Singaporean breakthrough artiste Yung Raja has been dubbed as Southeast Asia’s next avant-garde bilingual hip hop artiste, known for his tasteful unification of Western and Tamil culture in his lyrics. He migrated from Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu to Singapore in 1992. His father, Rajid Ahamed, is a recognised poet in the Tamil diaspora community in Singapore and also taught Maths and Science as a college professor for 17 years in Chennai. 

With Rajnikanth being a pivotal influence in his formative years, Yung Raja pursued acting and featured in advertisements, TV series and movies. But it is on his friend and fellow Singaporean rapper Fariz Jabba’s insistence that he dabbled in music.

Yung Raja's debut single was a remix of Gucci Gang by Lil Pump titled Poori Gang. But it was only when he was featured in an episode of the Malaysia hip hop web-series “16 Baris” in 2018 that his career took off following the release of his debut single Mustafa. His second single, Mad Blessings received commendation from Lupe Fiasco and M.I.A. and was the first English-Tamil song to be played on Malaysia’s leading Malay Radio Station, Era.

Two tracks in, and the rapper has already amassed over 3 million streams on Spotify and more than 3 million views on YouTube. His swaggering single, The Dance Song, along with a visually spectrum-blasting music video directed by frequent collaborator Jasper Tan aka Vadbibes, is a must watch for its eye-popping green-screen visuals, hilarious dance sequences that defy the meaning of “dance” and a glorious panorama of technicolour splendor.His other song Mami is also huge with fans.

Lauded for his formidable command of English-Tamil rap, Yung Raja has worked with brands spanning BVLGARI, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, among others. In 2019, the rapper signed to Def Jam South East Asia.

Verus Ferreira met up with 26 year old Yung Raja while he was at the All About Music conference in Mumbai last year to get to know about his journey into music.

What inspired you to become a musician?

I’ve always loved music and my family has been very passionate about Tamil music and south Indian movies. So not just movies or music, but a whole world of entertainment, I grew up hearing A R Rahman, Ilaiyaraaja and so on. My father and my mother and even my sisters, everybody loves that world of art and I grew up with south Indian music playing all the time on TV and radio. I was always exposed to music, never far away from it. With that I’ve always loved rap and hip hop music as well. These two genres that I heard growing up is a mixture of different culture representing different flavors of music which led me to an idea of perceiving rap music as my career, putting my flavor and my spin at it. It just happened to me like no brainer.

Would you like to share more about your family?

I have three older sisters. I am the youngest, and my parents are from Thanjavur, a place in south India, Tamil Nadu. They moved to Singapore and so I was born there and my mother tongue is Tamil.

At what age did you start singing?

Well professionally around 20 years of age, now I am 26 and it's going all good I guess, still want to do more.

So how did you manage your academics while trying to make a career in music.

Oh yes, I did a Diploma in Mass Communication from Singapore itself, as I am based in Singapore.

How did you come up with the name Yung Raja?

My real name is Rajid Ahamed. I came up with a couple of stage names, until one of my friends suggested me the name Raja, so I started with Raja. It was never straight away Yung Raja. I use to go with the name MC Raja, so I was MC in clubs. So one day one of my friends I met there told me that MC is not that nice, just change it and he introduced me to the name Yung Raja. Yung was quite cool and easy to say, or pronounce, but its without the alphabet ‘o’ from young. Everybody can say it and it's quite a cool rap name also, very few people in America are called ‘young’ something you know.

How has choosing this field as a career changed your life?

I mean I love it, this gave me life. I was good enough to make a career out of it. If it wasn’t for music I wouldn’t be here today. I owe everything to music.

Do you have any music education background?

No not at all, it’s all in build and I am lucky to have it.

Who are your inspirations?

My inspirations are AR Rahman, Ilaiyaraaja, Sid Sriram, Drake from the US, Lil Wayne, th late Sidhu Moose Wala, The notorious B.I.G rapper these guys yeah.

How do your fans connect with you?

There are a substantial number of Indian people and folks who speak Tamil in Singapore. I do travel. I go to Malaysia and there are a large number of people who know the Tamil language. But the great thing is my music is in Tamil, English and Hindi so it is kind of Tanglish. Some people don’t know any of these languages, but they like the vibe of my songs, my video and the aesthetic of all altogether performances of mine so it’s a mix of all Tamil and non-Tamil speaking people and love's coming from everywhere man.

Who does accompany you at your live shows?

It's me, and my DJ that’s all I need to change the game.

Can you tell us about your albums and singles and how different every song is from each other?

I’ve done a couple of songs and Mami is one of them. It is a party song. I am working on new songs which are gonna come out soon. I have collaborated with a few artists and that’s also going to drop soon. It's all rap, but it is different in a sense where every song we do we are consciously thinking of creating something different which brings up new flavor all together to all of my songs. Every song is different from each other and they have a life of their own, but they come from the same world, each has a new colour, a shade to it. It is like an Indian thali, it’s got 7 different chutneys, it’s all chutney, but it's different from each other. Each one has its uniqueness and taste and set of ingredients to it. At the end of the day, it’s all me who does it so it’s all my music and if you are asking me about how it’s different…… I say it’s just different.

How often do you visit India as it is your parents’ hometown?

Yeah, I’ve been to my father’s home while I was growing up. I’ve been there several times, but professionally since I started my career after becoming a rapper, this is my third visit to India. Earlier in my career I came for a show, then I was on tour, so I performed in India once again and now I am here in All About Music and I am shaking hands with new faces hoping for the new thing to happen.

Have you done any shows in western countries so far?

I have not officially done any shows in the US or Europe till now, but my team is working on it.

Can you tell us something on ‘The Dance Song’

The Dance Song embodies celebrating your identity and spreading positivity in the world in a jubilant manner. I believe this song encourages the message of embracing your authenticity rather than being caught up in what’s expected of you as an artiste.  Being yourself is far more important than being cool. A lot more importance needs to be given to expressing your true self rather than conforming to something that is phony. Celebrating yourself is a powerful act of self-care. I don’t know why, but rappers are so obsessed with wanting to be cool all the time This is a personal undertaking for me as well to learn how to let go and embrace the person I am and through that process inspire others to do the same. Be free.

Is this song also something close to your heart?

This is the third and the biggest one, in terms of my artistry. Whatever I’ve been figuring out with the Yung Raja brand comes to a head on here. There was inspiration drawn from my parents for the lyrics of the song while there’s a lot more Tamil usage in this track than my last two tracks. It has the Lil Wayne.

You also did a song with Snoop Dogg. Can you tell us something about it?

Yes, so I dropped an English and Tamil verse in the global edition of Snoop Dogg's new album ‘The Algorithm’. It’s in the second minute of the track titled Qualified that also rappers Larry June and October London.

You also worked as an actor, would you like to put some light on it?

Well I have acted in a few movies. I like doing it. I am looking forward to getting a chance to act again. I am down for whatever man, I love to act and this field has its spectrum to it. I’ll take whatever comes.

Interviewed by Verus Ferreira