India’s only female rapper, Hard Kaur, was born Taran Kaur Dhillon in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. During the 1984 anti-sikh riots, when she was all of five years, her father was burnt alive and the beauty parlour her mother ran was burnt down too. In 1991, her family - she, her mother and her brother - shifted base to Birmingham in England, where she completed her schooling.
Since the English and Indian girls refused to speak to her, she “hung out with the black girls”, which explains her love for hip hop music. She wanted to be a hip hop musician, even though it was seen as a man’s domain. Also, discrimination - from every section of the society - was a constant part of these formative years of hers. Thus, when she started out as an artiste, she chose for herself the name Hard Kaur, to signify all the hardships she has endured.
“Glassy” (2005) was the first private album she released in India, which became a raging hit. With such a wonderful start, “Move Your Body” (“Johnny Gaddaar”, 2007) came only a couple of years later. Some other songs that she is remembered for are “Talli Ho Gayi” (“Ugly Aur Pagli”, 2008), “Singh Is Kinng” (“Singh Is Kinng”, 2008), “Move Your Body Now” (“Kismat Konnection”, 2008), “Lucky Boy” (“Bachna Ae Haseeno”, 2008) and also having acted alongside actor Akshay Kumar in “Patiala House” (2011). For her next album, she plans to team up with American rapper Eminem’s group D12.
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