“I currently do freelance work in music and theatre. I mainly do tamil language plays, which is awesome for me because I get to be in touch with my roots. We’ll usually stage shows in schools, community centres and basically any venue that we can get.

For music, I do a mix of hip-hop and electronica. I write and rap my own music, and I’m also very into production work. I’m actually part of a duo called D.O.B which stands for Da Other Brothers, and we’re signed to this label called MostPlayful Recordz.

We’ve released a couple of music videos which you can find on youtube. We also just released an EP, although we’ve not pushed anything through iTunes yet. We’re definitely going to do a lot more with digital media throughout the rest of this year and next year, so we’ll be releasing a lot more stuff on multiple platforms.

I started performing as a rapper when I did a Deepavali show at 16. I was just helping my cousin out by being the hype man, you know. Entertaining in front of a live audience and getting a response from them – that just got me hooked!

I never considered it as a serious career option until four or five years ago. When people who don’t even like you tell you that you’re good, you realise that you’re actually not that bad at it *laughs*

I’ve rapped about all sorts of things. In the past, I used to rap a lot about hate and really negative stuff, but nowadays I’m keeping it very positive and more upbeat, more happy. I think there’s already enough hate out there.” – Shaik, 29