Kolkata gully boy writes, raps for Hollywood flick

An Instagram DM brought a life-changing opportunity for Kolkata-based hip hop artiste Awessum Frankie, aka Md Huzaifa Reza, recently. He was approached by Aaron Sarkar, a musician from Detroit, who not only appreciated Frankie’s music, but also asked him to write and sing for a Hollywood film that he is part of as a music director. “I started my professional journey in the world of music in 2017, and by far this has to be the biggest moment of my life,” said the young rapper while sharing his excitement with us.
The film, titled Trap City, is about the story of a hip-hop performer whose life gets messed up after getting involved in drug peddling. It will feature two of Frankie’s creations -- Drip and Born To Win. Directed by Ricky Burchell, the film features Brandon T Jackson, Dennis LA White and GV Prakash Kumar, among others.
Aaron -- popularly known as The Musik Sarkar -- whose family hails from Kolkata, is excited to work with an artiste from the city. “I am always looking out for new artistes and am particularly keen on working with musicians from Kolkata since my family is from there. I heard Frankie’s music and being a hip-hop artiste myself, I quite liked his work. So, I approached him, and he agreed. It was fun,” Aaron told us.
Due to the lockdown, all the work was done digitally. “I did some Zoom sessions with them. Frankie sent us his writings and we worked on it,” said the music director. Elaborating on his experience, Frankie said, “The best bit was that Aaron let us work on our music. He gave us a beat for one of the tracks, but I suggested we work some more, and along with my friend Katto, we came up with a new beat. Aaron went with that. We recorded our music and sent it to him. The mixing is happening in the US. This is a big honour for me and my friends, including Khan Imran -- who has been working in my music productions for years.”
The director of the film said he trusted Aaron’s instinct. “Initially, he got the musicians on board. But when I listened to Frankie’s stuff, it was outstanding. My approach has always been to create a cultural bridge to bring countries together and create something that’s really global,” said Ricky.