WELP Tonight: Rappers Yung Raja and Fariz Jabba geek out about Will Smith, School of Rock and Minecraft

In recent years, Yung Raja and Fariz Jabba have come to represent the modern face of Singapore hip-hop, and it’s not at all surprising why. The two young rappers have taken hold of the torch carried by forerunners like THELIONCITYBOY and Shigga Shay, and breathed new life into the scene with fresh beats, fresher rhymes, and a dash of social media genius. 

While Yung Raja and Fariz Jabba are acclaimed solo artists on their own, the two are virtually inseparable, having been best of friends for years and inspiring each other to have a career in music. The two young stars dropped by WELP Tonight last Friday to talk about their latest projects in a wide-ranging conversation and gaming session with hosts Sezairi Sazali and Syaza Qistina Tan. 

For Yung Raja, hosting the rebooted Yo! MTV Raps series in Asia was a top-notch highlight of his year — nay, his career. “It was probably the most overwhelmingly crazy thing that I’ve had in my career so far,” the 23-year-old explained, adding that his favourite episode is the one he did with South Korean singer and rapper Gray. 

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But the child actor’s career wouldn’t have glowed up into its current state if not for Fariz Jabba, who recounted his origin story. Encouraged by his older brother — comedian Fakkah Fuzz — Fariz took part in a freestyle contest on Instagram and won. His video went viral, and he soon got to meet his personal hero SonaOne, a Malaysian singer and rapper. It was then that Fariz decided to get his buddy and fellow Ah Boys To Men 3 cast member involved. 

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“I sat [Raja] down and said to him ‘Man, I don’t know if this acting thing’s going to work out’,” laughed Fariz. Raja took on gigs at hip-hop nights before meeting music producer FlightSch, and the rest was history. 

Still, Raja holds on to his dream acting gig: Starring alongside Will Smith in a feature film. “I’m probably the biggest fan that [Will Smith] has in this part of the world,” Raja stated, explaining that he grew up watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. 

As the youngest child in his family with a much older dad, he immediately took to Will Smith as a male role model and repeatedly watched all of his films and TV shows. Fariz concurred by affirming how his friend’s mannerisms both on and off stage have been greatly inspired by those of the famed actor.

On the flip side, Fariz’s favourite flick is School Of Rock, and the rapper wigs out after hearing that the rest of the table has not seen the Jack Black classic. When asked why, he explained that it had all the hallmarks of his family’s sense of humour, especially the sarcastic and goofy bits. 

This being a show about chilling over video games, the two hip hop stars then got into some actual gaming. Having grown up playing Minecraft, Fariz got his mind proper blown by the Minecraft Earth demo footage at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Unsurprisingly, they both did well in the rap-battling robots portion of Jackbox Party, with Fakkah Fuzz joining in to play. 

Catch the next episode of WELP Tonight on Twitch and Twitter this Friday at 8pm.