KUALA LUMPUR — Local Tamil rapper, CJL is making his musical debut in the mainstream music industry with his track, Lepak Mamak featuring renowned artist, Santesh.
Fresh off being crowned champion of Astro Ulagam’s rap competition, Rap Porkalam season one, CJL or his real name Logeswara Rao, explained that his stage name is an acronym to Crowns of Johor Logeswara, which is a tribute to his early foray into music.
Crowns of Johor is a group Logeswara joined during school which did cover songs, as well as making music and videos together.
“As time went on, we put together our own studio and we would do all these things together.
“That is where I learnt how to be a rapper, how to be a video editor and all that.”
“So that’s where it all began, where I came from and that’s why I want to bring the name with me forever,” Logeswara told Malay Mail.
Logeswara said that before he won the rap competition, he would usually jam out at his brother’s place which has a mini home studio.
“It was after Rap Porkalam, when I got some money, that I did my own studio but not like the professional ones.
“It’s a mini studio in my room and since I know the basics, I decided to build my own home-studio where I could practice.
“I’ve learnt a lot from that also,” he said.
Logeswara who first started listening to rap songs from his father, admitted that he didn’t start writing his own lyrics until he was 18 years old, but he did do a lot of cover on famous hip hop tunes.
He has been covering songs from the likes of local hip-hop icons such as Too Phat and Yogi B to Kollywood songs by HipHop Tamizha.
“What triggers me to write my own songs was this one incident and I don’t want to lie about it.
“I broke up with my girlfriend and I was feeling so down at that time, so I started writing poems.
“I felt relieved, and I thought to myself, ‘why don’t I use this as a tool to make me feel good’.”
“I poured out whatever I felt in my heart and it felt good, and that’s when I started to write my own lyrics,” Logeswara said.
Hailing from Skudai, Johor where, Logeswara is thankful for the friends that have been supporting him from day one.
“They’re not the typical ‘one futsal game and then gone’ type of friends, they’re the kind of friends who have supported me all the way.
“Even my Malay friends would come and support me during the competition, some came to my house, even though they don’t understand Tamil, they would come and support me.
“I feel so blessed to have them as my friends,” Logeswara said, sharing his plans to do a song in all languages that he knows which including Bahasa Malaysia, English, and his mother tongue Telugu.
Logeswara said at the moment, he was focused on building his fan base where he hopes to create awareness in the Indian community.
“There’s a lot of things in the Indian community that need to be highlighted because nowadays I feel like there’s less music coming out with good content that highlights our community and society.
“These days, even if you do a good song or a song with a message but without a proper fan base, nobody will care and that’s why you need a good fan base, so your music can circulate,” Logeswara said.
Lepak Mamak is now available on Spotify and the official music video is available on Youtube.