Divine: It's all about keeping it fresh

Divine and Ranveer Singh in Gully Boy

Everyone has been like, 'Arrey, you were on the radio station Beats1', and I was like, yes, I was. I have realised what a big deal it is only now," says Vivian Fernandes, aka Divine, who is truly the man of the moment, riding high on the success of Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, a movie inspired by him and Naved Shaikh (Naezy). Divine, though, has much more happening as well. He has just returned from his first trip to the US, where he was taken by Apple Music to Los Angeles, to feature on Beats1, conversing with DJ Ebro Darden, who is now also Apple Music's global editorial head covering hip-hop and R&B.

Divine is the first Indian hip hop artist to be on the show (taking off from Apple's endeavour to take Indian hip-hop internationally), and his interview could be seen as path-breaking - a sign that the West is now taking non-fusion music coming out of India, seriously. "Ebro has friends here, and is connected to India. So he knew the scene here, but not how big it is. What we are doing now was done in New York in the '80s - it's all very political, very upfront and in-the-face. And he said - 'Bro, this is exactly how it happened in the US, and eventually, people will come for you'," says Divine as we chill over coffee with him at the Apple office.

He also ended up watching Gully Boy in LA."There were only 25 people in one room, and they all saw me and were like 'Iska hi toh movie hai!' [During] the [entire duration] of the movie, I was watching them, and they were watching me." Did he get overwhelmed watching his life story unfold on screen, even though it has been taken in bits and parts? "All the stories have been mashed up together. Both characters [MC Sher, played by Siddhant Chaturvedi, and Gully Boy, played by Ranveer Singh] had instances [inspired] from my life. But it's not something special. Almost 70 per cent of Mumbai grows up like that."

As he waits for the noise around the movie to die down, he is working on a new album, which he calls the "new chapter". "I now have a studio in Bandra, but I still stay in the same slum in Andheri with my mother, as she can't stay away from her friends. The new album is going to have love songs, and aggressive songs." When we question what makes him aggressive, especially since he has tasted such success, he grins, "It's about bits and pieces that I left behind, experiences I jotted down and never spoke about. I also know the industry now, and some parts of it are dark. I want to talk about that as well. But the aim is to move up lyrically, and musically, and just keep it fresh. Even for talent that I am looking at, to try and help though my record label, freshness is key. You can't rap like me or Naezy. You have to rap like you!"

Also read: Siddhant Chaturvedi on how he bagged the role of MC Sher in Gully Boy

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