"I am a nice, mean, crazy, independent, talented, strong, simple, Indian girl who lives on her own terms and kicks ass." That's Hard Kaur for you, a chick who spits out serious rhymes and is not afraid to let loose. This cool Punjabi rapper has taken music out of the boundries of culture, countries and language. In the tricity to perform at the PEC Fest, Hard Kaur was full of hard-core entertainment for her fans.

"When I was told I had to perform in Chandigarh, I thought the crowd there is pagal. And what I got was a rocking crowd, but then Punjabis always rock," says this cool Punjaban. After rocking the world by her street swaggering rapping skills, she's now the new darling of Bollywood. With movies like Johnny Gaddaar, Ugly Aur Pagli, Singh is Kinng, Kismat Konnection and Bachana Ae Haseeno, she has the industry buzzing. Calling herself a hit factory, she is riding high on her b-town success. "I feel loved by this industry and the media. But my biggest strength are my fans," she says.

But it wasn't all that dreamy. As she puts in, "It is difficult to survive in this male dominated industry and that too when you are a female rapper. People don't accept any new change. But main badi kharaab kudi han, I am not afraid to prove myself," she says. Well, girl, we couldn't agree more. She has everybody dancing to her tunes with her bold and in-your-face attitude. "When I came to UK, I couldn't speak English and felt like an outsider. But I was not a loser, I wanted to prove that a Punjab di jatti can kick ass and be at the top and I feel proud today for what I have achieved as no Punjabi could do that in years," says this hard Sikhni, who is in love with Hip Hop. Having been in the hardest industry in the world for ten years, she says that she's making a stand for all Asian girls out there. Her inspiartion she says is her mom, "She is the real Hard Kaur as in cimmunity where families don't support their girls to take decisions, I got a constant spport from her."

Before she became Hard Kaur, Taran Kaur Dhillon migrated to UK after losing her dad in the 1984 riots. But this strong willed girl changed her destiny by becoming he first asian female rapper and currently appeared on the cover of 'Anokhi' magazine's Fall 2008 issue. Anokhi is the world's No.1 mainstream South Asian quarterly, with past covers featuring Aishwarya Rai, Nelly Furtado, Lisa Ray, and Mya, among many others. —

But then this 'dude' chick who takes no crap from anybody believes in letting her work speak for herself. And so she shared the space with Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams and is the busiest bee in the business. She has an album in the pipeline with singers like Richa Sharma, Anoushka Manchanda and others. But her high point is her album with D12. " I am so proud of it. D12 is signed to Eminem' Slim Shady Aftermath label and will be collborating with me in my album," she says. The track is called Desi Dance and will be produced by D Boy and combines Bollywood, Bhangra and HipHop. But that's not all. unlike many, she is not keen on making acting her second career. " I love rapping and want to work with names like Timbaland." Well, with Hard Kaur way of things, its not a distant dream.

tribunindia.com