Dubai teen becoming internet sensation with malls rap

Teenager Rohit Iyengar posts video of himself rapping about Dubai malls to mixed reviews.

DUBAI// Although he has yet to garner millions of hits, a teenager has become the UAE’s closest thing to internet sensation Rebecca Black.

Black became an overnight celebrity earlier in the year when she sang about the virtues of going to a party on a Friday night.

Dubai resident Rohit Iyengar has posted a video of himself rapping about Dubai's numerous malls. In a little over two weeks, The Malls of Dubai has been viewed more than 5,000 times.

The video sees Mr Iyengar enthusiastically singing the self-composed rap in the many shopping malls he name checks, including Mall of the Emirates, The Dubai Mall, Festival City. As the song goes: “You got big ones, small ones and all of them are awesome.”

Like Black, the video has divided opinion, with the YouTube comments section becoming the canvas for fierce rivalry between fans and critics, one who claimed he had started a YouTube account simply to express his dislike of it. At the time of writing, there was a fairly even spread of likes and dislikes.

According to his Facebook page, Iyengar is a 16-year-old and plays the guitar, keyboard and drums. Aside from penning the lyrics to The Malls of Dubai, he also composed the music and edited the video, something that can't be said for Rebecca Black.

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