In a cosy sound-proofed recording studio housed in a decrepit building in downtown Tehran, Felakat lounged on a chair, surrounded by sound mixers and other sleek recording gizmos. Sporting a tousled black shirt, a slick fur jacket, and a rumpled-and-spiky hairstyle - popular as the 'Tintin style' in local barber's parlance - this Persian rap musician might well pass for a punk icon.
'I devoted my life to rap when I was just 15,' says the 27-year-old Felakat, which means 'miserable' in Farsi, and is his rap screen name. 'Rap is my god.'
Felakat is well aware of the perils of indulging in rap music as a profession. It's forbidden in Iran.
Rappers replicate American accents in Persian rap, indulge in obscene lyrical content (mostly unprintable American slang), and often use female voices as leads or background voices - all jarring symbols of western decadence in the eyes of Iranian authorities who blame such music for diverting its youth away from Islamic culture.
But despite the restrictions, Felakat and countless other rap musicians are demigods of Iran's 'underground music' scene - an expression that applies to any group which fails to obtain a recording licence from Iran's Culture Ministry, and distributes its albums illegally through the flourishing black market.
In a country where 70 per cent of the population is under 32 - due to a demographic boom dating back from the 1980s - society is strongly influenced by the young. Rap for the young finds much appeal, much to the chagrin of the regime, invading homes and Tehran's equally forbidden party circuit.