Lazarus: The Rapping Doctor

By Puja Patel

A rapping, South Asian doctor sounds like a character primed for a reality TV show. And, actually, that’s exactly what Dr. Kamran Khan - rap name Lazarus - is hoping for. Someday, at least. In a nutshell, his story is as follows: Growing up in Detroit with a love of the then-emerging golden age of hip-hop, Khan became involved in his local community’s battle-rap scene. (If you’re thinking 8 Mile, that wouldn’t be far off. The rapper has performed on the same stage that Eminem made famous in his movie debut in 2002.) After local college and radio success, Khan gave up his music career for his other passion: science. But, as he explains to us over the phone from Las Vegas where he works as a doctor for United Health Group, his homegrown love for hip-hop never went away even as the trials of medical school became overwhelming.

In a series of fortunate events, the hip-hop doctor was tapped by the Discovery Channel for a documentary about his life, performed at his idol Russell Simmons’ home, and is now working on a new album with features by the likes of Gucci Mane and Rick Ross. While he’s not traveling for his relatively recent rebirthed rap career, Khan figures rapping into his medical career, hilariously working informative verses and freestyles into speaking engagements at medical conferences.

We spoke to Khan about turning to hip-hop to find his identity, battle-rapping in Detroit, his amazing resume, and what to expect from his forthcoming album.

Where did your name Lazarus come from?

It’s a name that’s actually from the Bible. It was a character I related to from the Bible; what I do with my music plays with the idea of resurrection. There were times in my career before I was known as Lazarus where people mocked the idea of my being in hip-hop. They told me it wasn’t going to get me anywhere or that I’d be able to get into the industry being the ethnicity that I am. And for a while I believed that; I believed that I was dead in a way where I couldn’t break into the hip-hop community. Then I took it and said, “No. I can bring this to life. I can resurrect this.”

When you talk about your hip-hop life before Lazarus, what does that consist of? You grew up in Detroit right? Were you a battle rapper?

I used to do this as a hobby or just for fun. Then there came a time when I was actually successfully battling rappers and I thought that it was something that I could be successful at; that I could

do for a career.

That would have been around the time 8 Mile came out, right?

I went to Wayne State university and that was actually before the movie 8 Mile came out. But that was an everyday thing, battle-rapping. I battled at the place that they show in that movie actually. I battled so much and anywhere that I ended up being on some local radio stations; the local hip-hop station would keep an eye on the college-scene that was into rap and they featured me on air.

There’s a video of you performing at Russell Simmons’ house that has gotten a ton of attention. How did that come about?

That was an event for the Foundation For Ethnic Understanding. Russell Simmons does a lot of work outside of hip-hop. The foundation is a group that he’s a part of that he founded with Rabbi Marc Schneier and they promote the unity of all religions and races and all that. One of the members was a big fan of my work and put my name in Russell Simmons’ ear. He thought I would be a good candidate to perform at their event. It was an opportunity of a lifetime for me and so awesome to get a standing ovation there and speak those words.

You said that you didn’t feel like you belonged until you found hip-hop at that event.

All through high school I listened to Big Pun, Big L, Biggie, Talib Kweli, Wu-Tang, everything. In Detroit, it was kind of like you were either playing basketball with your boys or you were rapping with your boys. I was really into hip-hop that was uplifting and sent a message. No teacher or parent could teach me the things that hip-hop taught me. When I started battling a lot, I’d be the only South Asian at these battles and obviously people noticed that. Especially because with my crew, other rappers wouldn’t come at any other member but me just because it was easy because I was South Asian. They would just focus on me for hours; they would tell me that I didn’t belong at their battles. That really started to offend me and so I got that Rocky-focus and just practiced and worked on it until I knew I was as good as anyone or better. It became a part of me.

But then you became a doctor?

It’s funny because I really liked school too. All my friends and family knew that even though I was a good rapper, the reality of the situation was that when I left Wayne State, I would go to medical school. And once I was in medical school, I wouldn’t have time to talk to my friends or family, nevermind work on rapping. I was studying like 15-16 hours a day when I was in school, literally I had no time to do anything and I kind of was okay with that because school was so intense. But then one day out of the blue I got a call from the Discovery Channel. At the time they had heard one of my singles, “That’s The Man,” playing on the radio in Detroit and when they asked the station who the upcoming rappers were in Detroit, my name came up. Long story short, they wanted to do a documentary about me. That was a tipping point for me where I realized I needed to continue to rap. It became all about time-management for me; I would study for seven hours and then set aside a few hours to work on music.

As someone who once felt like an outsider in the rap community and overcame that, do you keep up with other South Asian rappers?

You know, for so long I felt like I was literally the only person doing it. I didn’t even think that there might be others, though I started getting hit up on MySpace by other South Asian musicians that were doing similar things and was inspired by the fact that there are others. I always looked at my music - dealing with bullying, being picked on for my race, feeling like an outcast - as a place for my voice and so I always try to imagine a younger me as the audience that I’m writing to. I never want to come at hip-hop pretending to be a gangster or a drug-dealer because that’s not me. I’m a doctor! My parents came as immigrants from Pakistan with $50 in their pockets. That’s a true story and it’s my story and hip-hop is reflective of all kinds of personal stories. But yes, I would love to work with other South Asian people in the hip-hop community.

The immigrants’ or first-generation story is often a story of struggle and the American Dream in a way that hip-hop understands for sure. It’s storytelling.

Definitely. I tell that story. This is my story. Truth be told, there are millions of millions of people who have these stories, they’re just not out there in this medium.

Tell us about the album that you’re working on.

There’s one side where you just get the lyrical MC Lazarus; when you hear it you’ll think of the battle-rapper side of me. But I’m definitely working on some catchy hooks so that it’s not a battle-rapper’s record; I want it to have that commercial side to it, of course. I want all age ranges to be able to digest it. The other side of the album is more conceptual; it’s more story based and a narrative. Also I should mention that I have Gucci Mane and Rick Ross on the album.

How did that happen?

One of their engineers hooked it up. I was recently at the BET Hip Hop awards and built some connections there as well which will be exciting. But, yeah, their engineer put us in touch and it worked out. It’s kind of like the Russell Simmons thing; I’ve found that sometimes there’s one small thing that happens that leads to something much greater. I’m trying to break that barrier where, just because there are South Asians performing hip-hop, like Jay Sean, for example, it doesn’t mean that they have to stay in any lane. I don’t want to have limitations on what I do. I don’t want to be the South Asian rapper, I want to be a rapper that happens to be South Asian.

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