PUBLISHED ONFebruary 25, 2022 10:00 AMByBryan LimThe narrative of a starving artiste is a common refrain and it usually comes with a struggle between practicality and achieving one's dreams.
Local rapper Yung Raja, 26, is no exception. Before he became the successful rapper (and business owner) that he is today, he was just a 21-year-old boy fresh from National Service (NS) with barely anything to his name but a lot of passion and heart for music.
That was in 2016.
Yung Raja, whose real name is Rajid Ahamed, had just finished serving NS (where he was in the Music & Drama Company) and his family couldn't afford to send him overseas for a degree.
So he told his mum to give him two years to make it as a musician. Acting was his first love and many people may not be aware, but Yung Raja was a child actor.
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However, it didn't feel like his acting career was about to pick up and it felt like "I was just running around in circles", he told AsiaOne.
The two-year gamble on his music career was a tough one — he had negative $2 in his bank account and couldn't even afford to take a cab back home after a 12-hour music session at his manager Zeke's house.
He had to wait for the first bus in the morning and once, he even cycled from Zeke's house in Tiong Bahru back to his home in Little India.
"We had nothing. I had negative $2 in my account, you know what I mean? [We were] a couple of young boys who had nothing to lose but everything to give," Yung Raja said.
At that time, he was working on becoming a musician with fellow rapper Fariz Jabba — the latter had persuaded him to give it a shot. Yung Raja described Fariz as his "bestest friend in the world" and also the "the first guy that I ever shared the love of hip hop with".
In early 2018, Yung Raja released his debut single Poori Gang, a remix of Gucci Gang by American rapper Lil Pump. But it was his breakout hit Mustafa, released in the same year, that made him a household name. He would go on to be known for his use of Tanglish (mix of Tamil and English) in his raps.
According to his agreement with his mother, he had until October 2018 to realise his dreams but he was already signed to a label by January that year.
It was a best-case scenario, he pointed out.
He added: "If things didn't work out, I'd probably go to school, probably work a part-time job and go to school part-time as well. But that would have been a very different reality, a very conventional one.
"That's why I talk about gratitude all the time, because I'm aware that what's within our control is the fact that you can try... but what happens after that is not within my control."
Indeed, he has much to be grateful for.
Yung Raja has seen much success locally and even had a second wind when his 2021 song Mami was featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon as the late-night host roasted the repetitiveness of the chorus. The young artiste took it in stride and was excited about being mentioned on the show.
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Of the unexpected development, he said: "I don't know how that happened. I swear to God, like, it is real. Nobody knew how that happened. You know, that's why I talk about manifesting because I think, all of these exciting moments in my career, it's just a manifestation of the energy that I'm constantly trying to put out into this world...
"It's not that I don't have problems just like everybody else, but I choose to talk about certain things because I'm actively making a choice to put a certain kind of energy out in the world... That's the only rational explanation that I have to how Jimmy Fallon could have happened."
If you're also curious to know, Yung Raja slid into Jimmy's DMs and got a reply from the latter, who shared that he actually enjoyed the record.
ALSO READ: Jimmy Fallon disses Singaporean rapper Yung Raja's song Mami
Mother's homemade thosai
Like other musicians and performers, Yung Raja saw his music career take a hit when the Covid-19 pandemic swept through the globe (business wasn't at "full form") but he already had his eye on other entrepreneurial pursuits.
Covid "changed the rules a little bit", he said, and from that adversity came new ideas: a clothing line called Peace Oeuvre and Maha Co, a thosai taco cafe.
The cafe, which had its soft launch at the end of last year, uses a homemade batter for its thosai that is made with an "ancient technique" — according to a Google search by co-founder Ong Weiquan — passed down through Yung Raja's family for over 80 years.
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Ong is a longtime friend and also the founder of cold-pressed juice brand Gorilla Press.
The rapper said: "My mom is a traditional South Indian woman... she has been making these very authentic, traditional dishes from the time I was a little boy and one of the dishes is thosai... My mom uses this stone grinder, puts rice and lentils, and literally grinds it from scratch."
His mother's homemade batter may be a major selling point but at a time when the pandemic has also decimated the food and beverage industry, was there any concern about opening a cafe during such uncertain times?
Without missing a beat, he replied: "Everything you do in life is a risk, right? There's nothing that's like no risk. So for us, we wanted to do something that was just an extension of our spirits, an extension of our personalities...
"We didn't just start this to make money... Of course, that is one of the things that we have to tackle also, but the main intention was to create something that is authentic to who we are."
The business could fail, he's aware of that, but what was important to Yung Raja was the process and "having fun while we're doing it".
"I'm having the time of my life. I've been having the time of my life coming here... It's so fun. Like, it's a type of creativity that I've not been involved in. It's involving food. And it's a whole different lane of creativity that I've been exposed to."
Don't tell him what to wear as a man
It is this same mindset and personality that he takes into his fashion business, it seems.
The name of his streetwear brand is an ironic play on the phrase "piss off" as the message of the brand is about bringing peace to people's hearts. However, try to dictate what he should wear as a man and he might tell you to piss off.
For the uninitiated, Yung Raja is rather experimental with his sartorial choices and a quick glance at his Instagram feed is enough to show just how much. It's clear that he pushes the envelope and blurs the boundaries between genders — with one frilly outfit looking like it might have came from Harry Styles' wardrobe.
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In an interview with Popspoken, he calls fashion "one of the truest forms of expression" and said: "I can choose what I want to wear — and what I wear says something. What am I trying to say when I paint my nails or wear whatever I want? I'm trying to say that I don't give a f*** about what you think I should be like as a straight, masculine man."
He openly admitted to AsiaOne: "I've always loved dressing up. I'm the only boy in my house so all my sisters, my mom, my grandma, everybody enjoyed dressing me up when I was a child."
There were no gender boundaries, he clarified, and mentioned that there are childhood pictures of him in a dress. Of course, these all happened in the privacy of their home.
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"They would get a kick out of seeing me in a dress... I grew up with three older sisters. So by the time I came around, I was like the baby of the family. I was their muse, basically. I remember times when my sisters would put makeup on my face, put lipstick on me just to see how it looks like."
Subverting gender expectations and challenging the norms can feel like an uphill battle in a more conservative society like Singapore, but Yung Raja maintains that it's been "freeing".
"It's the kind of freedom that you feel from not being shackled down by what people might think. If my mom can sit next to me and cheer me on when I paint my nails, why would I care about what anybody has to say?"
He explained that his family has always been loving and supportive in everything he does, even when it's the road less travelled. He was given the "freedom to do pretty much anything" and it's that "parenting framework" which has allowed him to "never be put in a box in terms of how I live my life".
Surprisingly, even within the hyper masculine sphere of hip hop and rap, he said there was no pushback from his peers or fans.
"As a matter of fact, people love it because it's super freeing to just be yourself and do what you like. We come from an Asian country, like we are in Southeast Asia, you know. It's going to take some time for people to really be super open-minded and for cultural and traditional norms to fully change."
However, Yung Raja feels very fortunate and blessed to be "put in a place where I can inspire others".
He said: "Rapping is one of my interests but I'm not that guy that is like, 'Oh yeah, I'm born to make rap music. I will rap till I die.' I mean, I'll be fortunate if I get to do that... [but] I have a lot of things that I want to do in my life.
"With all that being said, it's not one singular thing. I want to inspire folks, I want to inspire the next generation of kids and to be in this place to do what I'm able to do, it's a blessing. And I would never want to take that for granted."
Being a business owner — with two businesses to boot — is no mean feat for a 26-year-old. So perhaps it's a good thing then that Yung Raja recently went through an inevitable journey of adulting and self-discovery — he recently reached a reconciliation of his two different personas: the rapper Yung Raja and Rajid Ahamed.
Entering the music industry so young and firing on all cylinders accelerated his growth, but he said "there were moments when I drowned" as he didn't think he was "was spiritually prepared to enter the world of music at that age".
Settled his family's debts
Now, though, he is flourishing as an adult and earned his stripes by settling his family's debts last year.
"I had come to a new place, financially, where I'm able to not just take care of myself, but take care of my family and help solve their problems and have a bit more to think of business ideas and whatnot."
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And, the world is his oyster because if there's one thing Yung Raja enjoys, it's coming up with new ideas, especially those that can change lives. It's why he counts Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and Bill Gates among the people he admires and loves — he even has pictures of them in his room.
He described them as thinkers who were "never afraid of thinking big" and "having original thought". With just one idea, they changed the world and that's what he is drawn to.
"I like betting on these ideas. I like betting on thosai tacos — I'm not betting on this because I know this will work and it's going to be a franchise and we'll be all over the world. No, I don't know. Nobody knows. Nobody has the answers. But at least when I look back on my life, at 26, I'm able to support myself and my family. I've done some of the things that I've always wanted to do."
He added: "I took my calculated bets [instead of] playing this game when I have more responsibilities, like, when I have a family and kids. I'm still in my 20s and I'm not married yet.
"And they are all ventures that I'm manoeuvring carefully and never recklessly. I would never do things if I didn't have the confidence that it could be fun and spiritually fulfilling, and could be something that brings growth."
bryanlim@asiaone.com