Chennai dances to Yung Raja’s beats

Chennai: Raja is on a five-city tour across India and was in the city on behalf of music platform, Circle of Love. Talking about performing in the city with Block Party, Yung Raja says, “We would have never imagined that in five years, we would be travelling to India, doing shows here and meeting people here in Chennai. In 2017, all of this would have just been a fairytale or things we talk about that are like dreams. But it has been an incredibly exciting journey so far. The last five years have been challenging to just navigate the world of hip hop and music. It has been a constant, steady process of discovering what’s next. Nonetheless it has been a very fruitful journey,” he says.

Sameer Sethi, a Chennai-based music entrepreneur who formed the Circle of Love as an effort to bring musicians together and make the platform serve as a record label for aspiring musicians, says, “Since independent musicians had no gigs during the pandemic, COL was used as a platform to start the CenterStage series where indie bands like The Easy Wanderlings, Mali, Jbabe, Profanyty, Stevie and Henny performed at locations around Chennai and these were streamed for free on their social media platforms. This got much attention as it happened amidst the pandemic and drew a lot of indie artists and brands. Circle of Love (COL) is a community initiative that puts the spotlight on homegrown music and cultural projects for audiences. We make brands part of the cultural conversation through original content, open mic nights, masterclasses, women DJ workshops and podcasts to shape the music landscape. The COL Block party was unique as it is the first time that we put a lineup of local homegrown artistes and DJ acts along with international rappers like Yung Raja. We have so much talent locally that we had to do something big to showcase them. And it worked wonders.” On a concluding note, Yung Raja adds that the platform would be bringing together musicians from South East Asia and India.