Identify: Raja Kumari
Age: 36
Hometown: Claremont, Calif.
Now Lives: In a three-bedroom house within the Juhu part of Mumbai, India.
Declare to Fame: Ms. Kumari is a songwriter, singer and rapper whose work straddles each Western and Indian music, in a mirrored image of her twin identities as a South-Asian American. She blends English and Hindi lyrics, and classical Indian riffs over rap beats. Final yr, she carried out her single, “N.R.I.” (it stands for nonresident Indian) at an Asian-American inaugural ball for President Biden. Pattern lyric: “Dot head consuming samosas. Too brown for the label. Too privileged for the co-sign.”
Large Break: Ms. Kumari began dancing and singing at 6 and, by 10, was performing conventional Indian dance types throughout India. She started writing and recording her personal songs in her early 20s and finally signed on with Pulse, a music producer and writer in Los Angeles, the place she wrote songs for Gwen Stefani, Fall Out Boy and Iggy Azalea. Her work with Ms. Azalea on “Bounce” (the video was shot in India) was a spark for Ms. Kumari to get again into the studio herself. “It woke me up,” she mentioned. “I used to be, like, individuals need to add my voice, however they don’t need to have a South Asian lady do it? Why am I not taking that leap?”
Newest Undertaking: In Could, Ms. Kumari launched her newest single — “Made in India” — that remixed a ’90s Indian pop hit, that includes the enduring Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit Nene. A 2020 single that Ms. Kumari’s labored on was featured within the new Disney+ sequence, “Ms. Marvel.”
Subsequent Factor: After years of working with Western labels, Ms. Kumari has began Godmother Information, with “Made In India” being the primary single produced underneath that label. “I owe it to myself to now stand by myself two ft,” she mentioned. Her aim can be to make use of the label to find and signal up-and-coming expertise in India. “I’ve this dream of discovering a lady in India, and she or he wins a Grammy,” she mentioned. “That might imply quite a bit.”
Manifesting: Ms. Kumari, whose actual identify is Svetha Yellapragada Rao, created her stage identify when she was 14 to challenge a fearless model of herself and to construct a visible identification round feminine Hindu goddesses. “It’s the character I wanted,” she mentioned. “I assumed concerning the idea in my room and made it a actuality to the purpose that I used to be on a billboard in Times Square. I don’t know something extra highly effective than that.”
