Hard Kaur!

Taran Kaur Dhillon never understood what it was to be a twelve-year-old. Traumatic experiences took her to a cold U.K., where she was bullied around for her skin colour. Today, she is defining hip hop in India and the U.K."Nobody can bully me into singing what I hate. I eat, sleep, s*** hip hop and I want to keep it just that way", says the U.K.-based star popularly known as Hard Kaur, who is now defining hip hop music in India. Her frankness is the result of many nightmares she lived. You can't separate her bittersweet experiences from her lyrics. In India to promote her solo album Supa Woman (Saregama), she doesn't mince words about her difficult past. "Musically, the album defines what I have grown up listening to. It's a collection of what I am about. Everything is original and sets new standards. Lyrically, Supa Woman is about life, about what to expect while growing up", says Hard Kaur. While growing up, she never imagined she would perform hip hop. The image of a salwar-kameez clad girl with a flower in her hair ruled Hard Kaur's imagination. Life is not a bed of roses, she learnt quickly. Her mother, after being kicked out of her in-law's place, refused to take things lying down. She moved to a cold England after her husband's death in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms in India. At school, Hard Kaur was referred to as a "freshie" from India. She proved more than a point when she began dancing. Today, she is one of Britain's foremost women rap artistes. "It's the best way to express things close to one's heart. Tell people what you have been through. I don't accept anything lying down. Rap was my way out of the cage. It gave me a voice, power... an identity". Saregama made a brilliant choice when they came across Hard Kaur. However, Kaur also has her own label. "I have always done things independently and took care of my management. Striking a deal just for the sake of it never interested me. Unless I like what I see, how can take it up? Music is about enjoying creative freedom. On my label you do your kind of music. There are labels for bhangra artistes. But what if a desi living in the UK wants to record urban genres? Which label will sign him or her up? For them, there is my label. I develop artistes, turn them into hummingbirds". She is the same person whose "Move Your Body" (Johnny Gaddar) is on air. Hard Kaur has worked on her music independently and featured on global club hits including "Ek Glassy", which is still the number-one club anthem of India. Her songs are about a woman's place in a male-dominated world, with the urban desi experience thrown in. She is associated with Breakthrough, an organization working on HIV and domestic violence issues, and has written a song for women's empowerment. After singing on the Bollywood soundtrack for Johnny Gaddar, she is working on other projects with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. She even got the opportunity to share the stage with stars like Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams! On her first solo record, Supa Woman, she works with promising international producers including 45 WAX, D-Boy, Urban, AC Burrell, Asif (Fusing Naked Beats) and Tigerstyle. The album is supported by three videos - Look For Me and Mumbai Deewana are directed by Sumit Dutt of Mise En Scene, while My Girls features Meera Sayal of Kumar's At 42 fame. Prior to the album, she released a four-track EP in the U.K. "Everything changes you. Watching my mother work hard has been a gruesome experience. Since the age of thirteen, I have been working with her. I am happy that I was bullied. It made me a tough person. I still work with my mother and clean the floor. Always remember where you come from". Hard Kaur is already touring the U.K. to promote her album. Soon, she will back in India to host a series of concerts. A U.S. tour is being planned for late November. [Courtesy: The Statesman]

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