Flipperachi on FA9LA’s overwhelming response: ‘When Ranveer posted the song, I knew it’d blow up’

Flipperachi

Virality is unpredictable. Earlier this month, Flipperachi became the toast of Bollywood when his song, FA9LA, was used for Akshaye Khanna's entry scene in Dhurandhar. Within days, it was everywhere on the internet. Had the Bahraini rapper anticipated this? "When Ranveer Singh posted the song [on Instagram],
I knew it was about to blow up," the rapper told mid-day.

It's hard to decode a song's success, but Flipperachi believes everything came together to make FA9LA wildly popular in director Aditya Dhar's espionage thriller. He reflected, "It's a combination of everything - the scene, Akshaye Khanna's return, the Arabic lyrics, and the vibe. I saw it before the movie came out, and knew this was going to do something big. The production reached out to my team a while back, and the paperwork was sorted between them."
The Khaleeji song was originally released in 2024. The rapper did not fear that it might be interpreted differently in Bollywood. "People often love vibing to our songs because of the fusion element. We've done the same with other genres like Brazilian funk and Afrobeat. Often, language isn't a barrier as long as the music and vibe grab attention," reasoned Flipperachi, who has hits Samboosa and EeLa behind him.

Akshaye Khanna in the ‘Dhurandhar' song

According to him, Arabic hip-hop is on the edge of a global breakout. He hopes to be one of the artistes putting Bahrain on the map when it comes to music. "With the success of this song, we're a lot closer. The Arabic hip-hop scene has to push as a collective to make this happen, but I'm glad to be the one to open that door!"

The rapper is now working on his next single. When asked if the pressure has risen after delivering a viral number, he said, "There's definitely a lot of pressure, but I've been doing music for a long time and have been ready. People used to think that hip-hop had to be aggressive and vulgar. I'm glad to change that perception, especially in the Arab region, and show them how you can create hip-hop music that is clean, fun, and can transcend borders."

Did you know?

When ‘FA9LA' was released in 2024, it had gained immense popularity in Sri Lanka. Flipperachi said, "I'm happy to see it going viral again in South Asia now."