Everyone has been like, 'Arrey, you were on the radio station Beats1', and I was like, yes, I was. I have realised what a big deal it is only now," says Vivian Fernandes, aka Divine, who is truly the man of the moment, riding high on the success of Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, a movie inspired by him and Naved Shaikh (Naezy). Divine, though, has much more happening as well. He has just returned from his first trip to the US, where he was taken by Apple Music to Los Angeles, to feature on Beats1, conversing with DJ Ebro Darden, who is now also Apple Music's global editorial head covering hip-hop and R&B.

Divine is the first Indian hip hop artist to be on the show (taking off from Apple's endeavour to take Indian hip-hop internationally), and his interview could be seen as path-breaking — a sign that the West is now taking non-fusion music coming out of India, seriously. "Ebro has friends here, and is connected to India. So he knew the scene here, but not how big it is. What we are doing now was done in New York in the '80s — it's all very political, very upfront and in-the-face. And he said — 'Bro, this is exactly how it happened in the US, and eventually, people will come for you'," says Divine as we chill over coffee with him at the Apple office.