When Jimmy Fallon played Yung Raja’s airhorn-blasting single “Mami” on his show, not everyone was happy. Clips from the 2021 episode show the late-night host bouncing up and down to the sizzling trap song, while the Singaporean-Tamil rapper repeats the hook: “Mami, mami, mami, mami, mami, mami...” Fans accused Fallon of trying to make Raja look like a “lazy songwriter” by deliberately omitting the intricate and playful lyrics in each verse, which serve as nods to his culture. “She the type to choose her nalli's pattu over furs,” he raps. “Thanni on my mind cause she got thirst/ Imma pull up with some fresh jilebi just for her.”
The 26-year-old has no such qualms about Fallon. “This guy just introduced me as the ‘Singaporean rapper Yung Raja’,” he exclaims. “You have no idea how big of a win that is. Not just for me but for my whole country.”
As one of 28 artists signed to Def Jam’s Southeast Asia outfit, the rapper born Rajid Ahmed has a lot of pressure on his shoulders. But speaking from Queenstown over video call, the bilingual MC sounds adamant in his goal to bring his culture to the rest of the world. “I’m trying to let everybody know how dope my country is and what is popping here,” he says. “I want to be ‘Yung Raja from Singapore’.”
At the same time as the Fallon shout-out, Raja was working with Def Jam CEO Snoop Dogg on “Qualified”, the sizzling, funk-inflected track from Snoop Dogg Presents Algorithm (Global Edition). “Snoop was blown away by the fact that Def Jam Southeast Asia had 35 artists across six different countries,” Raja says, adding that Snoop was “keen” that he feature on “Qualified”. He struggles to process the fact that he’s already teamed up with one of his heroes – someone whose music he used to listen to in his childhood bedroom. “It’s so trippy, man. It will take a lifetime for me to really unpack that.”
One of the few consistent things about Raja’s rapidly accelerating career is the Tamil language. Born to a South Indian family who migrated from Thanjavur to Singapore in 1992, he was later inspired to bring those two different cultures together. “The whole experience of growing up as a Singaporean, but from a very traditional South Indian household, allowed me to pursue music and write Tanglish (a fusion of English and Tamil) raps,” he says. He demonstrates this in early track “Mustafa”, from 2018, which slips seamlessly between English and Tamil. The jagged piano notes recall Kendrick Lamar’s single of the previous year, “Humble”, while the lyrical playfulness contrasts against Raja’s dark, muttering delivery. It’s proved a potent mix in Asia, accumulating more than five million streams.
“I had to create Yung Raja,” he says of those early years. “In the beginning, it took me a couple of years to come in [this] skin.” He views his bilingual songs as an advantage, not a hindrance, and has yet to receive any complaints from fans who might not understand every word. On the lurid “Mad Blessings”, he reels off his achievements to date over a subtle, shape-shifting beat and eerie synth wails and clatters. For the perky “Amazing”, he describes crafting “Neruppu [‘fire’] bops”, later announcing: “Thinking ‘bout the feeling of a sold-out show/ Ezhuvom machi vizhamaatom/ Life too good with the highs and lows/ Namba nambikaiyai vidamaatom.” The Tamil-language portion translates to: “We will rise and not fall/ We will not give up hope.” He recalls a tour around India this year, which included shows in Delhi and Bangalore. The Delhi fans, he says, vibed just as hard to the Tamil-language songs as those in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu. “My choice of including Tamil into my art was a conscious choice,” he says, “because I realised that Tamil and English make me who I am. Equally.”
His priority is always to write songs that appeal and mean something to him. “Through that exploration of self, I realised that a lot more people find strength in that,” he says. Later this year, he’ll release a track with singer Kayan (real name Ambika Nayak), his “first official collaboration” with an Indian artist. Knowing both singers’ respective vibes, the song should sound like an unapologetic mix of pop, soul, and trap mixed with humour. “We shot a music video for it when I was in Mumbai this year. I can’t wait for that to come out.”
With the global Tamil community supporting him, Raja is poised for great things. Alongside his music endeavours, the rapper cares deeply about food security; he’s the owner of The Maha Co Singapore, a combination Mexican-Indian diner that serves the world’s first dosa-tacos – proving yet again that even cultures that appear poles apart can make for an intoxicating mix.
