It’s rare for KR$NA to get emotional when working on a track. But he couldn’t help himself while writing the title cut of his 2025 mixtape Yours Truly, a heart-rending epistle on which the rap royal looks back at the lowest points in his life, including moments when he considered ending it all. Thankfully, as we know, he was able to pick himself back up and, in the years that followed, consolidate a place among the icons of contemporary Indian hip-hop.
On this heady collection, which “revolves around the concepts of self-belief and resilience in a fickle music industry”, Dollar Sign’s talents as a wise and wise-cracking wordsmith—and a dependable banger generator—shine bright. The record sees him once again collaborating with friends such as Awich, Badshah, Raftaar and Seedhe Maut. He also teams up with MCs like Aitch and Yashraj, as well as producers Karan Kanchan, Lambo Drive and Phenom, for the first time.
Part of the inspiration for the set came from an unexpected source—an episode of mid-2010s podcast VOTP on which the hosts, rappers Bobkat and Enkore, discuss his career. “Though it was 10 years ago, a lot of the things [they talked about] still resonated with me,” says KR$NA, who figured that he could use their conversation as “a nice segue into all kinds of moods that I wanted to tap into”. Excerpts from the episode form four “skits”, tying the tracks together and giving Yours Truly a cohesiveness “even though I’m doing like 10 different sounds”.
KR$NA warns, though, that his long-awaited next album won’t be as varied as this mixtape, the response to which will shape that full-length effort. “This carves out a path for me that I see as the way I want to make the album,” he says. It’s characteristically KR$NA to reflect on his output, a trait that’s represented in the cover artwork, which depicts “a more sophisticated and polished” version of himself glancing compassionately “at a raw” one.
Here, he takes Apple Music through the making of Yours Truly, track by track.
“Nothing to Prove”
“Opening tracks really set the tone for a project. A lot of energy goes into them because I want [things] to start off on the right note. It’s where you should just speak your mind. The first track is always among one of the last few I write because by then, I have a perspective of the stuff I have talked about and the intro can pave the way [for what’s to follow]. The little flip in the end where it changes from this really grime-y sound to a more trap sort of sound was done because I wanted it to flow more seamlessly into a track like ‘Knock Knock’.”
“Knock Knock”
“‘Knock Knock’ is a signature KR$NA track. I flirted with the idea of getting a feature on it but in the end, I thought, this is really ‘me’, why don’t I do it in my own style and release it as a single? Because I knew that for my audience, this is what I am or what my music is like—which I would say is [filled with] bars but also easy to listen to. Over the years, I’ve understood and cracked this balance.”
“Sensitive”
“This is the third time I’ve collaborated with Seedhe Maut. We’ve done ‘Khatta Flow’ and ‘Hola Amigo’ together. [Comedian] Samay [Raina] is really close to us. I was on [the web series] India’s Got Latent and my episode was to come out the week after [the controversy which led to the show being taken down erupted]. Everything we’ve said in the song is what we were talking about when I met Encore [ABJ] and Calm—how [people] are getting censored, nobody’s really talking about the right things [and how] everything [in the media] is sensationalised.”
“Never Enough”
“This is about how first, you’re an underdog [and] everyone wants you to win. Then suddenly, you reach a point when the people who wanted you to win don’t like you much any more because now maybe you’re mainstream. [This song comes from how] when you achieve what you set out to [do], people start tearing you down. They find excuses to shit on you. I really did feel, when I was coming up, as Enkore says on the podcast, like a lone ranger. I never had the support that underground rappers had from each other or commercial rappers had from each other. I was in this weird middle ground and was never given any props.”
“Buss Down”
“On ‘Buss Down’, I’m using a lot of wordplay to give shoutouts to my influences while growing up. I’m talking about seeing all these rappers and feeling like all I need is one nice car, one nice Rolex and a house. Raftaar and I are from the same generation of rap listeners, the late 1990s and early 2000s, so he felt the same things I did. He was a perfect fit for this in that sense, plus he can pull off a melodic track really well—better than most, actually.”
“KKBN”
“After the melodic track with Raftaar, I needed to amp things up by putting in something more energetic. ‘KKBN’ is the kind of track I’ll perform live—it just suits the set and the mood. I wanted the fans to get some stuff that they always want—a rager song.”
“Talk My Shit/Guarantee”
“‘For ‘Talk My Shit/Guarantee’, we wanted to go from old school—which is that whole boom bap-vibe with a little bit of West Coast mixed in—to new West Coast, which is your DJ Mustard/Kendrick Lamar vibe. In my mind, it’s two different songs and could have been two separate tracks but I felt it has a nice switch that’s a little unexpected. When I made this, Yashraj came to mind because I thought of doing some funny stuff. I feel he does that really well as well.”
“Hello”
“[Producer] Karan Kanchan came up with the idea of using the Japanese word ‘hajimemashite’. He told me how it’s a greeting that means ‘how are you’ and is similar to ‘namaste’. I sent the idea to Awich and she was like, ‘I get it, let’s go.’ She raps in English, Japanese and Hindi on the song. She really likes to embrace the culture that she’s exploring. I really appreciate that.”
“Vibrate”
“I wasn’t [planning on] making this track. Badshah bhai got in touch when I was 95 per cent done with the project. He was like, ‘Do you want to do something?’ I said, ‘Sure, I don’t have anything [at hand] but give me a day or two.’ After that, I told Pinaki [aka producer Phenom] about our conversation and how maybe we should try an Afro-type of track. He sent me this instrumental and I made the hook almost immediately. My verses are usually heavy. They take time and thought—but something like this, I found way easier. The next morning, I was done with all the vocals. I sent it to Badshah and said, ‘I made this for you.’ He also recorded his verse pretty quickly.”
“Who You Are”
“Aitch’s verses, which I had before he had mine, inspired the whole vibe. ‘Who You Are’ has a very early 2000s, 50 Cent/Dr. Dre-type beat. That sound is coming back. You’ll hear a lot more of it. It’s quite popular in the UK too. We wanted to do something that catered to both markets and hop on [the trend] before it became overused again.”
“Yours Truly”
“It’s two letters to myself—and shows three versions of me at three stages of life, 10 years apart. The 18-year-old me is being written to by the 28-year-old me and the 28-year-old me is being written to by me now. The letters contain things people wouldn’t typically say to themselves, because to confront yourself like that is tough. It was hard to write but as long as I put my heart out on the track, people will feel it—and my job is done.”
