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Rap allstars. Akv谩rium Klub, Budapest, Central Europe. Photo by Elekes Andor –

Top 10 Astonishing Facts About Bohemia the Punjabi Rapper

Bohemia is a Pakistani-American songwriter, producer, and rapper whose full names are Rodger David. He was born in October 1979 in Karachi, Pakistan.

His father worked for Pakistan International Airlines. Rodger鈥檚 parents鈥� and siblings鈥� names are unknown.

In 1993, his family relocated to the United States where attended his high school and college. Rodger is the first successful mainstream rapper from Punjabi. He became interested in rap after he realized that some of the artists鈥� lyrics sounded like the messages from his writings.

Rodger announced he was working on his 5^th Studio album 鈥業 am I.C.O.N鈥� which would be produced under Geet Mp3. He has over 1 million YouTube subscribers and over 10 million views on multiple tracks. He has an estimated net worth of $6,000,000.

1. Bohemia is Among the 5 Desi Hip-hop Pioneers

Desi hip-hop is the combination of influences of hip-hop and the Indian subcontinent in music and culture. Bohemia has been a major influence in the Pakistan rap industry and his albums have become some sort of religion for the Punjab Rap fans.

Ishq Bector (Indo-Candian), Baba Sehgal from India, Haji Springer, and Rishi Rich are also considered to be the pioneers of Desi hip-hop.

2. He Made His Debut Album in 2000

Bohemia moved from his parents’ house to Oakland to join his cousin who at the time was working in a recording studio. He was introduced to Seth Agree who was a hip-hop producer.

Their interest in music brought them closer together and formed their own record label 鈥楾he Outfit Entertainment鈥�.

Seth produced Bohemia鈥檚 debut album Vish Pardesan De (In the Foreign Land) which spoke of his life experience after moving to America. The album was inspired by Faiz Ahmad Fiaz and Mirza Ghalib who were famous poets from South Asia.

He produced his first single video 鈥淪ha Te Ra鈥� which unfortunately was not part of his album.

3. Bohemia Signed a Multi-Record Deal with Universal Music Group- India

The logo of Universal Music Group 鈥� Dutch鈥揂merican music corporation Image by 鈩�/庐Universal Music Group N.V. –

After his first album, Rodger and Seth worked on Pesa Nasha Pyar(Money, Intoxication, Love), his first full-length Punjab rap album. The two had a studio in downtown Oakland where they worked on the album for 2 years before its official release.

During this time, Rodger signed a multi-record deal with Universal Music Group, a Butch-American multinational music corporation. The Pesa Nasha Pyar(Money, Intoxication, Love) was released in 2006 under Universal Music.

Bohemia鈥檚 3^rd album Da Rap Star was produced and released in 2009 under the same management.

4. He Was The First Rap Artist on Coke Studio Pakistan 

Rodgers appeared in the fifth season of Coke Studio Sessions, Pakistan. The rapper was the lyrist of 3 songs (Paisay Da Nasha, School Di Kitaab, and Kandyaari Dhol Geet) in the season and gained the attention of the Bollywood industry.

After the show, Warner Bros Entertainment approached him and asked to work with him on a film soundtrack production.

5. Bohemia Performed Lead Tracks for 2 Films

movie-camera-strip-film-director Photo by Geralt –

In the Indian action-comedy film Chandi Chowk to China (CC2C), Rodger wrote and sang the title track with Akshay Kumar. He also starred in the movie alongside Deepika Padukone. The film was produced in 2009 by Warner Bros Entertainment Inc.

Bohemia alongside Neeraj Shridhar and Salim-Sulaiman, did the soundtrack album to 8 *10 Tasveer, an Indian Hindi language action thriller film produced by Percept Picture Company. Rodger was the lyrist to Sanar, a track on the film Breakaway, and gave it as a gift to the film’s producer, Akshay Kumar.

6. Bohemia鈥檚 Albums Have Won 6 Awards and Received Multiple Nominations

Rodger鈥檚 first album was nominated in BBC United Kingdom’s top ten albums.

His third album Da Rap Star was number 1 on Plant M charts for several weeks and received 1 nomination at the United Kingdom Asian Music Awards in 2010 and 3 nominations at PTC Punjab Music Awards in 2010.

His first album win was in 2013 when Thousand Thoughts  won Best International Album at UK Asian Music Awards. In 2015, he won 2 awards i.e Award of Excellence Music at FOG Festival of Goble and Make it Large at Mirchi Music Awards Punjabi.

Patola Album won Best Duo at the 2016 PTC Punjabi Music Awards.  Special Award won the 2018 International Punjabi Icon at PTC Punjabi Music Awards. His latest award was Best Music Video at PTC Music Awards (2020)

7. He Won The 2012 Best Non-Resident Punjabi Album

In May 2012, Rodger signed Sony Music India as his management for his album production, launches, and performance shows. He produced his fourth album Thousand Thoughts under the label and was nominated for the PTC Punjabi Music Awards.

In 2012, Rodger won the Best Non-Resident Punjabi Album.

8. Bohemia Has Collaborated with International Lead Artists

Sean Kingston performing at the 2009 Shout Awards at Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil. Photo by Irwandy Mazwir –

Following his successful music career, Bohemia has worked on singles featuring famous musicians such as Snopp Dogg in Favourite Spot, Gippy Grewal in Car Nachdi,  Mika Singh in Dunalli, Jasmine Sandlas in Adhi Rati, Bilal Saeed in No make up and Guru Randhawa in Patola.

In 2014, Bohemia worked with Sean Kingston and Sonu Kakkar to produce the banger U n Me which has over 900,000 views on YouTube.

9. Bohemia Appeared in The 2015 New York XXL Magazine Issue

Bohemia was featured in the January 2015 New York XXL (a hip-hop magazine) issue. The magazine was discussing the growth of the hip-hop industry in mainstream African America and South Asia.

It spoke of how Jay-Z鈥檚 2000 collabo with Panjabi MC on the remix of 鈥楤eware of the Boyz鈥� was a global sensation and grew the affiliation between Hip-hop and South Asia/ Punjabi Province at large. 

Bohemia was named as one of the Pakistani artist with a major influence on the hip-hop industry of SouthAsia.

10. He Launched His Own Record Label – Kali Denali Music (KDM) in 2015

Rodger stopped working with Sony Music and Universal Records after the mainstream labels requested he reduce his influence in hip-hop music.

He and Haji Springer came together and started working on the music label Kali Denali Music. He released his mixtape, KDM Mixtape Volume 1, in 2016 under their label.