Raja Kumari
About
A fierce and talented artist, Svetha Yallapragada Rao aka Rajakumari is an L.A.-bred rapper with Indian roots known for bringing west coast rap to India.
Her music is a sonic bridge between East and West which she calls ‘BollyHood’. It fuses the rhythms she absorbed as a trained classical Indian dancer with her love for music.
Her initial breakthrough came with songwriting, she co-wrote Fall Out Boy’s ‘Centuries’ for which she won a BMI Pop award for songwriting.
She is a songwriter and singer whose work straddles both Western and Indian music in a reflection of her dual identities as a South-Asian American. The rapper made heads turn with her debut single ‘Mute’.
She blends English and Hindi lyrics, and classical Indian riffs over rap beats. She even performed her single, at an event for President Biden. She is best known for her collaboration with notable artists including Fifth Harmony, Knife Party, and Fall Out Boy.
She has been nominated for an MTV European Music Awards three times for ‘Best India Act’ and was also a judge on season one of ‘MTV Hustle’, a rap battle competition show.
She released her album ‘HBIC’ in 2022, which was her first release through Godmother records. The album includes five power packed songs including ‘Manifest’, ‘Made in India’ and many more.
After writing songs for Gwen Stefani and Iggy Azalea, she is now producing singles under her own label, Godmother Records that was launched in 2022.
She is the youngest recipient of the ‘Kohinoor Award for Excellence in Classical Art’ and through her philanthropy projects she has contributed to the construction of a hospital in Bangalore, and a meditation hall for the Vegesna Foundation in Hyderabad.
A fearless, charismatic personality and natural-born storyteller, Rajakumari has put Indian hip-hop and its culture on the international map.
