Roll Rida

Roll Rida
Birth name	Rahul Kumar Velpula
Born	(1989-01-26) 26 January 1989 Warangal District, Telangana
Origin	Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Genres	Hip hop, R&B, Indi-pop
Occupation(s)	Rapper, songwriter, actor
Instruments	Vocals keyboards drums sampler
Years active	2010 – present

Rahul Kumar Velpula (born 26 Jan 1989), known professionally as Roll Rida, is an Indian rapper, song writer and actor in Telugu language.

He became popular with his YouTube rap song on Sankranthi, Patang, was a huge hit with over 17 million views. His other popular songs are Kirana rap, Breaking news Kattif,Shankar Ka Beta, Ivvalane Dilkush,Ignite, Arupu etc. In 2018, he was selected as a contestant for Bigg Boss Telugu 2 and successfully reached the 15th week of the show and finished in 6th place.

Early life

Roll Rida was born in Karimnagar, Telangana, India. He did his schooling at Johnson Grammar School in Hyderabad; intermediate at Narayana Junior College, Tarnaka and completed his BTech in computer science from CVR College of Engineering, Hyderabad. He was popular for his singing in school and started a band in college with Syed Kamran. He currently resides is Hyderabad.

Career

Roll Rida initially worked at Google, Hyderabad and as Quality Analyst at Tech Mahindra.

He picked his professional name, Roll Rida, upon a friend’s suggestion, after popular American rapper, Flo Rida, of Low song fame. He quit his job to pursue his successful singing career in 2017. His rap song ‘Arupu’ with Syed Kamran raked in 4M views on YouTube.

He was the first to do a rap song in Telugu language. In 2013, he debuted on Sankranthi with a single, Patang, on YouTube became a huge hit, with over 14 million views. His songs Patang, Kirana song, Dilkush are popular with young listeners. He toured USA in 2015 and 2016 to promote his Telugu rap and Hip Hop songs. He also performed at TKR Engineering College annual event which was a huge hit. Roll Rida was featured on VH1 in 2010.

Artistry

Influences, style, and rapping technique

He was a heavy metal music fan. He has cited several MCs as influencing his rapping style like Eminem, 50 Cent and also Linkin Park. His college seniors while ragging at CVR caught hold of me on the college bus one day and asked me to sing and he sang Linkin' Park rap song. Impressed they asked to sing a rap song everyday. He became very popular at college and formed a band.

His rapping is a combination of Hyderabadi Telugu and Deccani slang spoken in Hyderabad old city. Most of his songs are written by Syed Kamran.

Tollywood

He worked with Telugu music directors like M. M. Keeravani, S. S. Thaman and Anoop Rubens. He also performed with DIVINE. He worked as a voice artist for Akhil Akkineni in the movie Manam, and Jr. NTR in Temper. He acted in a short film, Hello!, an urban rom com. It was released on YouTube.

Bigg Boss Telugu 2

He was selected for Bigg Boss Telugu 2 for his popularity. He stayed in the house till the week before the finale of that season-2.

Discography

Singles (music videos)

Year	Track	Lyrics	Artist	Music director
2013	Patang	Roll Rida	Roll Rida
	The Kirana Song	Roll Rida	Roll Rida
2015	Dilkush	Roll Rida	Roll Rida
	Kattif	Roll Rida	Roll Rida
	Ivvalane	Roll Rida	Roll Rida
2017	Shankar ka Beta	Roll Rida	Roll Rida
	Baitikochi Chuste (RAP Version)	Shree Mani	Roll Rida & Dan Madhireddy
2018	Saava Kottethadi	Roll Rida	Roll Rida
	O Pilla	Roll Rida	Roll Rida
	KTR Birthday song	Roll Rida	Roll Rida
	Arupu song	Roll Rida	Roll Rida
	Raadhu song	Roll Rida	Roll Rida
2020	"Don't ride rude"	Roll Rida	Roll Rida
	Nagali	Roll Rida	Roll Rida

Telugu film songs

Year	Movie	Song	Music director
2015	Bruce Lee	Chiranjeevi Entry Rap	Thaman
2015	Gopala Gopala	Pawan Kalyan Intro Rap	Anup Rubens
2016	A Aa	Anasuya Kosam Rap Pieces	Mickey J. Meyer
2018	Husharu	"Kaboom", "Bad Boys" (rap portions)	Sunny M.R.
2020	Ala Vaikunthapurramloo	OMG Daddy Rap Pieces	Thaman
2019	Suryakantham	"Friday Night Baby" (rap)	Mark K Robin

Filmography

• 90ML (2019)