His first demo impressed world music producer Jawahar Wattal. Sony Music wanted to sign him on. "I had differences with Jawahar. I told Sony. They put me on to K J Singh," the man who would produce his debut eponymous album. The two worked on a new demo.
Sony backed out. Knocking on doors began again. Rabbi met Minty Tejpal, brother and business partner of Tehelka editor in chief Tarun Tejpal. The first meeting, Rabbi got drunk and banged his car. Minty helped him out. It was instant chemistry.
"I signed a contract with Tehelka, and started working on my album. Just when the recording was finished, they [tehelka.com] broke the story [of Westend, a sting operation which claimed to expose corruption in defense deals]. All hell broke loose."
Tehelka ran out of money. Rabbi's album was unfinished. Why didn't he approach others? "I'm a lazy bum," Rabbi says, munching on a chocolate almond cake. "I liked Tehelka's maverick way of doing things. I just kept writing more songs, playing more guitar, surfing the Net.