New Delhi singer-songwriter and rapper Karun. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
New Delhi hip-hop artist and singer-songwriter Karun’s new song “Zubaan” featuring singer-songwriters Pahaad and Pho, channels the spirit of Nineties and early 2000s Bollywood, with urgent acoustic guitar work, Afro, Indian percussive elements and a hip-hop rhythm that ties it all together, courtesy of producer Mendus.
The song, which you can hear exclusively below, is part of Karun’s 14-track album Chehre, releasing on June 16, 2025. Said to be a more confessional and “poetically experimental” full-length, this is the prolific artist’s third album.
“Chehre is a milawat of all the things and styles I love, but above everything, it is an Indian sounds-focused album,” Karun says in a statement. Singles from the album so far include “Partein,” “Anjaane” ft pop artist Viepsa and “Assa Te” ft artists Ananya Bhatt and Mohit.
“Zubaan,” for its part, introduces itself boldly with Pahaad and Pho’s vocal exchange. Karun says he enlisted New Delhi singer-songwriter Pahaad after hearing him live just as work was underway on another Chehre track, “Stressed Out,” about a year ago. “I thought this voice speaks volumes,” Karun recalls.
Along the way, Karun and Mendus also shared the instrumental for “Zubaan” and asked Pahaad if he’d like to be part of it. “He did a hook and a post-hook; it was a big hook, so I thought we should do something about this. Pahaad and Pho have been a nice duo in the past, their colors blend so well with each other. I asked Pho to join as well, and it came out amazingly,” Karun says.
It took the trio of artists about an hour to complete the track, and it’s a collaborative effort in that Karun’s low, gravelly rap vocals only come in closer to the two-minute mark on “Zubaan.” He says, “From the start to the first hook, all of that is composed by Pahaad, and it’s sort of his composition giving shape to it. My rap doesn’t come until the 1:45 mark because I wanted them to be on the track and make it their own. I want all my collaborators to feel like it’s not just a feature, it should feel like they’ve done one of their career’s best tracks.”
Chehre comes out about three years after Karun’s previous album Qabool Hai, which spawned millions-streamed songs like “Maharani.” While the rapper says the 2022 album was also “confessional,” Chehre takes it up a notch. He’s looking forward to seeing how the new album will be received. “Sometimes, it’s a release for us, when the music goes out and a burden is just… it feels light. I’m grateful that I can write my stories, and people relate to them. This is probably an artist’s way of dealing with things in their life. I get chills—I get excited, very nervous, but I know we’ll shine and it’ll be a very nice set of emotions for people,” he says.
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