shy away from mentioning your girlfriend in your music. What advice would you give those in long distance relationships?

It’s not that I’m not shy, I’m just thankful to her because she is the who inspired me to express my true feelings for her and mentioning her in the song is just a thankful credit to her to love me loyally and for inspiring me to make songs like “By My Side” and “Dream Gal.” That’s what I think I like “By My Side” because I think its one of my finest work. Some artists think they don’t have to show personal relation or else they won’t have female fans, but getting female fans even if they know you got a girl, then it’s a factor of a dope artist.

Advice to long distance lovers… I don’t know y’all but I would just say that try not to be over possessive for your guy or girl, or things will get messed up. Try controlling not to get mad at each other for silly points. If you both love each other truly and believe in signs, then you gotta keep it real. Fate will bring you close and this might be crazy but when I miss my girl, I just close my eyes and dream that she is “By My Side.”

How often do you visit Nepal and where is your favorite spot?

Living down in Nepal like on daily basis is my dream. I might have physically grown up here but I’m attached to my people. Nepal is in my heart. My culture, my manners, my religion will always reflect through me till the end. I am planning for visiting Nepal ASAP whenever I get a long holiday or if I saved enough or maybe if I get a gig down in Nepal it can help my plans…. I so wanna be there. My favorite spot could be the top of any place in Nepal where I can see the whole beautiful town and get a cold breeze and complete silence.

You’ve performed at numerous venues and shows. Which one has been your favorite and why?

My best gig till now is my show in Club Area 51, in Pune. I felt like a big 5 star celebrity that day. On arrival they provided me body guards when I made my way through the crowd till the VIP and there was a huge line for that party. People were just expecting me to be a dope rapper I figured out by the way they were staring. More than 1000 I guess were at that party and when I grabbed the mic, the crowd went crazy. It was a proper grove, people were actually shocked I went above their expectation.

Underground artists are being criticized for using beats from the internet and not being original. What are your thoughts?

For an underground emcee its hard to expose themselves. Most of them don’t have sufficient kits or knowledge in making beats or contacts for a music producer. In that case we got to download free beats available, though it’s hard to get a beat which suits your style but still researching over the internet for long can help it out. Writing needs a lot of imagination so you can call us poets not every second person is a poet and even then, arranging the words and syncing it with the beat is hard too.

As a multilingual rapper who spits in English, Hindi and Nepali, who do you see as your target audience?

My target audience is Asians worldwide and when I drop a Nepali or Hindi track I hype it more in South-Asia. As a multi lingual rapper it’s tough to be always creative with your lyrics that’s why I try to keep the lyrics simple so that I can relate it with an ordinary persons thinking and they can relate it to themselves according to the mood of the song. Though this shows my versatility but that doesn’t mean that I’m lyrically starving if you know I mean. I can go ill with bars, though my upcoming tracks will prove it but I try to be simple with lyrics in love tracks to give a soothing feeling to the listeners.

What does Nephop mean to you and are there any rappers you are feeling and would like to collaborate with?

“(NEPHOP) is a movement of making all the Nepalese proud of the music that is created by Nepalese rappers and singers worldwide”

NEPHOP throws an impact of a sketched Gorkhali soldier with a Nepali flag, I don’t know why but I see that yeah. According to me it’s a movement of making all the Nepalese proud of the music that is created by Nepalese rappers and singers worldwide, like in a family we are just a big family.

As for collabs, I got a huge List I am upping to collaborate with. James shrestha, RJay , Bish, Mistah TMG (NephopUK as a whole) with the illest Yama Buddha and with my brothers Fuba Tamang, Arluv Gurung and Bullet Flo. I dream to collaborate with Nepsydaz, especially Loorey (Manas Dai) and the best of all time Sir Sabin Rai if he can lend his vocals for a hook, a track in his style, the track will go great like a perfect old skool new skool match

What can we look forward from you from the rest of the year?

Lots of tracks! Dropping some life tracks based on my life, some freestyle tracks, some diss tracks to fake dhoti emcees down here (haha) and my club Hip-hop style will be on as well. I will keep dropping the videos frequently while planning for a mixtape this year so yeah, my mixtape will be out soon and yeah I’ll be reppin’ Nephop for life. Jai Nepal

For more news from RDR Rocky Da Rapper, become a Fan on Facebook.