Meet Kashmir's Youngest 'Gully Boy', 8-year-old emerges as social media champ

Hailing from Prichoo village of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, Arfat Mohiduin said that he doesn’t want to remain confined only to the books.

“I wanted to break this monotony and decided to rap,” Arfat told Greater Kashmir.

A fourth standard student, Arfat is the youngest rapper in Kashmir.

He came to limelight after he released his first hip-hop song on his Facebook profile during the COVID-19 lockdown.

“The video spread across the Internet like a wildfire and it got around four lakh views,” he said.

Arfat said he received huge appreciation and love from the people which motivated him to sing more hip-hop songs.

“Later, I created my own YouTube channel with the name “RAP-KID ARFAT,” he said.

He has so far recorded 11 songs and posted them on his YouTube channel with few of his videos crossing four lakh views. He was recently featured in a Kashmiri song titled “Lost Love”.

Arfat’s uncle, Hilal Ahmad said, “He was interested in music and singing since childhood but he developed interest in rap and hip-hop during the lockdown.” “I am managing all his social media accounts and guiding him. He has been getting good responses from the people. His family has been very supportive as well,” Ahmad said.

He said Arfat recently got a call from OTT platform Netflix.

“They said they wanted to feature him in a project but they didn’t reveal more details about the project,” he said, adding: “He is getting calls from many places. We hope he will make us proud.”