Premiere: See Canadian Hip-Hop Artist Harm Franklin’s Nod to ‘Scarface’ in ‘Bad Guy’ Music Video

Releasing music since 2016, Calgary-bred, Toronto-born artist Harm Franklin aka Harmenvir Khara also had a long-standing association with Nepali-origin American artist Curtis Waters for at least three years. Where songs like “Hot Boy Anthem” and “Outta My League” made ripples, it was only earlier this year that the pair hit mainstream airwaves with “Stunnin’,” an almost-saccharine bop that’s actually quite explicit.

Over the years, Harm agrees that there’s been a slow and steady acceptance of more brown voices in the American music industry. He says, “I remember like five or six years ago, label/industry people would tell me it’s gonna be really hard for me to be successful in the hip-hop space ’cause America hates brown people due to all the terrorism stuff in the media. But because of people like [Indo-Canadian hip-hop artist] Nav it’s a lot easier for us to be accepted ’cause they’ve seen it already now.”

Gaining a share of the spotlight following the success of “Stunnin’,” Harm is going from strength to strength. His latest single “Bad Guy,” for example, is a frigid trap song approached with rap conviction and littered with a handful of shout-outs in the vein of “skrrt.” Written about a toxic relationship, “Bad Guy” has a chorus that was influenced by one of the rapper’s favorite films, 1983’s cult crime hit Scarface.

Now out with a music video that also pays homage to scenes from the Al Pacino-starrer, Harm channels his inner Tony Montana all the way as he and a woman partner cause a scene at a restaurant. Inspired by a similar scene in Scarface, Harm recounts that it marked “the beginning of the end” for the protagonist. “A cautionary moment that when you start thinking you [are] invincible, that’s when you crash and burn.”

Ask the rapper about his favorite scene in the movie and he points us to the montage that’s punctuated by the synth-heavy song “Push It To The Limit.” Harm adds, “That song is so fire and just the imagery of him [Montana] finally coming up and buying all these businesses when he came from nothing is so inspiring.”

Up next is a single called “Teacher” with Chicago rapper-producer Ye Ali, due in November, plus an album crafted by “Bad Guy” producers HOUNDS and Curtis Waters. Considering his Indian heritage, Harm says he’s going to start mixing Punjabi and English “in a way you haven’t heard before.” Previously working with Indian-origin Canadian producers like Skinny Local, he namechecks rising artists like Sidhu Moosewala and A.P. Dhillon as exemplary for “bridging the gap” and modernizing the sound of Punjabi music. “I fuck with A.P. Dhillon and what those guys are doing over there, I would love to do something with them too one day,” Harm adds.

Watch the video for “Bad Guy” below. Stream the song on more platforms.