Kumari holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious studies, with an emphasis on South Asian religions. She is an Indian classical dancer who started dancing at the age of 7. While in fifth grade, Kumari discovered hip hop through the Fugees' album The Score. By the age of 14, she was a noticed freestyleMC known as "Indian Princess" or "Raja Kumari". During her artist career, she has contributed to several philanthropic activities through her performances including the creation of a hospital in Bangalore and a meditation hall in South India for the Vegesna Foundation, a school for children with physical disabilities. As a result, Kumari has been recognized as a benefactor by the Foundation for Indic Philosophy and Culture and has been honored with the Kohinoor Award for excellence in the Classical Arts by the Governor of Tamil Nadu.
Career
Kumari co-wrote, featured in or performed background vocals in a number of notable songs including Fall Out Boy's double-platinum single "Centuries", "Change Your Life" feat. T.I., Vicetone's "Don't You Run", Brave Enough by Lindsey Stirling and "Set Me Free" for Baz Luhrmann's original Netflix series The Get Down about the birth of Hip Hop. She has also contributed to songs in albums by Gwen Stefani, Fifth Harmony, Twin Shadow, and Dirty South. Recently she released her debut solo single "Mute" featuring Elvis Brown and produced by Jules Wolfson at Epic Records. which premiered on Paper Magazine's website. In May 2016, Kumari was honored at the 2016 BMI Pop Awards for co-writing the song "Centuries" with Fall Out Boy. In addition, she has a recording contract with Epic Records through L.A. Reid and collaborated with several players in the music industry, including artists Polow Da Don, J.R. Rotem, Timbaland, Rodney Jerkins, Soulshock and Karlin, Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, Justin Tranter and Fernando Garibay. She has also been inspired in her music style by the Indian composer and producer A. R. Rahman. In 2018, she co-wrote and performed the song titled 'Roots' and 'City Slums' in collaboration with Divine. She has starred in Gully Boy as a judge, which was a cameo appearance. She also hosted the American Music Awards Pre-Show telecast, alongside Lauren Jaregui. She has been nominated for an MTV European Music Awards three times for Best India Act. Kumari has also been announced as the face of MAC Cosmetics' holiday campaign: MAC STARRING YOU, in which she appears in adverts and marketing materials around the globe. She also was a judge on season one of MTV HUSTLE, a rap battle competition show that was the highest rated premiere in MTV History.
Since her debut EP 'The Come-Up,' Kumari has been hard at work on her next EP 'Bloodline.' Kumari has released the lead single from Bloodline, called "Shook." This single was accompanied by a music video which reached quite a bit of commercial success. Kumari's second single from Bloodline, called "Karma" was released February 13, 2019. Bloodline was released February 22, 2019.
