[Photo:  Rapper Hades - by Dawid Branecki / Wikimedia Commons]

When Rehan Islam was asked about his interests during a graduate interview with Goldman Sachs, he told them straight up – he likes to rap. Rather than a raised eyebrow and a quick note on his CV, the interviewer issued a challenge – show me what you can do. It worked.

“I mentioned that I rap in my first trading interview and they asked me to perform. They liked it,” he says. “You may think everyone going into the City [i.e., London] fits in a certain box, but for a banker all graduate CVs start to blend into one, and they want to see something different.”

Islam joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst in structured finance trading in 2010, and moved to a similar role at Societe Generale in 2013. But in September he quit SocGen and left banking. Now, he’s not only started his own fintech company, but has also released a new rap album focused on his time on the trading floor. Islam has swapped baggy leisurewear and ostentatious jewellery for a straight grey suit and a Canary Wharf backdrop. And the album – Fire In The Belly – is an introspective look at his time during the City.

“It might seem esoteric to rap about trading and Wall Street, but it sits within the tradition of the genre,” he says. “Rapping about your reality, your emotions within that reality and being introspective is what’s important. That reality can be the trading floor of an investment bank or the Queensbridge projects in New York.”

At times, Islam is rapping about the excitement of working on a trading floor: