Someone once famously said, creativity is a curse if not channelled properly. First-generation, free-spirited English rapper Ahsan Vali’s lives by this and has based his compositions on hurt and heal -- which is the process of creative enlightenment.
He speaks about his journey from being anxious and depressed to becoming a creative rap artiste. “For a long time, I was suffering from anxiety. Although I was creative since childhood, I did not know how to channel it. I started rapping when I was 16, but was mostly underground,” says the 30-year-old whose extended play (EP) rap, The Eternal Song and Dance of the Nomad Heart, is out on Spotify.
The EP is a portrait of an artiste deeply attuned to his inner life. “It makes me vulnerable and I am not ashamed of my vulnerability. Every artiste, if he is true to himself, is going to be vulnerable. Because he has to express all the emotions — good, bad and everything in between — to cast them in the light of different colours,” says Ahsan, who also runs a one-of-its-kind rap school in Hyderabad.
The opener in the play, ‘Breath to Breath’, is about the desire to possess time. In the second track, ‘Chains’, he finds solace in the ticking clock. The third, ‘Joyride: A Passenger’, is about defending time with memory. The fourth, ‘End and Begin’, is about conscious action to navigate life’s inherent chaos and embraces mindfulness by integrating all the mess that is part and parcel of life. The last one, ‘The Eternal Song and Dance’, is a soulful, lo-fi anthem outlining his return and plan, the journey which he betook after surpassing the mental health troubles that once hindered his artistic personality.
“One cannot be healed if one is not hurt. Nobody is exempted from being hurt, but we come out stronger when we heal. It is the process of life, hurt and healing. It is something that makes us emotional and also contributes to making us good human beings,” he concludes.
The 30-yr-old’s EP rap, The Eternal Song and Dance of the Nomad Heart, is out on Spotify
First-generation English rapper Ahsan Vali speaks about his compositions, which are based on the emotional process of hurting and healing. He also talks about his journey from being depressed to becoming a creative rap artiste.