A year in the making, the wait for India’s most loved rapper and music entrepreneur, Raftaar’s eponymous second studio album, ‘Mr. Nair’, finally gets over on 13^th April.

The sixteen-track album showcases several facets of Raftaar’s persona whilst highlighting his innate aptitude for music, and also renders an insight into the efficacious journey and creative realm of 31-year-old  Dilin Nair who today is considered as one of the pioneering imports of the hip hop movement in India.

Based on his life journey, the album narrates the story of an artist who challenged the naysayers, fought against his inner demons and emerged as the country’s most respected mainstream rap icon and a household name to reckon with.

With collaborations seated at the heart of the album, ‘Mr. Nair’ is the mark of an artist who has gradually and progressively made a mark on the burgeoning homegrown hip hop and independent music scene. From working with his fellow Kalamkaar associates like KR$NA,

Yunan, Deep Kalsi, Harjas, Rashmeet Kaur, KARMA; Bengaluru-based rapper Brodha V and Gully Gang signee Shah Rule – to old-time collaborators Manj Musik and Bunty Bains, listeners will get to sample of an assortment of styles and sounds on ‘Mr. Nair’.

All of the sixteen raw and brutally authentic tracks, are inspiring, personal and reflective. Like in Damn where he drives home a point of not allowing criticism to get in the way of accomplishment or in Main Wahi Hoon where he highlights the importance of not changing your value system you were ingrained with as a child to set an impression or in Proud where he expresses his gratitude to his parents, fans and the universal supreme force for always believing in him.

While the album is packed with sounds that those familiar with Raftaar would expect, it does have a new surprise’s too. Songs like Drama, Down, Popular and Superman clearly show the intent of an artist who’s continuously pushing the case of Indian hip-hop.

Raftaar states, “This album is an opportunity for me to narrate my life to the world. This is a curtain raiser of my story, my struggles, my success. Mr. Nair is an acronym I coined together that not stands for my surname but also means “National Ambassador Of Indian Rap”. It's an epiphany of how my life has shaped up with all the struggles and how far I've travelled courtesy my modest middle-class upbringing. Since my initial years whether it was music, dance, painting, writing or whatever sort of creative outlet I was exposed to; it has contributed to my story, because there was a hint of the hip hop culture in everything I did from the start. In all honesty I created Mr. Nair to break a psychological barrier that most artists create for themselves unconsciously which hampers their success story. I wanted to distance myself from the whole” what’s trending and current” rat race. Take my example for instance, as a teen I disapproved of my surname because it was difficult being a Malayali living in North India. But as soon as I realised that the name tag doesn't matter, I could focus more on my art. This album pays a homage to my roots and paying respect to the family name that is built on the foundation of warriors and there is no better time than now. Every individual who came on board to create this beautiful piece of art is very important to me. Without them it wouldn’t be the album I wanted to present. To every avid music enthusiast, this is my labour of love and I've tried my best to gift you something that's never been presented before as I have worked on this creatively for the past one year with a lot of technical experimentation. This album is not just about me. It's about us. Aapka pyaar hai tabhi Raftaar hai. Shukriyaa!”

‘Mr. Nair’ is one of the hotly-anticipated intrepid albums of the year, and will globally release on Zee Music Company.

Here is the album link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCM8LwXaoxg