Like AP Dhillon and Karan Aujla, Kunwar, who left Punjab for Canada to package his desi rap roots for a new audience, feels Punjabi music is having a moment like Spanish did
Kunwar Brar during a visit to the mid-day office. Pic/Satej Shinde
Dressed in all black, with a cap on, a diamond necklace glinting in the light, sneakers and a tattoo on the back of his hand, Punjabi-Canadian singer-songwriter, Kunwarr, stuck to the rapperwala style when he visited the mid-day office last week. Kunwarr is among the many Punjabi musicians who have moved bag and baggage to Canada to find their feet in the music industry there. The Chandigarh-bred, Toronto-based musician beeped on our radar after he released his latest single, Lavish, earlier this month.
Songwriter Kunwarr released a few pop songs early in his career in 2020, with a strong R&B and hip-hop influence. “I started this journey as a singer, but I was always listening to hip-hop since the beginning. As I started my musical journey, I experimented with pop but eventually realised that hip-hop is where my home is,” says the 24-year-old musician. We are curious about his journey. How did a Punjabi boy from Chandigarh start making music and move to Toronto in his early 20s? “I moved from Punjab to Mumbai to study filmmaking at Whistling Woods International where I became close to many people from the music department.” Hailing from a conservative Punjabi family, he knew he “had to take a route which was normal”. But no risk, means no ishq. So he tricked his parents by pursuing a BSc in filmmaking, “but I just told them I’m doing a BSc in Mumbai, not that it was in filmmaking.” And the rest almost seems history now.
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Kunwarr raps in three languages –Hindi, English and Punjabi–which he believes gives him an edge. Pic/Satej Shinde
Cut to 2017, when he flew to Canada for a period of six months, met up with a few friends, started working as a ghostwriter and while “being in the process, around producers and musicians, I realised that I fit more behind a mic than the pen so I started exploring the artiste side to find my sound.” Kunwarr’s influencers include Lil Wayne, Chief Keef and the American hip-hop scene. He says that Punjabi music has always had a presence in the West. It’s almost like what Spanish music did to the English music industry, where even if people didn’t understand it, they got the “vibe”. In Toronto, he noticed that a lot of people, who weren’t Indian, “vibe with Punjabi music.”
What do Punjabi musicians in Canada get right? He believes that it is that they stay true to their roots and culture, making their music authentic. The real reason Kunwarr moved was to gain more “independence”. “Coming from a culture like we do, getting independence in terms of your art is really important,” he says, “I need it, because I have a long way to go!”
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