Long before his songs took over reels, charts and city soundscapes, music had already found Sanju Rathod. It arrived quietly, in a small Banjara household in Maharashtra’s Dhanwad village, where evenings often ended with his uncles and grandfather singing. Years later, during high school, music returned to him at a vulnerable moment. A bad breakup pushed Rathod towards songwriting. What began as short couplets and emotional stanzas soon evolved into writing and singing rap songs—entirely in Marathi, the language in which he found his most natural expression.