COLLAB COUP

RAPPER KING'S COLLABORATION WITH NICK JONAS HAS CATAPULTED HIM INTO THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA. HE'S NOW EYEING A GRAMMY

- Bhanuj Kappal

Four years ago, Arpan Kumar Chandel was earning Rs 10,000 a month as a game attendant at a New Delhi Municipal Council-run sports complex, a job that required him to help people with basic workouts and exercise equipment. Much of his salary would go into his side hustle as an aspiring recording artist. The New Delhi native had been writing songs since he was in high school, and now— having dropped out of college, with a job that gave him both free time and money for recording costs—he was determined to put them out for the world to hear. Stardom, he insists, wasn’t seriously on his mind (“the idea of a music career seemed like magic, and I didn’t believe in that”), just a need to express himself through these songs that were bubbling out of him.