Bohemia Rapper - Struggle Story | Biography

Roger David better known by Bohemia, is a Pak-American rapper, and record producer. He was the first Punjabi rapper. Released his first Punjabi rap album (Vich Pardesan De) in 2002. He is also known as the creator Desi hip-hop.

EARLY LIFE

Bohemia was born on October 15, 1979, in Karachi, Pakistan,  into a Punjabi-Christian family. He has a Bible and Guru Granth Sahib at his home because one of his forefathers was Sikh. His father worked at Pakistan International Airline. They move to Lahore, where he spent his childhood. When he was in his early teens his family moved to the United States, settling in San Francisco. He started learning music from his father. He occasionally played keywords at local desi events. His mother died of cancer when he was 16. At the same time, he was offered a job at a Sacramento based recording studio and then he decided to follow his passion. He packed his bags and left his family behind to become a musician. Along with his friends, he was now spending his days on the road, sleeping in cars and on recording studio floors. He was the youngest member of the music family, he considers them his older bros, but because certain members started to be entangled in hard drugs, the crew fell apart.  He decided to go his separate way. He plans to join his cousin in Oakland, CA. A city is known for both its abundance of independent rap labels and it’s uncontrollable murder rate. Devastated by the loss of his friend and heavily influenced by his friends in Oakland, he began to lose focus on his music and indulge in heavy drugs, crime, and women. He spent his days hanging in the streets and moving drugs across the state.

CAREER

In 2000, Bohemia moved to Oakland and start living with his cousin, who was working in a recording studio and introduced him to young hip-hop producer known as Sha One. He heard bohemia singing something he wrote in Punjabi and asked him to rap it over one of his beat. This becomes the arsenal for his debut album Vich Pardesan de. His second album Pesa Nasha Pyar became the first full-length Punjabi rap album. Bohemia later signed by Universal Music group (2006 – 2009). In 2006, Pesa Nasha Pyar was on the top ten downloads of Maxim, and No. 3rd on Planet M chart India. His 1st album Vich Pardesan de get nominated in the BBC United Kingdom top 10 albums

Da Rap Star, his third album, It remained at No. 1 on Planet M chart. Bohemia made a title track for Warner Bros movie Chandni Chowk to China. A couple of months later on he did the title track for one more Akshay Kumar film, 8 x 10 Tasveer. In 2011, Bohemia gave a song as a gift to Akshay Kumar for his first Hollywood production Breakaway. Bohemia also featured in the track "Subha Hone Na De" with Mika Singh.

In May 2012, Sony Music signed him and in September 2012 he released his 4th album Thousand Thoughts. At Coke Studio Sessions, he was the first rap artist, appearing in their 5th season where he performed 3 songs (School Di Kitaab, Paisay Da Nasha, Kandyaari Dhol Geet). 

In 2015, Bohemia launched Kali Denali Music 

In Feb 2017, Bohemia released his 5th album Skull & Bones: The Final Chapter.