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 Having become an icon for many struggling
artistes by refusing to `sell' his music, Rabbi
Shergill gives Gen-Next a shot at
seriousness while tapping their feet. His debut
album has been a raging hit and the song Bulla
the top of the charts.
Rabbi's
music has been described variously as rock, Sufiana,
and "semi-Sufi semi-folksy kind of music
with a lot of Western arragements."
Rabbi himself has been called "Punjabi
music's true urban balladeer".
Rabbi's father was a Sikh
preacher. His mother is a college principal and
a Punjabi
poetess. Rabbi is an alumnus of Khalsa
College, Delhi.
He started at the Fore School of Management but
dropped out after a year. He did ad jingles
for a while, including for Nova ghee, Yamaha
RX-T motorbikes, and Times
FM.
He struggled for many
years to get his debut album published. He was
working with Sony
Music for a while, but Sony later backed
out. He then approached Minty
Tejpal, brother of Tehelka's
editor-in-chief Tarun
Tejpal, who liked his music and offered him
a contract. After Tehelka's first sting
operation, the company ran into financial
problems. Magnasound
also offered him a contract, but the company
became bankrupt before the album could
materialize. Rabbi was offered decent money to
include his songs in Hindi movies such as Waisa
Bhi Hota Hai Part II, Dubai
Returned and Paap,
but refused. He was finally signed on by Phat
Phish Records, who brought out his eponymous
debut album, Rabbi, in 2005.
His fans famously
include Amitabh
Bachchan and Sir V.
S. Naipaul, who said of his music, "I
didn’t understand it but it was very, very
soulful, very deep."Mira
Nair compared him to Nusrat
Fateh Ali Khan.
Rabbi's music has been
inspired by rock as well as Sufi and Punjabi
folk music. His lyrics are deeply philosophical,
most of them his own, though his most famous
song was written by the 18th century Punjabi
poet Bulle
Shah. |
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Sound & Lights |
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