Naved Shiekh is best known by his rap name, Naezy. Listening to his music for just a few minutes will startle you. His verses are defined by his real-life struggles on the streets of Mumbai and his Eminem-esque rapping style that has a grave energy to it. But when you first listen to him, you are taken aback by the freshness that he brings to the table.
The milieu at the start of his journey was a chawl in suburban Mumbai’s Kurla locality. His daily life was nothing short of the trope ‘living on the streets.’ There was no abject poverty to battle here, but it was the bad influences that Naezy had to shake off in his bid to attain maturity.
He was an ordinary teenager in the early 2000s when he discovered the song Temperature by Sean Paul. Unbeknownst to the fact that rapping was to become his ultimate passion, he memorized the twisty lyrics of the song, which earned him popularity among his friends.
His father, who used to work in Dubai at that time, gifted him an iPad once. This gadget actually ended up changing his life. Utilizing apps for creating music loops, Naezy started concocting music. His reverence for western artists like Eminem and others led him to pick up the pen and scribble things down.
Here’s where the turning point lies. Naezy did not choose the traditional route which involved writing about cars, girls and what not – you know, the stuff which is featured in 90 percent of rap songs. He instead, chose to pick from his own life experiences, and show his listeners what it’s like to live on the streets of Mumbai.
When it came to language, Naezy did not let go of his native ‘tapori’ dialect. It is the only way he knows to speak, and he chose to use the same while rapping. All these unique factors led to Naezy’s music quickly grabbing the attention of its listeners.
He gained quite some popularity as an underground artist, before going on to feature in Divine’s Meri Gully Mein which shot him to fame. Since then, there has been no looking back, even as he continues to thrill audiences with his inimitable style.
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