SAB kuchh ho sakta hain. Haan, mara hua insaan zinda nahi ho sakta. Lekin baaki sab kuchh ho sakta hain [Anything is possible. Sure, a dead person can’t come alive. But anything else is possible].” That is what Prabh Deep’s father used to often tell him when the hip-hop musician was a child, growing up in East Delhi’s Tilak Nagar area. The words have stayed with him. They reflect in his new album, Tabia. It’s a full-length 15-track record that tells the story of how the artiste fed off that piece of paternal advice, emerging as a more self-assured person after going through a period of inner turmoil.

Material temptations were a large part of his mental conflict. Prabh Deep tells us, “I used to buy a lot of shoes and clothes. It was one sort of temptation that I got sucked into, where I was losing money and time shopping every day, going through things online. That suddenly stopped.” But it wasn’t just that. “When it comes to women, I now understand that I need to be with one person to be a better man.”