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We’re super excited to be speaking to you today at the claimed rap artist Raja Kumari. Greetings and salutations. Before we dive into the Q&A mosh pit, how has the first half of 2023 been treating you?
It has been amazing. You know, I think time has been going really fast, but the first half of ‘23 was about getting out this album, getting THE BRIDGE out and just being able to experience that and seeing that out in the world has inspired me to push so much harder and do more and imagine more. And I’ve been really happy. It’s been the season of winning and I’m ready to make that season go for a lot longer.
Major congratulations on the freshly minted release. The debut album THE BRIDGE. What was the genesis of the remarkable? Was it a long time in the making?
I feel like I have these concepts that I would write about in my journal and they would come out in my albums. And I feel like THE BRIDGE was always this larger project that was going to kind of bridge me from the artist that I had been to the artist that I want to be today. I really wanted to define THE BRIDGE, bridging the west back to the east and ancient to the future. This album is from one version of myself to the future of myself. And just making this album, I went independent and made so many changes in my career and my life. So this album really marks that transition.
We’re tremendous admirers of the gem of a tune, Lovesick, which is off the new LP. What’s the story behind this amazing track?
I have the funniest story about ‘Lovesick’. We had all been in my house, I had created a studio in the living room and it was my little COVID pod, and we had been working on music for a few days. And my dog, Kush and one of my other friends had brought their dog over and we had to separate them because she was in heat and Kush is not fixed. So we had to separate them. And he was just crying at the doorway and howling. It sounded like a song. And we were trying to work upstairs, and we couldn’t work, and so I had a******* in my ear. I was just messing with some ideas, and I started kind of, like, singing in the key that Kush was singing in then we went to find the flute after that and after just messing around with things, I found I was copying his singing. So I always joke around that Kush was just lovesick. And then that’s how the word kind of appeared in the room. So I make a joke that my dog, Kush is a writer on this track. But in all seriousness, the actual lyrics of the song are written as I read a lot of poetry. When I was young that came out of India through the classical dances. And there’s a whole section of poetry that would be about these Gopikas and milk maidens women writing about their love for Krishna. And Krishna is the personification of love in God. So this song was kind of written like that. The flute reminded me of some of the classical pieces I had done. The structure of the lyrics and the type of just love lost, just belief in love. A kind of beautiful space that doesn’t quite make sense.
Who was the producer on THE BRIDGE? And what did collaboration between artist and producer look like in the studio?
I had a COVID pod that was just myself, my high school best friend, Delos, Birdie, who I’ve mentioned in some of my older songs, he taught me about hip hop when I was in high school. And we wrote a lot of music together when we were kids, and we’ve stayed friends for so many years. So he was the other co-writer in the room, and then my engineer, Nacho, and his roommate, Karan. It was just the four of us and it was really amazing to have that synergy. A song would just start with an idea, start with a few chords, maybe start with the freestyle. But it was very much on the spot and organic, and we went in and all kept working on it until we all loved it.
In your humble opinion, what differentiates THE BRIDGE from the distinguished competition on the 2023 music scene?
Well, I think THE BRIDGE, is an album that’s very authentic to my experience. I feel like I have been kind of speaking about this road between the two cultures for some time, and I feel through my therapy, I got to a place where I could make sense of it. I think this album would make sense too a lot of immigrant communities or anybody that feels like they don’t belong in one world and they have to change themselves. The distinguished competition in the music scene? Everybody has their own time and their own direction. I’ve been spending a lot of time in India building myself, but the second half of 2023 is about bringing the ‘homecoming’, coming back to America and letting people know that I was born in Los Angeles as well, and that this music is meant for the world and not just for my own community. I think the album is different because it doesn’t follow any of the rules, the set rules that come with major label life, because, I mean, I was signed to majors for seven years, and this being a fully independent project where I was overseeing every step of it, I chose the songs, the cover art, the order. I threw in a song at the very end, like, three days before the album went out, I threw “Fearless” in. So I think it’s just different because it’s actually my real expression with no filter.
You were born and raised in LA. How do those roots, as well as your Indian roots, inform you as an artist and as a person?
I think my roots in LA inform me as an artist and as a, like, the most. I think no matter where I go, I think everyone in the world is always trying to make it in America, make it in Los Angeles. I think being born in LA, growing up here, the rose colored glasses aren’t on me the same way. I’ve seen so much as a writer, and I’ve been assigned to so many label deals; I have that understanding of perspective. I have a perspective that I take with me all over the world, especially with the way that I did business and how I do business and how I’ve cut out this space for myself. It definitely comes from that all American idea that there’s nothing that is out of my reach and anything is possible, and I can pull myself up in my own bootstraps. So I would definitely say my LA. roots inspires my tenacity.
Who inspires you musically?
I’m so inspired by so many different things. I think throughout my life I’ve submitted myself to different obsessions whether the first time, I mean, Lauryn Hill and the “FUGEES” album, I always credit that as the genesis of me as an artist because I felt for the first time that I thought I could do it. I think before that I was very inspired by listening to NSYNC and Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera. Whatever Americana Pop would give me. That’s my foundation is that real pop sensibility. But it wasn’t until I heard Lauren Hill hold herself up against two men in “FUGEES” and just be so strong and powerful and speak with poetry and have purpose to her lyrics, that was the first time I thought, you know what, this is how I want to do it. So I would always say that my musical mother is Lauryn Hill.
On the heels of the release of THE BRIDGE, can fans look forward to catching you on the touring performing circuit?
Yes, they absolutely can. We are planning to be announcing dates for America, for India, for all over the world. So I am really excited because even as an artist, I’ve been performing at festivals and on stages with my music for the past seven years and I’ve developed a lot. But this show is different. Just like the album, it’s my own production and my own concept and this show is also going to be this way. I’ve evolved a lot. I want to focus on the musicality and I really want to focus on the music. I think somewhere in the middle, in becoming a rapper and all these things I think some people forgot and maybe can’t even see, or maybe I even forgot the musicality of it all. So touring the album is going to be like a return to that artistry that made me start everything.
As a respected singer and songwriter, which comes first for you, the lyrics or the music?
The music. I mean, the melody is king. I think melody is the primary language of music for a songwriter. And then it can go into English or Hindi or Spanish or Japanese or German, it doesn’t really matter, but the melody will remain the same. So melody is first and then the lyrics. Sometimes the melody, whatever I freestyle will lean towards some certain lyrics or I’ll have a concept in my head, but it happens both ways. It’s not always one way, but I do tend to believe that the melody is the first language of the music.
At the end of the day, what do you hope listeners walk away with after THE BRIDGE?
I hope listeners walk away feeling that manifestation is real, that evolving is part of life and that real music, that there is someone that understands them. I think I always tell people that when you put these difficult emotions or these really niche situations that you think no one else would ever understand, when someone can put it into lyrics and put it into words for you, you don’t feel as alone. So I hope that everyone that listens knows that there’s more people out there that think like them and feel like them. I hope they enjoy it and it becomes part of their life and that they come see me on tour.
