What is your name and what city do you rep?
I go by Ra Tha God. Ra for short. I’m from Long Branch, NJ and I’m currently living on an island named Okinawa which is one Japan’s southern islands.
Tell us about your latest releases, what inspired you to create them?
Yeah, In the past month I released a few singles. The first single was “Living Life”. This song was inspired by traveling around the world. I’ve been to South Korea, Philippines, Guam and, Japan. Visiting these counties and experiencing the cultures inspired me to create this song. The second single, “Light Work” was created because we were all at the studio (Studio Snack) talking about how easy it is for us to come up with ideas for a song. Then I mentioned, “Yeah, this is light work” and the rest was all she wrote. I’ve been to Tokyo so many time so I made a lot of connections out there. One time, one of my connecting flights back to Okinawa was delayed for 24 hours so, those 24 hours inspired me to come up with “Layover in Tokyo”. I reached out to Young Deji because I knew his style will accommodate the track. I sent him the beat, he sent his version back the next day and from there I went to studio to lay the verses.
What is unique about you and your music?
Let’s see, I’ve been living in Japan for about 10 years. I can understand Japanese more than I can speak it. I tend to stay true to my myself and my beliefs so, I always have that mindset when I’m creating music.
What shaped your music?
I would say a lot of things take responsibility in shaping the music. The main thing I can say is past experiences, some good some bad. Overall, life in general shaped my style and sound.
When did you realize you were going to make music professionally?
Ever since I could remember, I always I wanted to pursue music professionally. In the beginning, I didn’t have a financial backing to put myself in a position to prove to everyone that I was serious about making it a career.
What type of music do you listen to?
I listen to all types of genres, it all depends on the type of mood I’m in.
What inspires you to write music?
That’s a good question. Most of the time my music is inspired by my past experiences or how I see myself in the future. I salon get inspiration from reading and watching movies.
What do you do when you don’t do music (creative or otherwise) and that you are passionate about?
If I’m not making music I’m usually spending time with family and friends. Studying I
information technology, going out to different restaurants trying different cuisines and meditating.
Happiness to you is…
Let’s see. Happiness to me is, being able to spend quality time with family and friends and enjoying life.
What do you wish you were told when you first started making music that you think would help artists just starting out?
One thing I would tell artists is, if you’re going at this to make it a career you have to invest in yourself financially . It’s cool to lock in at the studio everyday however, it’s more to it than that. Make sure you do extensive research on effective ways to invest in yourself to get the type of buzz you’re looking for.
Tell us about your upcoming projects…
I’m currently working on my first EP that will around July time frame. It will consist of five tracks. Make sure to be on the lookout for it.
Where do we find you music / music projects?
Anyone can check out my music on all major platforms. Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Tidal etc.
Any last words for the readers?
I appreciate all the readers for tapping in with us and I wanna give a shout out to my Jerz and Oki fam! Thanks for having me.
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