Rajah Mahdi – an enthusiasm for going against the grain
Rajah Mahdi Byrd is a Recording Artist from Glassboro, NJ. Born two months premature, he received brain damage during delivery, resulting in cerebral palsy. However despite this bad turn of events he has still managed to live a normal and social life growing up. In 2010 Rajah started recording music as a means to express his opinion on social situations and issues. It became a frequent hobby and in 2013 he decided to start taking it more seriously.
Rajah’s goal is to create a solid platform with his music and to eventually spark social reform with the values and ideals he portrays in his art. Planning to drop a single a week, Rajah also has a penchant for media software, such as Photoshop and Final Cut Pro.
Rajah Mahdi is able to paint dark tones as wells as with bright yellows and reds. Everything he does feels active. He doesn’t ride beats so much as bounce all over them, all while those same beats are tumbling all over the vessel they reside in.
A quick run through his growing catalogue and you can see that Rajah shows that he’s more than willing to experiment and toss new ingredients into his pot in order to cook up entirely different meals on each release. He has shown an enthusiasm for going against the grain in an effort to stand out among his peers.
Those same qualities exist on tracks like “The Get Right” (Prod. Lucid Soundz), “Jesus Piece” (Prod. CashMoneyAP) and Picasso (Prod. CamGotHits), where he effortlessly shifts between energies that somehow manages to be both soothing and ravaging.
The songs are radiant with resonating instrumentation and stacked vocals, and rarely take time to breathe. It’s a welcome addition to a genre that has become so occupied with spacey, bare-bones operations and overly simplistic results. Rajah Mahdi’s raps always attempt a balance of style and substance, as he dips in and out of profundity.
As often as Rajah’s songs express good taste and synergy, they make some fascinatingly moves. There are moments when Rajah’s rhymes are incredibly revealing too. With the flood of new school hip hop artists that don’t rely on lyrical terms, Rajah is a reassuring reminder that rap artists who practice original hip hop still exist. There’s no denying Rajah Mahdi’s talent. He can fit the mold of almost any beat thrown at him.
Just listening to his last three track releases, the production proves to be top-notch and Rajah’s flow marches with the drums and high hats. There are so many rappers in today’s hip hop who are all trying to sound the same, same productions, rap about the same old things, but it’s finally nice to see some originality come to the table.
Rajah Mahdi’s projects are full of warm shimmering sonics, layered with lyrics that drip with vivid details. Along with style and flair, his enigmatic charisma and bass-busting soundscapes will keep you coming back for more.
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