Today (March 1) the Singaporean rapper Yung Raja returns with a new song: ‘Too Dope’, a collaboration with the artist Strange Alias and the second track to be released on their brand-new independent label, Samabloc – hear it below.
The slick rap track is the first new music from Yung Raja (real name Rajid Ahamed) since 2022 and a song by Strange Alias, the producer, singer and songwriter Ezekiel Keran. Keran, who is also known as FlightSch (pronounced ‘flight school’), has worked with Raja since 2017: he co-founded the independent hip-hop label M03 Records, which was Raja’s first label and where he released the breakout single ‘Yung Mustafa’.
The duo are co-founders of Samabloc, as are rapper Fariz Jabba and producer RIIDEM, plus Flo Moser, the Austrian-Australian co-founder of the Dubai-based streetwear brand Amongst Few and a producer who was formerly a collaborator of Keran’s under the FlightSch moniker. Fariz has also released new music under Samabloc, last week’s single ‘Star Girl’.
Both Fariz Jabba and Yung Raja are former Def Jam Southeast Asia artists: they were among Def Jam SEA’s inaugural signings upon its 2019 launch in the region as a label division of Universal Music Group. Raja announced his independent artist status in August 2023, and Jabba departed the label a few months later. (Keran was Head of Domestic A&R for Universal Music Singapore, and left the label in 2021.)
In an interview with NME, Raja called Samabloc “the manifestation of our wildest dreams that one day, we get to do everything ourselves”. The endeavour – which is a label but also a distribution platform, a talent management agency and, eventually, an events company – is “about being involved in every touch point in the creative, music space”, added Keran.
Building a multifaceted company also signals Samabloc’s desire to get back in touch with the artistic grassroots, which they found themselves “siloed” off from while at Def Jam, said Raja and Keran. While on a major label, Keran said, “we focused purely on making the music and producing artists, but then there was a huge disconnect from us and the on-ground community here.”
Of his experience at his former label, Raja recalled “a gap between us as creatives trying to move forward with our creative work, and then the label executives coming in with the game plan on the show business side”.
“You internalise all of these things that comes from the major label aspect of music business, and you try to operate within the guidelines and rules that they set for you,” he said. “It just becomes like, wow, man, there’s not much creative exploration. There’s not much creative growth.”
Neither Fariz nor Raja released a full-length album while signed to Def Jam Southeast Asia (though Raja did release his debut EP, ‘MIKE’, in 2021). That will change with Samabloc, which is readying a label album. Its first single will be released in April, with new drops all the way till May. “When the album comes out, that is when things go full force,” said Raja.
Though Samabloc’s founders are rooted in hip-hop, the label is genre-agnostic, with some of its artists already making songs in the realms of acoustic pop, new jack swing and even house. The label also has its sights firmly set on the world market, aiming to represent a myriad of “Singaporean stories” on a global level “as much as we can”, said Keran.
Yung Raja, for instance, will be focusing on India, where he has already made headway with his Tamil-English blend of hip-hop. Last year he opened for 50 Cent in Mumbai, and was personally tapped by the legendary A.R. Rahman to rap on a track for the Tamil sci-fi movie Ayalaan, which has already emerged one of India’s highest-grossing movies of 2024 so far.
As Samabloc tries to make major-label moves on an independent-label budget, Raja and Keran have found it crucial to tap on the networks they’ve created over the past seven years. “Sometimes we forget how many people that are out there that have just been on the sidelines, constantly cheering us on, supporting the vision, just sending us good energy,” said Raja. “We didn’t really realise that until this chapter began for us.”
“Relentless journeying towards finding a solution to every problem is what’s really helped us,” added Keran. “Being resourceful is what we have.”