Rahim was born on April 3, 1974 and bred in Karachi. Swat is his ancestral home, but he speaks the native language Pashtu fluently. This was the reason for the dearth of apparent Pashto vision in his life. He started his career in late 90's as a solo singer with a lot of hits to his credit from the day he started his career including "Ghum" that broke the records of popularity. "Ghum" is not Rahim Shah's personal composition. It is an Afghani folk song or tappa, sung by an anonymous singer.