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  Entertainment   Music  05 Aug 2019  American Hip Hopper Alvin Kumar 'AK' struggle and success define attitude

American Hip Hopper Alvin Kumar 'AK' struggle and success define attitude

THE ASIAN AGE.
Published : Aug 5, 2019, 9:46 am IST
Updated : Aug 5, 2019, 9:46 am IST

His first Punjabi single is titled “Dushmani” which features Nav Sandhu which is releasing within a few weeks.

Alvin Kumar.
 Alvin Kumar.

Wise and talented way beyond his young years, AK is a gifted producer on the rise in music. Born in Pittsburg, California, at age 12, he was introduced to producing when he attended a music production class. After the thrill with his first experience of creating sounds, producing became a passion of focus. His background of Indian descent are critical influences on his versatile sound. Growing up, the influences of American rap group Mob Figaz, and American famed music producers Scott Storch & Zaytoven are credited as additional reasons and interest of becoming a music producer for the American industry, and Manni Sandhu was a big inspiration for the Punjabi side of music. AK grew up in a household where music was everywhere around him. Each of his family members either sing or play an instrument. His dad and grandpa were a big influence on AK where he took interest to learn how to play instruments semi-professionally. AK plays various live instruments such as Tabla and Harmonium that he incorporates into his beats as well. We used to sit at home and have jam session every Thursday when I was growing up and that allowed me to get all the practice, I needed to master these instruments. Our family also performs for religious events at the temple or when people have prayers at their homes. I’ve always been addicted to success since a little kid. I have to succeed in everything that I do or I feel like I’ve wasted my time on that certain thing. The positive response that I get for my music is what keeps me going to push further and keeps me on the right track. The love & support for that my whole family provides me with my music career also has a positive impact on me as well.

Being a music producer for the American Hip Hop industry, I started off as a kid with a dream to be the top music producer for the hip-hop industry. I would’ve never thought that I would also be involved in the Punjabi music industry when I first started making beats. I started making rap beats at the age of 12 in my bedroom but didn’t start taking my music career serious until the age of 16 where I produced a local hit song named “Snitch Food” featuring Lil Blood & Lil Rue. The song had got over a million views in just a few weeks of time which was pretty amazing at that time which was nearly 10 years ago. I have worked with some of the biggest artists in the world in the hip hop industry such as: French Montana, Chris Brown, P.Diddy, Rick Ross, YFN Lucci, Roddy Ricch, Chance The Rapper, Lil Boosie, Jim Jones, Soulja Boy, Mozzy & many more.

In 2017, I started making Indian beats for the Punjabi industry which was heavily influenced by Manni Sandhu. Manni and I jumped on a FaceTime call and I told him that I wanted to be the first artist to have a big name in both the American music industry and the Indian music industry. From there, I have worked with plenty of well-known artists in the Punjabi music scene such as: Garry Sandhu, Mickey Singh, G. Sidhu, Kay V Singh, Akal Inder, Amar Sandhu, RamVir, Nav Sandhu, Manni Sandhu, Tyson Sidhu & many more. I have also done a few remixes for the top Indian record label in India, Speed Records. I usually channel my emotions into my beats which gives it a realistic feeling. Music can control your emotions so I tend to use my own to emulate these into sounds to hit people right in the soul to make them feel it genuinely.
AK recently got an award for being on the top 20 on the Billboard music charts for Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums coming in at #18 which is exceptionally great. The song was from YFN Lucci’s recent project that was titled 650 Luc: Gangsta Grillz and the song title was “Never Change” which was released on June 21st. Also, I have produced a song for Mozzy featuring Rayven Justice, titled “No Choice” that has surpassed 10 million views on YouTube which I also got an award for. My personal YouTube page has almost 6 million total views itself from all of the songs I’ve produced over the years. A whole bunch of my other songs that I’ve worked on have anywhere from 1 million-7million views on other pages. People that I was a fan of growing up, are actually my associates now and we work together in the music industry, which is incredibly cool. I’ve recently released a song last week called “Lak De Hulare” with an artist from New Zealand by the name of Sharan Sandhawalia. I’ve also recently released a song with India’s well-known singer, Tyson Sidhu which is titled “Tera Pyar” which had the internet buzzing with positive reviews on both of our Instagram accounts. When I first got into the Punjabi music scene my first two songs that I produced were on Kay V Singh’s album “Bulletproof”. The songs were “Yaaran Nu” which featured G. Sidhu, and the other one was titled “Neend”. Both of these songs were the top songs on his album which also has accumulated over 500k views together.

His first Punjabi single is titled “Dushmani” which features Nav Sandhu which is releasing within a few weeks

For the American side of music, I have upcoming songs that I’ve produced on for famed artists such as: Roddy Ricch, YFN Lucci, Chris Brown, Tyga & Migos that are all set to release in the coming weeks.

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