Sapra Electrifying Young Rapper From Los Angeles

Sapra Electrifying Young Rapper From Los Angeles

Sapra Electrifying Young Rapper From Los Angeles

Sapra is an electrifying young rapper who fuses together Bollywood rhythms with contemporary Hip Hop beats. His music addresses important topics including universal themes such as body positivity, love, relationships, and drug use.

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Blending together elements of Hip Hop and the unique pulsating beats from his native India, Sapra delivers music that maintains an upbeat sensibility that almost anyone can enjoy. His lyricism aims to address relevant social issues while maintaining a high-energy vibration that is distinctive to his sound.

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Tell us about yourself.

My passion started at an early age and followed me through high school when, as my fellow classmates were taking their final exams, I was already on tour with productions around the globe. By then, I was accustomed to being different from kids my age as I’d been playing drums, tabla, and bongos at various events long before my friends were even old enough to attend. This cycle of performing and touring lasted five years as I completed my school exams in a vacant classroom long after school had gotten out for vacation.

Over the last decade, I’ve toured pan India as the lead with some of the biggest international theatre shows in the country, many of which have been seen by the deputy Prime Minister of India. I also spent five years with three high profile productions of Puss in Boots, Bo Ba Laba Books, and Jumbo Circus. It’s only gotten better since then!

At the age of 18, I worked with Ekta Kapoor—“The Queen of Television”—when I handled creatives for Kapoor’s soap opera. My friends had all left to attend college in Delhi while I worked with the biggest television production house— Balaji Telefilms—in India, a position I took only after I was told I was too young and too inexperienced to be a soap opera star. From there, I traveled with Zee Television Awards (Gold Awards) in Mauritius and later founded my own theater and event management company, Beyond Exclamation. During this time, I performed theatre and dance shows across India for major corporations like Cisco, Indian Bank, New York Life, and Toyota. Under the Beyond Exclamation umbrella, I performed as an actor, dancer, and narrator in addition to hosting the Voyage Theater Festival in India where I shared the stage with underprivileged kids in the region.

After the success of my company, I gathered funds and came to UCLA and New York Film Academy to study film and acting.

What music did you grow up on as a child?
90’s Indian Music, Govinda, Himesh Reshammiya, Punjabi Mc, Eminem, and Shakira.

When did you found your passion for music and singing?
Since class 3 in school.

What attracts you towards R&B and rap?

Awareness and entertainment drew me to rap. I think it’s a fun way to say what you want to say and what you believe in. Of course, also it’s a great way of entertainment as well. Kendrick Lamar, Punjabi MC are some artists I am inspired by. I also feel it’s a great way to spread awareness amongst youth about things that could be hard to talk about like drugs, sex, violence, world peace, human rights, equality, and racism.

What was the life-changing event for you? What was the biggest challenge you faced in the music industry as an artist?
When I sang, produced my first music video Ishq Nashila. I knew this was my calling and it’s all possible. It’s easy to get lost in the rat race of Los Angeles. You only get so many auditions and opportunities. The most difficult thing that I had to do was find my voice i.e. creating your own content which is specific to what I want to do in my life and content that I am passionate about. After producing, directing for others, I gained money but no satisfaction as I was not pursuing acting and performance. I started producing for myself. I started with Indian rap music which focused on youth awareness and empowerment. I wanted to create awareness about drugs, body shaming, sex education and I started doing that through my music in a fun way. Now I create my own music and video and market it myself. Financial hardships, losing your ego, and doing odd jobs are part of the game. Living in Los Angeles is expensive and finding an open schedule to audition and making money is a task we all know is challenging. I learned to trash my ego. I decided to do whatever it takes to make my music and films and do whatever jobs I need to do on the side to peruse them. Working at UCLA made me strong. We had to wash dishes and serve people and that taught me how to let go of your comfort and chase my dreams. Coming to the states made me so independent and confident.

Rap music is quite popular among the young generation. What is your personal favorite about the music?
Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dog, Badshah, Punjabi MC.

Walk us through your first project…
My first project was Ishq Nashila.
My friend Sharad Tripathi helped me bring this to life. He is the lyricist on all my songs. He is an established television writer and is an amazing person to make music with. My mentor and music producer (Ara Torosyan) always help me get everything together related to music, mixing, and mastering. My mentor and costumer Michael Philpot always stitch all my clothes. My agent in Los Angeles: JS Represents has always been of great support in LA. My manager who I signed up with 4 months ago Salma Habib has been very helpful. I flew my college friend from India “Ab Chandra” to help me bring the music video to life. He is a great storyteller. The choreographers who helped me were Bfunk “Chaya and Shivani.” I gathered all those people above for the project it was definitely a task to have so much amazing talent in the room and to be able to afford to do it. However, it was fun. Will do it over and over again.

Tell us about your first stage performance.
I have done a lot of stages however will share one of the memorable ones was in Ohio. I am a narrator/actor for the show “Mystic India World Tour.” I had 25 pages of poems to be performed without any assistance. Let me tell you this was nerve-racking. I was so nervous that I had to write those lines over 30 times as I could not skip them on stage. I was the only actor and all the rest of the crew were dancers. If I messed up one line which was curated with music timing this would lead to the whole show to stop. I went on tour with them all over the states and have done many shows. I love traveling with a crew and that’s the best part. I love rehearsals, post-show party, and I feel alive on stage. I miss traveling due to this Covid-19. AMIT SHAH from Aatma performing arts has given me so many opportunities and his show Mystic India has been a dream come true.

Who is your favorite band/singer?
Punjabi MC, Andrea Bocelli, Enya, Kendrick Lamar, and Dr. Zeus.

Is there someone you would want to collaborate in the near future?
Punjabi Mc, Dr. Zeus, Beyonce, SHAKIRA, SELENA GOMEZ.

Some words for your fans……
Let’s win, sing, and dance together! Let’s find happiness in everything. Let’s fight injustice together. Let’s help others and ourselves. Let’s heal ourselves with music.