The year was 1995. The song was Tupac Shakur ’s “California Love.” When a 10-year-old Ranveer Singh heard the track in his hometown, Mumbai, he felt the music touch a part of him he didn’t know existed. He raced to look up the lyrics, and needed to read them only once to commit them to memory.

“I was lured by the language,” Singh, now 34 and one of India’s 10 highest-earning actors, said in a recent interview. “And although the themes were very mature for me at the time, I feel like I still, even at that age, could recognize that there was something very authentic in the expression.”

In the years since Tupac’s G-funk single became one of the actor’s first hip-hop memories, rap has become a significant part of his life that he’s endeavored to integrate into his work. Earlier this year, he starred in “Gully Boy,” a film that brought India’s burgeoning underground hip-hop scene to the big screen. After its release, he was able to finish a project he’d begun two years before the movie was released: helping found a record label called IncInk dedicated to spotlighting young rappers who reflect the authenticity he has always admired.

“The one thing I love the most about the label is the fact that it’s no strings attached,” Singh said, explaining that the label’s concerns aren’t with view counts and likes . “It’s no pressure. It’s just creating freely. It’s unbound.”