Roger David (Punjabi: راجر ڈیوڈ, pronounced ɾaːd͡ʒəɾ ɖeːʋɪɖ; born 15 October 1979), better known by his stage name Bohemia, is a Pakistani-American singer-songwriter and record producer, mainly associated with Punjabi hip-hop music. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of the Desi hip hop industry.
Career
In early 2000, he moved to join his cousin in Oakland who was working at a West Oakland recording studio and introduced him to a young hip-hop producer called Sha One (Seth Agress). Discovering that they both shared a deep interest in music, they made plans to form their own record label, which they subsequently called "The Outfit Entertainment". After Sha heard Bohemia reciting something he had written in Punjabi he asked him to rap it over one of his beats. Over the next few months, he wrote a library of lyrics. This would become the arsenal for his debut album Vich Pardesan De (transl. In The Foreign Land) – an autobiographical story of his life as a Desi youngster adapting to the streets of America, which he and Sha One produced together. Their first single "Sha Te Ra" was released as a music video, but the song itself was not included on Vich Pardesan De.
His following sophomore album, Pesa Nasha Pyar (transl. Money, Intoxication, Love) became the first full-length Punjabi rap album to be released by a major label.
