TC recently had the chance to connect with Diligent, an artist who has dealt with the challenges of being typecast as a “Tamil rapper”. Despite achieving some recognition, he’s faced an uphill battle and shares with us an honest and rare look into the life of an aspiring emcee in Toronto.

TamilCulture: Tell us a bit about yourself.

Diligent: I am a first generation Tamil Canadian – born from immigrant parents who came to Canada in 1981 with my older twin sisters. I was born in 1987 and lived in Tuxedo Court like many Scarborough Tamils for the first 5 years of my life.

I had been in music since I was young, playing miruthangum from the age of 9, playing trumpet from 10, and singing in choir from the age of 8. I started rapping when I was 15 with an elementary school friend while waiting for buses, freestyle and beat boxing. I found a love for it immediately. I gravitated towards the culture from adolescence since my sisters would play hip hop/reggae and rock in the house.

TC: How has Tamil culture played a role in your music?

D: Since I am Tamil I found it very easy to articulate sentences very fast because that is how we speak normally. I have been able to have my own radio show on 101.3 FM as well, but in the real music scene I feel, there has been a black cloud hovering over me since I am just a “Tamil guy from Scarborough”.

I love my ethnicity so I never cared, but I have been put in a category which I hate. I have also been involved in our community but I fail to get the recognition from our media leaders—this interview being the first and probably only one I will ever have from a Tamil publication. It hurts when you come from such a great community and no one acknowledges you because you don’t speak the greatest Tamil nor look it.

TC: How did you first become interested in music?

D: I have been interested in music my whole life. My sisters, as I mentioned, were music heads and played everything from Tupac and Biggie to Nirvana. This gave me a real grasp of all music types. My dad also used to play bands like ABBA and Neil Diamond, which put me into a whole different realm.

All these things gave me the gift of melody and harmony. I was able to transcend that into different things such as singing and rapping on tracks, and more recently starting an acoustic project and writing about 20 songs on acoustic guitar. This is, in my perspective, greater than anything I have ever produced.

TC: Who would you consider the most interesting people you’ve met or worked with?

D: I have worked with many people, performed on stages with artists like Serani, produced music with TVI’s Princeten Charles from TVI SuperStar, and wrote songs for artists such as Roveena G. But the most interesting person I have worked with was my engineer Mercilles and another producer Robbie Patterson who wrote and produced “Everybody Wants To Be Like You” by Snow.

TC: What can you tell our readers about the album you released in 2011?

D: That is my Heart, My Soul, My Pain, My Sorrow, My Joy, My Everything. Listen from start to finish. Don’t skip. It’s a movie—would you fast forward through a movie? Take in the pain and the struggle that I have gone through. “Thoughts From Last Place” is that… thoughts from last place. I am the loser, the one who trained for three years just to get to the Olympics and finish last in the race. I’m not upset anymore. Everything is out. Listen and share.

TC: What can we look forward to from you in 2012?

D: There will be a couple of projects I will feature on, but for the most part I am taking a step back and focusing on the real things in my life that I need to take care of. I will try and put those acoustic songs out soon enough though.

TC: What is your dream for your career? What would make you say “I’ve made it”?

D: If I was able to get recognition from this city. Forget New York… If you can make it in Toronto, you can make it ANYWHERE!