AP Dhillon: First Of A Kind Review: An Honest Look at Punjabi Canadian Rapper’s Musical Journey

The docu-series traces the singer’s journey to becoming one of the biggest-selling artists in the past few years. The series consists of four episodes of thirty-five minutes. Apart from Dhillon himself, the series also has interviews with his fellow bandmates and production crew, including Kevin Buttar, Shinda Kahlon, Gurinder Gill and Herman Atwal.

The docuseries consists of footage from AP’s personal interview as well as anecdotes from his bandmates as they discuss creating their famous tracks. There are clips and videos of the singer from his backstage prep ahead of his tour performances in Canada and India.

AP Dhillon: First Of A Kind Review

For the most part, all music documentaries follow a similar format. From chronicling the initial journey of an artist to the moment they make it big, a narrative is drawn that is supposed to make you feel the magnanimity of their journey. In the case of AP Dhillon’s new docu-series though, it acts more like a presentation of a profile. Despite the singer having several hits like No Excuses and more under his belt, there is little known about his personality.

In four episodes, the director tries to first introduce us to Amrit and not AP, the performer. Speaking in Punjabi and coming across as someone who isn’t too comfortable with the camera, let alone talking about himself, the side of Amrit that we see in the series is definitely interesting. The first episode follows AP talking about his journey of moving to Canada and the work he did before breaking into the music scene. He humbly attributes much of his success to his team which includes Gminxr who works on the beats and also Shinda Kahlon, the songwriter. There is a story to the creation of the song Brown Munde and it is revealed in detail here.

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For a self-produced artist, the challenge is not only to create quality music but also to consistently create that magic again and again for listeners to recognise their music eventually. With AP Dhillon, though, the journey of becoming a household name didn’t take too long as the singer’s music videos began to garner millions of views, and he began to get the top spot on the charts as well. In terms of a docuseries point of view, the music-making part is something that should have been explored more, but it receives fairly less time compared to the attention given to his tour prep.

The series continues to stress the fact that it isn’t easy for a self-produced artist who has been in the industry for nearly two years to book major arenas. The last two episodes of the docuseries showcase Dhillon touring in Canada, India and North America. The singer expresses his nerves about performing at sold-out arenas, and at one point, he even sheds a tear or two as he gets emotional thinking about performing at a venue where world-famous singers such as Drake, Jay-Z and more have performed in the past.

The thing about instant fame is that it never gives one the time to settle into their newfound popularity, and the docuseries briefly touches on the same. It’s sad that despite mentioning how AP received threats during his India tour, the series doesn’t dig deep into it. There is also a portion where Dhillon speaks about being close to Indian rapper Sidhu Moose Wala who was shot dead. The singer opens up about going through a difficult time following the same.

All through the docuseries, we hear AP Dhillon talk about how his ambition is not only to create great music but also to give his fans something memorable. The series doesn’t try to create a larger-than-life image of him or paint him as an artist who has gotten used to his success, and that honesty is what works for the series.

Final Thoughts

The docu-series has no major surprises for fans, although for those who know little about the man whose songs they listen to on Spotify and other streaming sites, this provides a decent insight. The simplistic tone of the docu-series works as they don’t structure it in a way to make it something bigger than what it is. The series is a profile piece that reveals who AP Dhillon is, how he became famous and what lies ahead for him as he continues his musical journey.

AP Dhillon: First Of A Kind will be streaming on Amazon Prime Video on August 18.

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