MC Square: Earlier thought rap is about girls, cars until I heard a Badshah song helobaba.com
From being told to do some job in Haryana, to belting out chartbusters such as Ghani Sayani and Laado in studios, this seemingly simple journey was one of self discovery for Abhishek Bensla, or MC Square. “I was a science student, there is an equation e=mc square. That’s how I came up with my stage name,” he shares.
As he climbs the ladder to popularity having sung for films such as Selfiee (2023), the rapper-singer adds that he earlier thought rap was only about girls, cars and alcohol, fueled by what he heard.
“Pehle main aisa sochta tha. Main desi theth aadmi, usse kya pata rap kya hota hai. Maine jo suna, usse rap maan liya. I would listen to Mafia Mundeer. But then Badshah bhai ka ek gaana aaya- Baatcheet. Then I was surprised and thought ‘achha yeh bhi rap hota hai?’ Then I realised rap is just a way of putting your POV across,” he says.
This 24-year-old shot to fame when he won Hustle 2.0 in 2021, a music reality show. He had started off on the show thinking he would be able to bag some gigs and earn some money for respect. “I belong to a well to do family, so it was never about money. I never knew I wanted to be rapper. Us kids would turn Bollywood songs into bhajans as a joke, then I heard my first English song Mockingbird when I was in class 11. I rote learned that. Then I started writing shaayri, made a YouTube channel, used a free beat, and made my own rap. I got 2500 views on it and said ‘yeh toh badiya hai!,” tells us the rapper, who recently came out with his song Mat Maari.
Growing up in a joint family, his other siblings- six brothers and seven sisters all got jobs, while he couldn’t manage one. “I had enrolled in Civil Engineering in a private college without even knowing what it was about. I thought it must be something about civil or criminal cases. In my head though I knew I wanted to be a star somehow. There would be fights daily at home, and I would give logical answers. And if you do that, ghar waale bolte hain behas kar raha hai,” MC Square chuckles.
