Kalaivani Nagaraj, also known as Lady Kash (born 1990), is a rapper, artist, and songwriter from

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. She has worked with composers such as A.R Rahman,

Yuvan Shankar Raja Yuvan Shankar Raja (born 31 August 1979), is an Indian composer and playback singer. He mainly scores music for Tamil films along with few Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi films. Considered a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use o ...

, Anirudh Ravichander, Santhosh Narayanan,

Harris Jayaraj J. Harris Jayaraj (born 8 January 1975) is an Indian composer from Tamil Nadu. He composes soundtracks predominantly for Tamil cinema, Tamil films, while also having composed for a few films in Cinema of Andhra Pradesh, Telugu and two films i ...

, and Thaman S. In 2013, Lady Kash founded AKASHIK, an independent

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

. In 2018, she released the bilingual hip-hop song "Villupaattu", which brought the Villu Paatu storytelling form to a wider audience and highlighted the work of the artist Poongani Amma. In 2023, her hip-hop single “Two Cents” was selected for synchronization in Episode 9 of the fourth season of the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

comedy-drama series “ Never Have I Ever”, making her the first artist to bring

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

rap to Hollywood.

Biography

Kalaivani Nagaraj was born in

. As a teenager, she moved to

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also known as Thanjai, previously known as Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the 12th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of southern Indian religion, art ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

for her studies. She began her career as a

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

in 2007.

Professional career

In 2010, she co-wrote and recorded "Irumbile Oru Irudhaiyam” with

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

for the Enthiran film. In January 2014, Lady Kash made her

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

debut with the song "Wanna Mash Up?", composed by A. R. Rahman, for the film

Highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

. In July 2016, Lady Kash featured in "Hai Futsal," the official Premier Futsal anthem composed by A. R. Rahman; also featuring Rahman,

Virat Kohli Virat Kohli (born 5 November 1988) is an Indian Cricket, international cricketer who plays One Day International, ODI cricket for the India national cricket team, national team and is a former Captain (cricket), captain in all formats. He is a ...

, and Karthik. She also released her rendition of Kabali's "Neruppu Da," which gained over 1 million views in two weeks. The track was released by AKASHIK in conjunction with

Think Music India Think Music is an Indian music label headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu that specialises in South Indian film soundtracks. Overview Think Music India was started in 2007 and sold its first 46 titles including ''Vel'' (2007) and ''Paiyaa ...

. On A. R. Rahman's 50th birthday in 2017, Lady Kash released "Rap Smash," a one-take video medley of the composer's rap hits. She also released a rework of

Cardi B Belcalis Marlenis Cephus (; born October 11, 1992), known professionally as Cardi B, is an American rapper. Noted for her unfiltered public image and lyrics, Cardi B is one of the most successful female rappers. From 2015 to early 2017, she ga ...

's " Bodak Yellow" in support of #MeToo. Since then, she has focused on original music, releasing "I Told You So" in February 2018 and "Villupaattu" on 29 March 2018. In 2021, she participated in the Tamil edition of the reality show

Survivor Survivor(s) may refer to: * one who survives Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Survivors, characters in the 1997 KKnD series#Armies, ''KKnD'' video-game series * ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Foundation'', a fictional ...

, filmed in

Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

and produced by Zee Tamil and Banijay Asia.

Performance history

Lady Kash has performed in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, the UK,

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

, and

. During A. R. Rahman's 2014 Infinite Love concert tour, she performed "Irumbile Oru Irudhaiyam" with him. In her other concert tours with A. R. Rahman, she performed "Rap War" at his Nenje Ezhu concert tour series (

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

, Coimbatore, & Madurai) in 2016 and performed "Rap War 2.0" at A. R. Rahman Live in Dubai in 2017. In 2017, she performed at desiFEST in Yonge-Dundas Square, and twice with Anirudh Ravichander during his concerts in Singapore in 2014 and 2016.

Discography

Originals

Soundtracks & projects

Projects

Renditions

Collaboration

Television

References

External links

Discography , Lady Kash
{{Authority control 1990 births Living people Singaporean musicians Singaporean hip-hop musicians Singaporean people of Tamil descent Singaporean people of Indian descent Singaporean expatriates in India Expatriate musicians in India 21st-century Singaporean musicians 21st-century Singaporean women singers Tamil playback singers Telugu playback singers Kannada playback singers Bollywood playback singers