Raja Kumari is an Indian American, rapper, songwriter, and recording artist. She is famous for fusing classical Indian music with hip-hop. She has collaborated with many famous music artists including Gwen Stefani, Iggy Azalea, Fifth Harmony, Knife Party, and Fall Out Boy.
Wiki/Biography
Raja Kumari was born as Svetha Yallapragada Rao Saturday, 11 January 1986 (age 36 years; as of 2022) in Claremont, California. Her zodiac sign is Capricorn. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious studies, where she studies more deeply about the South Indian religion. Her parents made her familiar with their Indian culture and religion. They started training her to become an Indian Classical dancer, and by the time she turned 6, she began performing on stage. She is trained in Kuchipudi, Kathak, and Bharatanatyam.
A childhood photo of Raja Kumari performing Indian classical dance
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 8″
Weight (approx.): 70 kg
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Figure Measurements (approx.): 38-36-38
Family
Raja Kumari belongs to a Telugu family. Her parents moved from India to America in the ’70s.
Parents & Siblings
Her parents are doctors. She has elder brothers.
Raja Kumari with her parents
Raja Kumari with her family
Career
Rapper
She was introduced to hip-hop when she listened to the album ‘The Score’ by the American hip-hop group Fugees. At the age of 14, she became a professional rapper and chose Raja Kumari as her stage name, which means ‘Indian Princess.’
EPs/Mixtapes
In 2016, she released her first mixtape called ‘Curry Sauce Vol. 1’ including the tracks ‘New level,’ ‘Memo,’ ‘MF Bawse.’ She released her second EP, ‘The Come up,’ in 2018. In 2019, she came out with her third EP ‘BLOODLINE.’ In 2022, she released her fourth album called ‘HBIC,’ featuring Indian artists such as KR$NA and Shah Rule.
Poster of Raja Kumari’s 2022 EP ‘HBIC’
Singles
In 2017, she released her first solo single ‘Mute’ featuring Elvis Brown. In the same year, she was featured in the song ‘Drips Gold’ by Eden xo. Later, she released a song ‘City Slums’ which featured rapper Divine, and the song was released under the Sony Music Label and garnered tens of millions of views. In 2018, she was featured along with Dr Zeus in the song ‘Vamos’ by Badal. In 2020, some of her songs including ‘Bindis and Bangles,’ ‘N.R.I.,’ and more turned out to be successful. She has also featured in late Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s song ‘US’ released in 2021.
Films
In 2017, she started her rapping career in films with the song ‘Jugni’ from the film ‘Kaatru Veliyidai.’ In 2018, she rapped in 2 songs from 2 Bollywood films, ‘Allah Duhai Hai’ from the film ‘Race 3’ and ‘Husn Parcham’ from the film ‘Zero.’ She rapped in the song ‘The Wakhra Song’ from the film ‘Judgementall Hai Kya.’
Poster of the song ‘The Wakhra Song’
Songwriter
In 2013, Raja wrote the lyrics of the song ‘Change Your Life’ for Iggy Azalea. In 2015, she worked as a songwriter for many music artists including Fifth Harmony, Selah Sue, Twin Shadow, Ghost Town, and more. She has also written an original soundtrack titled ‘Runnin” for the American TV series ‘Empire’ (Season 2) released in 2015. In 2016, American singer Gwen Stefani released her album ‘This Is What the Truth Feels Like’ in which Raja contributed to writing seven songs. She has written a song, ‘Never Give Up,’ for the 2017 Tamil film ‘Vivegam.’
Controversies
In 2018, DIVINE released a song called ‘Roots’ featuring Raja Kumari. The song was well received by the audience but the lyrics of Raja Kumari’s rap stirred controversy. On social media, Raja Kumari was charged for promoting Brahmin pride and caste supremacy. The audience did not well receive one particular line from “Roots,” “Untouchable with the Brahmin flow,” it says. The basic idea of the song emphasises being your own boss, while the remaining verses make generic references to Indian society. [1] A Twitter user posted a tweet, which said,
Lyrics of Roots, the new song by DIVINE feat Raja Kumari. His bits are classic DIVINE but WTF is the first verse sung by Raja Kumari. “Untouchable with a Brahmin flow” is not something I expect to hear in a song, without any context or background. pic.twitter.com/422c1rwW4q
— Anushree Majumdar (@CaptBackspace) July 27, 2018
Awards and Nominations
- Nominated for Grammy Award for songwriting for the song ‘Change Your Life’ in 2015
- Won BMI Pop Award for songwriting and featured in ‘Bobby Friction,’ a programme on BBC Asian Network in 2016
Raja Kumari after receiving the 2016 BMI Pop Award
- Nominated for Best Indian Act award at MTV Europe Music Awards 2017
- Nominated for Best Indian Act award at MTV Europe Music Awards 2019
- Nominated for Best Indian Act award at MTV Europe Music Awards 2021
Favourites
- Food: Pani Puri
- Actor: Shah Rukh Khan
- Actress: Madhuri Dixit
- Singer (s): A. R. Rahman, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Shakira, Taylor Swift, Summer Walker
- Rapper (s): Nas, 2Pac
- Colour (s): Black, red, golden
- Hobbies: Dancing, playing musical instruments
Facts/Trivia
- After she started participating in various freestyle rap events held in her school, people began to call her “Indian Princess.”
- In an interview, on being asked about how she chose Raja Kumari as her stage name, she replied,Yeah I always say ‘daughter of the King’ and it’s funny because people would be like ‘your dad’s a doctor, he’s not a king!’ but I’m not talking about my physical father, I’m talking about the celestial God above us, like I’m the daughter of the King of Kings you know and I think about that you know. To have all these opportunities, I’m definitely blessed. I just want to represent that in the best way that I can. [2]
- Raja Kumari often gets trolled on social media for her body image. In an interview, She shared,I think the weirdest thing is that people in the comments, and I try not to read them, will be like ‘You’re making India proud, now time to lose weight.’ And I don’t understand what that has got to do with anything.” [3]
- She is a trained dancer and has performed live in Ravindra Bharathi auditorium in Hyderabad.
- She has worked as a philanthropist by giving performances and raising $80,000 in one night. To help the children with physical disabilities studying at the school called Vegesna Foundation, she built a hospital in Bangalore and a meditation hall in Hyderabad. Due to her philanthropic activities, she has been recognized as a benefactor by the Foundation for Indic Philosophy and Culture (Indic Foundation). The Governor of Tamil Nadu honoured her with the Kohinoor Award for excellence in the Classical Arts.
- She has appeared as a judge on the 2019 show ‘MTV Hustle,’ which is India’s first rap reality show.
Raja Kumari on the poster of Hustle as a judge
- She started her own music label in 2022 called Godmother Records.
- In 2019, she became the first Indian to host the American Music Awards. She hosted the Pre-Show telecast, alongside Lauren Jaregui.
Raja Kumari hosting the 2019 American Music Awards (AMAs)
- She likes to do meditation, yoga, and hiking.
- She likes to spend time and have fun with her dogs, Tara and Kush.
- In an interview, when she was asked about a crazy fan encounter, she shared,I remember when I was leaving the Yongo River Festival in Arunachal Pradesh, we were driving in a rural and mountainous area, and people were chasing the car! It felt like a Michael Jackson moment.”
- Talking about her early days in music, she said,In high school, I would always freestyle rap in ciphers and that’s kind of where my style was born. I started writing and recording my songs and performed at a few clubs here and there and I loved the feeling of being on stage. And the rest is history.” [4]
- In an interview, Raja Kumari said that she felt lonely and found it difficult to blend with the people of America as a South Indian girl. She shared,Growing up in America, I didn’t see anybody like me. I wanted to be different, obviously. I wanted to dye my hair and I wished I were skinny. I wished I was so many things… and then I discovered hip-hop and Lauryn Hill.” [5]
