VISUALS PREMIERED EARLIER TODAY ON THEFADER.COM
SONG TAKEN FROM ACCLAIMED 2019 EP BLOODLINE
GRAMMY Award- nominated songwriter and rapper Raja Kumari unleashes the official music video for her track “KARMA” today. The Sam Madhu-directed visuals premiered earlier today via The FADER, who described the video as “balanc[ing] historical Indian imagery with neon colors.”
Check out the video HERE. Check out The FADER premiere HERE.
The colorful and empowering clip was created by an all-female
team in collaboration with Kumari and Madhu. In speaking about
the video, Kumari told The FADER:
“KARMA is a reminder that beautiful things come to life when
strong women put their skills together. The video was done by an all-female
team. It started as a collaboration between myself and Sam Madhu, which
explores transitions from art to reality and remixes cultural elements from the
past and the future. It is inspired by traditional Indian aesthetics and
futuristic cyberpunk worlds.
Sam basically developed the idea of a neon universe in which I’m
the central character, where traditional Indian elements like Rakshasa masks,
goddesses and tigers are reborn with contemporary, neon aesthetics to create a
universe where I appear as an array of compelling, powerful female characters.
So you’ll see a latex matrix-inspired Rakshasi, a neon devi with her shocking
pink tiger, a futuristic laser goddess. The video was so fun to make, and I
feel like it represent a real female-empowerment moment. “
The song itself is produced by Sean Garrett and packs a
passionate and powerful punch locked and loaded with robust rhymes and fierce
delivery over a throwback beat with international resonances, which Idolator
says finds the artist “coming into her own.”
BLOODLINE was
released this February on Epic Records and can be streamed on all DSPs HERE. The 5-track project also boasts the
acclaimed single “SHOOK.” TIME Magazine commending
it as a song that “drips with blustering self-assuredness,” and its Gil
Green (Drake, Kanye West)-directed music video has amassed 5.5 million-plus views. Along
with Sean Garrett, the EP also includes production work from Danja.
Currently, Kumari is a judge on the MTV India show Hustle,
mentoring the next generation of artists in a rap battle competition show. It
was the highest rated premiere in the network’s history. After completing her
own headlining North American tour, she recently performed alongside Wiz Khalifa in New
Delhi and was the first Indian artist to perform at the F1
Festival in Singapore. Look out for more new music from
the budding superstar, coming soon.
About Raja Kumari:
Indian-American rapper, singer, songwriter, actress and
dancer Raja Kumari is a force of nature. A fearless,
charismatic personality and natural-born storyteller, her mission is to create
art that blends her Indian roots with her American upbringing. Her music is a
sonic bridge between East and West that fuses the rhythms she absorbed as a
trained classical Indian dancer with her love for hip-hop.
Kumari made her initial impact on global pop music as a sought-after songwriter. The creative force behind hits like Fall Out Boy’s multiplatinum smash “Centuries,” Iggy Azalea’s “Change Your Life” [feat. T.I.], Fifth Harmony’s “Like Mariah”[feat. Tyga], music for the hit Fox show “Empire,” and numerous anthems for Gwen Stefani have earned her acclaim and accolades across the board. Notably, she received a GRAMMY nomination for her work with Azelea and a BMI Pop Award for her work with Fall Out Boy.
Emerging as a disruptive force in hip-hop in her own right, Kumari released
her debut EP, The Come Up, in 2016. Her solo material has
received acclaim and attention from the likes of Billboard, Paper
Magazine, Idolator and Complex and has
been featured overseas by the likes of Rolling Stone, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s
Bazaar and GQ in India. Recently she performed on the
Red Bull Tour Bus tour which showcases breakthrough artists throughout India,
and performed as a guest on Amazon Prime’s digital reality show “The
Remix”. Sharing the stage with Academy Award-winning composer A. R. Rahman
on tour last year at the SSE Arena Wembley, as well as at the 2017 IIFA Awards
at MetLife Stadium, Raja continues to collaborate with other artists
throughout the world and was recently featured on the international banger “Vamos”, which cracked over 10 million YouTube views
in under one week.
Raja Kumari’s talents extend beyond the studio, having recently
co-starred in the acclaimed movie Gully Boy. She also is the host
and curator of her own Apple Music Beats 1 show, The New India,
where she spotlights some of India’s brightest new talents.
Needless to say, as her star continues to rise, Raja Kumari is
poised to be a global force in her own right.
Follow Raja Kumari
https://www.instagram.com/therajakumari
(Photo credit: Colston
Julian)
