Compelling Calgarians: Neal Chatha

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The Mickey Mouse drum set he received at age five may have launched Neal Chatha’s Punjabi-rapping hip-hop career.

“I was playing on the beat and singing, and my dad, even then, saw something in me,” says the 28-year-old Calgarian known as The PropheC, who has released multiple singles and four albums to international acclaim since 2011.

Chatha sang classical Indian music until listening, as a young teenager, to ’90s underground hip-hop and rap.

“I started producing hip-hop beats on my classical keyboard — which was a little confusing for my dad.” He put out his own music in high school, singing a hybrid of Indian, pop and hip-hop (his description: Bollywood meets Weeknd).

In 2011, the British Broadcasting Corp. played one of his songs as “Track of the Week.”

As his career became the stuff of dreams, Chatha was still studying business administration (marketing) at Mount Royal University.

“I would be doing shows in New York, or touring, and the next day be in the classroom. It was surreal.”

Before graduation, his dad accompanied him on his first tour of India.

“Dad (still concerned about his switch from classical music) said ‘wow. OK, keep doing what you are doing.”

Through tours to the U.S., United Kingdom, India, Germany and France, Chatha admits to leading a “double-life”: unrecognized and “normal” in Calgary, then experiencing huge fan recognition on tour.

How big is that fan base? His fourth studio album, The Season, quickly jumped to No. 1 in India and topped world-music charts in the U.S., U.K. and Norway. In Canada, it hit Top 10 on iTunes.

Last November, his newest song release garnered one million hits in two days.

In December, he toured Australia and New Zealand.

In 2020, Chatha hopes to release another album, tour Europe and host a big gig in hometown Calgary. He wants it to be special, citing Canadian superstars Drake and The Weeknd as not only great artists, but promoters of their hometowns.