Hyphen had an unusual start in music – he worked in finance. Depressed and feeling a lack of purpose, Hyphen was looking for a way to express himself. His new found love of rap helped deal with depression and found a new sense of purpose. He is now a BBC Future Sounds artist and co-signed by Yungblud, Saweetie and Jay Sean.
His Yungblud and Jay Sean co-sign were both on verses he wrote on his experience of racism and the lack of British Asian representation in music, a topic he is passionate about.
He also uses his music to spread a positive impact, speaking to schools across the UK on his experiences of being suicidal himself and eventually finding optimism – his talks have received BBC News coverage and also support from some of the largest mental health organisations in the UK, including the Charlie Waller Trust. He is also a mental health representative for Formula-E.
The online content he’s made on the topic has reached millions of people, with 5 million likes on TikTok and over 1 million streams on his music.
Having been tipped as ‘The Future of British Asian Hip-Hop’ by BBC Asian Network featured in the Evening Standard, playing Reading & Leeds and Latitude festivals Hyphen’s songs have been featured on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 6, New Music Friday, as well as a number of other high profile Spotify editorials.
