Sure, making a name for youself during a pandemic is an impressive feat. But making a name for yourself during a pandemic while under house arrest? Move the fuck over, Addison Raeāthatās some next-level quarantine productivity. And itās exactly what Road Runner pulled off back in February, when his EP Forever Alonehit No. 1 on Canadaās iTunes hip-hop chart.
āHonestly, I havenāt been outside for a long time, so I donāt know what the energy is like out there,ā the 24-year-old tells Complex.Ā āIām not even able to enjoy my shit going No. 1 because Iām stuck at home. The only place I see is the Internet. If I was outside, I would definitely pop a champagne bottle or something.ā
Born in conflict-ridden Gujrat, Pakistan, Road Runnerās family immigrated to Torontoās Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood when he was nine. Heād get swept into the street life in his early teens, finding himself in frequent trouble with the law. After his close friend Nuski was shot dead during an altercation with the police in 2019, he made a vow to pursue music seriously. On āNeva Again,ā his stirring single released that same year, he caught the ears of many in the city with his hard-yet-heartfelt sing-rap flow. Shortly after the song dropped, though, he was shot seven timesāyetĀ miraculously escaped with no serious injuries. He bounced back by filmingĀ another music video, āFreezing,ā releasing it just a couple weeks later.
The rapperās momentum came to a screeching halt when he was arrested in a drug raid at the start of the pandemic. He says the experience is what finally shook him awake, motivating him to ditch the streets and focus solely on his career. Since his conditional release from jail in November, Road Runnerās been making up for lost time. The lead singles off his EPāāNightmares,ā āDeep Scars,ā and āTherapyāāhave earned him feverish buzz in Toronto, and a spot in the ānext man upā conversation.Ā
As the names of his tracks suggest, thereās an agonizing honesty to Road RunnerāsĀ music. In a Toronto landscape teeming with braggadocious, combative MCs, he takes a contrarian approach, documenting the isolation and PTSD that accompany a life of gang violence. Over melodramatic, piano-based beats, he raps about the realities of coming up in his low-income areaāthe things he canāt unsee, the friends heās lost, his desire to make amends with God. Theyāre songs inspired by pain but steeped in melody, not unlike the catchy Chicago street rap of Calboy and Polo G. Itās demon-exorcising music you canāt help but sing along to.
Now, fresh off his recently released single āSpinladen,ā featuring fellow Toronto MC Smiley, Road Runner is studiously plotting his next moves. Heās got a new project in the works, tentatively titled Trapistan, which he notes will have a faster-paced vibe. He also says he intends to leave Toronto once heās off house arrestānot only to escape the politics and pursue new opportunities abroad, but to be a better role model for the Pakistani youth whoāve tapped into his music. āIām trying to set a better examples and not be a fucking nuthead,ā he says. āYou gotta set good examples for these kids, so when they grow up, they know how to move and do real shit, instead of just running around like idiots, you know?ā
We spoke with Road Runner via a Zoom call about all of the above. The interview, lightly edited for clarity, is below.
Whatās going on, Road Runner?
Same olā, man. Just here. What about you?
Just locked down. Bored as hell.
Iāve been on house arrest for almost a year, so Iāve been locked down for a long time too, you know? Iām just fighting a little case, but I should be over it by the end of June, so hopefully Iām out by the summertime. Thatās what Iām hoping for.
Well, this is the perfect time to be under house arrest, really.
Yeah, exactly. I have an exception where I can leave for shooting videos and studio time. Thatās all I need to do anyways for now, right? Itās lockdown, so it doesnāt really matter.Ā Everybodyās at home, anyway. Nobodyās doing shit. No clubs, nothing.
Ah, so thatās how you shot the āSpinladenā video. I was gonna ask about that. Itās a fire-ass track! I know youāve been teasing it on Instagram for a long time. Howād it come about?
Honestly, I had two open verses and I didnāt know what I was going to do with them. Both of them couldāve fit the concept for the name āSpinladen.ā So I sent both tracks to the brodie Smiley. HeĀ liked one of them, so he just sent it back to me right away; he finished it two days later. He happened to be in L.A. and our guy from Toronto, whoās a videographer, was over there. So we were like, letās just bang this video out for the people.
Thatās cool. Have you and Smiley been homies for a while?
When I came out of jail last year, like around November, he tapped in with me. We never really talked before that. But I like the guyās energy. I like what he does for the culture and shit like that. Heās a humble guy, you know? So I like that. We connected and it just happened to come about nice.Ā
āBeing a rapper in Toronto is crazy. Itās not for the weak, Iāll tell you that much. You got to have strong mind, with all the hate, all the burner accounts, all the police, all the people wanting you.ā
I like to see young rappers from Toronto collaborating. It doesnāt happen nearly often enough.Ā
Yeah, facts. Itās too much politics. Everybodyās just like, āThis guy doesnāt like this guy. And this guyās friends with somebody that doesnāt like that guy.ā Itās too much. Like, you donāt want to do a track with someone and then boom, somebody you already have a relationship with doesnāt like that guy, and so youāre burning your relationship, you know? Like, I understand what itās all about; thatās just how it goes on the streets sometimes. But to me, musicās music. If I like your music, weāre going to make music.
Totally man. I like that youāre trying to stay out of the politics.
Facts, facts. Itās not worth it, you know? The police are watching all the time. So Iām not trying to do all of that on the Internet. I like keeping it professional, all about my music and shit like that. We just keep it humble on the Internet, just keep it humble all around.
Can we just back up for a second? I wanna hear your origin story. You seem to have an interesting one. I know youāre originally from Gujrat, Pakistan. What was it like growing up there?
I come from like civil unrest, you know? Itās a lot of crazy stuff going on back home. I saw it all when I was young. The shit Iāve seen back home, if it was to happen here, it would be big news. But over there, itās just stuff thatās happening on the regular. You get accustomed to it as you get older. Over there, youāre hearing gunshots all day long, like this is your life, you know? You go to sleep and youāre going to hear that shit all night long. Here, if you hear it, people are like, āOh there was a shooting!ā But there, no one cares. People are dying all the time. People are killing each other.
Goddamn. So thatās what you remember from your childhoodāhearing gunshots all the time?
Oh, all the time. All the time. All the time. I was seven years old and 37 people were killed in my village. Iāve seen this type of shit, you know? Itās just where I come from. Iām not trying to brag about it, but itās just who I am. And itās what made me, you get Iām trying to say? I was just born into it.
Jesus. Thatās rough, man! Well, your family eventually managed to immigrate to Canada.
Yeah, we managed to make it here somehow. Like, boom, we got here, I moved to Thorncliffe Park. I made my friends and went to middle school. And when youāre from low-income areas, by the time youāre like 15, youāre already getting chased by the feds. Back in the day, we were getting chased for like two grams of weed. I donāt even know why Iām running from the cops at the age of 13. And then the older you get, the more trouble you get into. Itās just one thing after the other and before you know it, like, fuck, youāre old and now the neighbourhood police officers all know you. They know what youāre driving and every time youāre in the hood, youāre getting pulled over.
And by that point, I guess the cops know youāre a rapper?Ā
Oh 100 percent. [Laughs.] Yeah, they know. Theyāve been watching me since my first video came out. They were onto it. They want to see whatās going on. They want to see whoās in the videos. They want to see what mans are doing, you know? Itās crazy, bro. This rap game is sticky, man. Being a rapper in Toronto is crazy. Itās not for the weak, Iāll tell you that much. You got to have strong mind, with all the hate, all the burner accounts, all the police, all the people wanting you. You got to be mentally ready for all this shit before you start rapping.
āAll these kids are always bumping me. Theyāve always wanted a Pakistani rapper, so theyāre tapping in.ā
It sounds especially thorny. TheĀ police being after you is one thing, but on the other side, thereās people on the streets after you. Once you become a rapper it seems to create allĀ these new problems for you, right?
Yeah. Especially the bigger you get, right? Say you want to go out to the restaurant with your girlāitās like, bro, everybodyās going to know you. It gets to a point where everybody knows you but you donāt know who anybody is. So a person can give you a look and you donāt know if that personās a fan or if that person is trying to just slime you. You got to stay on your Ps and Qs, because in our city, rappers die all the time. Itās like, every summer, a brand name rapper is passing away, you know? Thatās why you just got to stay on your toes and be careful with who you think you know, because people will slime you, bro.
So what made you want to be a rapper in the first place? What really drove you to take it seriously? Was there a specific moment?Ā
Honestly, my homie passed away. RIP my homie Nuski. There was a situation where the police ended up shooting him. So he ended up passing in June 2019. But he was very big on me rapping; he was always pushing me to do it. So after he passed away, Iām like, Yo, I just gotta go hard. Thereās nothing else Iām really doing, so I might as well just push the rap thing. And the more I started taking itĀ seriously, the more people started tapping into me. I ended up getting arrested for a little bit. I was gone for a couple of months and then I came back and I went right back to it.
Well, I mean, youāre making a good go of it. The numbers donāt lie. Forever Alone made a lot of noise, going No. 1 on iTunes earlier this year. How do you explain your success?
I have a lot of my own people, brown people, tapping into me. They really fuck with me, they put on for me, you know? And I appreciate that. All these kids are always bumping me. Theyāve always wanted a Pakistani rapper, so theyāre tapping in. And then, Iāve been in the city way before I started rapping, so I know a lot of people. Iāve gotten around. So when I started rapping, it was already like, āWe know this guy.ā Iām in the hood every dayĀ with the dogs, you know? My hoodās huge, thereās like 50,000 people there. So when I started rapping, they were like, āOh, this guy is rapping now.ā Everybody started to tune in.
Itās cool that a lot of brown kids are rocking with you. You donāt see a lot of Pakistani representation in hip-hop, at least not in North America. Talk about the importance of that.
Yeah, for sure. You donāt see it.Ā I donāt think thereās another Pakistani rapper here. Thereās an Indian rapper; shout-out Nav, heās doing his thing. Thereās no Pakistani rapper, though. I donāt know any. Like, maybe people who are just getting started, shout-out to them, but I donāt know anybody elseā¦. I used to have my music playing in shisha bars in Toronto all the time. Every shisha bar was playing my music. Thereās hundreds of people in every shisha bar, so youāre missing out on all these things now because of COVID. Theyāre all Arabs who own these shisha bars in the city, so they rock with the mans.Ā
Have you noticed support from the brown community outside of Toronto or even outside of Canada?Ā
I have a lot of listeners in the UK right now. My second biggest city, listeners-wise, is Maidstone in the UK. Iām amped to see whatās going onĀ there. Thereās a lot of big Pakistani rappers over there popping off. Itās not like here, where Iām the only Pakistani one. Over there, these guys are big! They have a million followers and shit, broā¦. The first minute I get to go outside, Iām gone. Iāve already planned it out. I have nothing to do in the city anymore. Like, Iāve done it all.Ā Iād rather take my talents somewhere else and break into a next market. I really want to go to the UK. I have a lot of people starting to tap in from there.
āI said my prayers. I said, āGod, Iām coming to see you. This is it for me.āā
I think thatās a good call, man. The city doesnāt seem like the wisest place to stay right now. Tell me more about your next moves then. Is there a new project in the works?
I have a couple of singles Iām gonna drop. Iām working on a project. The next project is starting to sound crazy. Iām hoping to just fuck it up with this next one. Iām probably going to call it Trapistan. Or Trapistani. Itās probably going to come out this summer or after it.Ā Forever Alone was very mellow and this new one is very upbeat.Ā I think my favorite songs are on this one. Some of the music Iāve made in the past couple months is the greatest musicĀ Iāve ever made. Being in the house has given me more time to write. When Iām outside, Iām lazy. But nowĀ Iām always writing.
Clearly, youāve been through some stuff. Something I appreciate about your music isĀ youāre not afraid to rap about the psychological and emotional impact living this street life has had on you. Itās not the typical money-and-bitches type stuff.
People have seen this with me. People saw me come up. I lost my friends. I got shot seven times, you get what Iām trying to say?
Yeah, that wasnāt even that long ago, right?
This was while Iām rapping. This was in December 2019. Not too long ago, I got shot. God blessed me. I was good in a week. I made a recovery. I wasnāt walking perfectly, but I shot a video the next week. I was out of the hospital in three days. I look at it now like, mentally, it didnāt really do nothing to me. Physically, didnāt do nothing to me. You know, people get shot and they retire. They get depressed. Iāve seen it happen to people. So God blessed me. It was just a little setback.
Jesus. Where did they get you?
Right by my spine. A centimetre away from my spine. I got shot in my hips and I got like five in my legs. Iām lucky to be walking. God bless. Now I can fucking do jumping jacks. Iām a hundred percent.
Fucking hell, man.
But thatās how it is in the city, right? Youāre coming up and, boom, people want you dead, bro. You get what Iām trying to say? [Laughs.] I thought Iām dead, you know? I thought Iām done! Iām like, Bro, youāre dying! Youāre going to die in the underground, the way you grew up! Youāre dead![Laughs.] I swear to God. I thought that was it. I said my prayers. I said, āGod, Iām coming to see you. This is it for me.ā But the way it just worked out was crazy because, like, I swear to God, it didnāt do nothing to me mentally. I donāt know what God did to me, but it did not do nothing to me.Ā
Yeah. Still, man. The life of a Toronto rapper these days soundsā¦ intense.
I know. Itās fucked up, bro. Itās like being a soldier. Youāre like a veteran. People in the city donāt make it far, broski. People are dead by 16, 17. I have my friend, like one of my closest friends who just died, he was 16 years old. He was born in 2002. These kids are born in 2002! Rest in peace to them. Theyāre young, bro. At 16, I would have never thought of dying. Itās crazy.
Their life had barely even begun.Ā
Yeah. So I think of it like, bro, we have to do something positive for these guys. Iām trying to give back and shit now. Just do a bunch of things which makes me a better person for my community as opposed to someone whoās just polluting the community.
Like you mentioned, thereās all these young brown kids getting into your music. Whatās that like? Do you feel a sense of responsibility to be a role model to them?
Itās great. Thatās why I keep setting good examples, not bad ones, you know?Ā Iām trying to setĀ better examples and not be a fucking nuthead, you know? You gotta set good examples for these kids, so when they grow up, they know how to move and do real shit, instead of just running around like idiots, you know?Ā I know if I do something dumb, Iāll let a lot of people down. And I donāt want to let these people down, because theyāre the ones who streamed my music from day one and got me up here toĀ this point.Ā
Youāve seen a lot of shit, man. You witnessed death at an early age. Youāve been shot. And youāve lost a lot of friends. Itās heavy. Those losses mustāve taken a toll on you. Is that ultimately what made you decide to leave the streets behind and go all-in on the music?
Not really. Every time I lose a friend, I get more pissed off. But like, Iām getting older. So the older you get, the wiser you get. Iām not trying to be 30 in the streets, you know?Ā Iām not the type of guy to be 30 and in and out of jail. I have a life to live. I have money to get, I have people I love that I want to take care of in life, you know? To me, winning is taking care of your family and making sure theyāre straight, not being in jail,Ā coming in and out of jail, and them taking care of you for your whole life. Iād rather be in Dubai sipping on a martini or something and living my life, than being in a jail cell fuckingĀ miserable.Ā I mean, free all theĀ guys, you know? But I just donāt want to make these mistakes that I canāt really come back from, because lifeās short, bro. Iām already 24.