Monalisa Patsani
Post news network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 21: Rapper Samir Rishu Mohanty, who also goes by his stage name Big Deal, draws his inspiration from the rap legend Eminem.
“The rap battles shown in the movie 8 Mile, featuring Eminem, which I saw as a kid made me want to grow up to be a rapper like him,” he says. The young vocalist wants to take the hip hop culture in India to new heights. And he may also be able to pull it off.
After ten years of learning and trying, Samir’s single ‘One Kid’ from his EP (extended play) ‘One Kid With A Dream’ has managed to catch good public attention and has been viewed over 90 thousand times on YouTube since it was released last week.
The musician likes to write the lyrics for his songs and, as he puts it, does not want to “talk about alcohol and women” in them. “I love music and believe in its artistic integrity.”
Having given his voice for popular Hindi movie Detective Byomkesh Bakshi, featuring Sushant Singh Rajput, Big Deal is also planning for a rap song in his native language Oriya after his single received good feedback in his home state.
His songs feel like it comes from pages of his journal that, he says, helps him to connect with many youth, which is what Eminem does.
His lyric from ‘One Kid’ reads: “Growing up in Puri… I mean I got small eyes, also a flat nose… Even the teachers treated me like a foreigner, when all I wanted to be was an Oriya.” Big Deal talks about his life in the holy city where he had to face discrimination because of the way he looks.
Born to an Oriya father Bidhyadhar Mohanty and a Japanese mother Michie Araki, he went to Darjeeling for his high school education before moving to Bangalore for his graduation.
Samir, who has an MCA qualification, left his job after two years of finishing his education to pursue a career in rap.
“I feel that the song ‘One Kid’ is a turning point in my career. Before that, I was only known in North-East… ‘Bach Ke Bakshy’ for Detective Byomkesh Bakshy helped me to reach out to more audience.”
The rapper aims to achieve mastery over his music just like Marshall Mathers or Eminem has done.
