New Delhi’s Tilak Nagar reportedly has over a dozen rehab clinics. Some of the youngest in the area are addicted to chitta, a synthetic drug that’s derived from heroin.

In Punjabi, chitta also means white. It’s clear that Prabh Deep’s latest song ‘Chitta’ draws on the word’s double meaning. On a track that’s exhilarated and fast-paced, Deep sings, “Mai kite ni nashe par veche ne boht, haraam de paise haram-ch jaane (I haven’t done drugs, but have sold them a lot. This dirty business will never leave you alone).”

Much like the other songs in his upcoming album, Deep, 26, assumes the persona of the character he is singing about. “You go through that time when you’re all hyped up and you’re the boss. When reality hits, it’s all kind of different. This guy is that character; he’s hyped up about success,” he says over the phone.

As Deep continues to talk, one feels he is perhaps not just trying to reconcile his past selves, but also people he knew in the past. The rapper-producer specifically refers to friends and supporters he had from the start, some of whom succumbed to addiction. On his knockout debut album Class Sikh, produced by ace beatsmith Sez on the Beat, Deep shunned rhymes about materialism and replaced them with an in-your-face storytelling about all the drug abuse and violence he had seen growing up.

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