From sleep apnea to clinical depression: 10 things about Badshah

In actor Shilpa Shetty Kundra’s fitness themed chat show Shape Of You, rapper Badshah opened up on his struggles with clinical depression and anxiety disorder. He also revealed that used to suffer from sleep apnea. As this revelation continues to pique everyone’s curiosity about his life, we bring to you ten facts about Badshah that you probably didn’t know about:

MENTAL HEALTH – Mental health is currently a priority for him. To keep the dark days of depression and anxiety behind him, Badshah began keeping his loved ones close and has learnt to say a no when necessary.

SLEEP APNEA – Badshah used to suffer from sleep apnea, a sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. To recover from it and regain his stamina while performing onstage, he began losing weight post the Covid-19 lockdowns.

REAL NAME – The rapper’s real name is Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia. But being a big fan of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, he decided to change his name after being inspired from SRK’s hit film Badshah that released in 1999.

HUSH HUSH PERSONAL LIFE – Badshah had a love-cum-arranged marriage with Jasmine in 2012, who he met at a party through a common friend. They had an intimate Catholic wedding in the presence of family and close friends. It was after his daughter Jessemy Grace Masih Singh was born in January 2017 that his personal life came under the limelight.

MATH GENIUS – The rapper pursued an under-graduation degree in mathematics at St Stephen’s College, Delhi University. But he left the course mid-way study engineering in PEC Institute of technology in Chandigarh. In fact, he had once revealed that the first rap lyrics he penned was for his math teacher.

A CIVIL ENGINEER – Prior to making it big in the music industry, Badshah worked as a civil engineer. His life was all about waking up in the morning and reach construction sites wearing a helmet. But the job disinterested him and he left. If not a rapper, Badshah wanted to be an IAS Officer. He had to convince his parents to let him choose music as a career path.

FIRST PERFORMANCE – The first time that he performed onstage was at his college festival. Musician Dr Palash Sen was supposed to perform at the fest but since he was late, Badshah requested his principal to let him perform onstage for five minutes. But he soon mesmerized the audience and the five minutes turned to a half hour.

SPLIT WITH HONEY SINGH – He started his musical career with a music group named Mafia Mundeer founded by rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh. During his stint there, Badshah extensively worked with Yo Yo and other rappers Raftaar, Ikka and Lil Golu. As part of the crew, he went on to work with Yo Yo on hit songs like Get Up Jawani, Angrezi Beat and Brown Rang. Eventually, Badshah left for not getting credit as a lyricist for Yo Yo’s 2011 album International Villager.

TRAILBLAZER – Paagal, one of Badshah’s most popular songs, that released in 2019, featuring Playboy model Rose Romero, created records. The track received 75 million views within 24 hours of its release. But YouTube didn’t credit the rap artiste for the same.

KAR GAYI CHULL – This party number by Badshah from Kapoor & Sons (2016) continues to remain a hit. What not many know is that it is inspired from a Haryanvi song which was also composed by the rapper along with Haryanvi singer Fazilpura in 2014.