Raja Kumari calls out male rappers for not supporting women: Have you seen Divine posting about my stuff

Singer-rapper Raja Kumari finds the music business an unfair place for women, and that is why she feels the need to push. She adds that the men in the business are also not doing enough to make it an inclusive workspace.

“I have realised that the industry is not really open to women. I don’t really comment on the other rappers but the other day, Emiway (Bantai) went on a rant on Twitter, and he was giving props to everyone. He has a public dispute with KRSNA and Raftaar. And at that time, he was telling how KRSNA brought lyrical game to the scene. And his whole list had no mention of a female artist,” Raja Kumari tells us.

The rapper, whose real name is Svetha Yallapragada Rao, continues, “At that moment, I just understood that they don’t think the scene is for us. And we just got to make our own scene. I’m just as powerful as them. If they don’t want to let me in, and all the women that are doing the work, then we’ll make our own scene”.

For the rapper, who is on a professional high with the success of her last single, Out of Love, reveals that male artists from the music industry need to not just preach about gender equality, but show them in their actions as well.

“It’s unfortunate. If you look at all the biggest male rappers, they say, ‘I support women’. But do you see them post about work by female artists? No. Do you see the Divine post about my album? No,” she shares, adding, “The men that talk about supporting women in music are just doing lip service”.

In fact, she says her latest track Out of Love with Raashi Sood shows what women can do together, and asserts, “Collaboration is something that a lot of people don’t do it enough. Another thing in our industry is they always try to put like females against each other. This was exciting because two female artists met for the song and collaborated for this song”.

Do the action — is her word of advice for male artists.

“I will call out to all the male artists to support them not just by words. Have more women as openers at your shows. When has a male artist ever brought in a female artist as an opener? Yes, I have opened some shows., But I shouldn’t be the only example. I pushed through (the system) because I have that American attitude and whatever I came in, but you shouldn’t have to be like that to get through. We need to encourage people to be more including,” she says.