Balen made his Raw Barz debut in 2013 as he faced Litl’ Grizl in a heated rap battle. And as they say, rest is history.

The rapper soon became one of the favorite emcees battling in Raw Barz because of his smart and funny punches directed at his opponent. Then came an announcement that he will be facing Laure – one of another loved emcees in the league – in his next battle; but the day never came for some reasons. But the ‘popular’ question still finds its way, even after four years, whenever there’s some talks about rap battles:

“Balen ra Laure ko kaile huncha?”

We have no idea if the much hyped rap battle will ever take place or not, in fact nobody does – not even the two of them. And we just hope, may be someday…!

Some Facebook posts were recently seen as some people, not the officials from Raw Barz but others, committed that they will make it happen — they will bring Laure and Balen together for the battle. And it got us a little excited and we wanted to know if it’s true.

While Laure and other ‘popular’ rappers from the league are very much in the scene and have been dropping new singles and even albums; Balen hasn’t released a new work in over a year — ‘Mann Yo Udyo’ being his last release.

So, where the hell is Balen these days?

While you must be missing the rapper Balen; you’ll be proud of the engineer Balen Shah when you know what he has been up to lately. He is currently in Paanchkhal Municipality in Kavre, engaged in a project to build 250 houses that will be handed over to the 2015 earthquake victims.

Balen is working as the Technical Head for the reconstruction project called Housing Service Support Centre (HSSC); supported by ASF Nepal, Habitat For Humanity Nepal and Abari; and has been guiding seven civil engineers and twelve supervisors under him. He has also been doing awareness programs for the locals on how to rebuild better for Build Back Better and Safer program.

Pictures from the construction sight in Paanchkal.

So does that mean that the battle thing is not true? “I have to complete the project within eleven months. This is more important than anything else for me, and I have to focus on this”, he told NeoStuffs. “I have no idea where all the rumors are coming from. It’s not true.”

On being asked about releasing new songs, “I have recorded two songs. Due to some technical difficulties, they are taking time to come out. They will be released once they’re complete”, he said.

Well, we now have no complaints about not releasing new songs. Take your time, Balen. You’re doing an amazing job.