Within the video for his business networking single, “Courtside,” Karan Aujla cruises round Miami’s South Seashore in a Rolls-Royce Cullinan sporting Maybach shades and a Richard Mille watch. Flowing in his native tongue over a breezy, bass-heavy beat, Aujla pulls as much as Cartier and the Louis Vuitton retailer within the Design District, then rolls to the Exhausting Rock Stadium, the place he dives into the movie star who’s who that’s the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.
“I noticed DJ Khaled in there,” the Punjabi-born rapping, singing, and songwriting sensation tells me once I meet up with him trackside in early Might. Aujla has simply shot some video scenes with the Stake F1 group, who minimize the artist a seven-figure sponsorship deal in 2023 after he reached out via IG.
The Florida solar is taking part in hide-and-seek with storm clouds earlier than the beginning gun, however throughout a second of honest climate he whips out his iPhone and reveals me a few of his DMs forwards and backwards with Timbaland. “I actually need to work with him,” Aujla says of the legendary producer. “He makes use of a variety of Indian devices in his songs — however in his personal model, the place it doesn’t even sound like an Indian instrument.”
Creating a novel model has been Aujla’s musical quest from Day One. Raised in northwest India “in the midst of nowhere” earlier than shifting to Vancouver as a young person, Aujla landed on a sound that blends his homeland’s wealthy musical traditions with the business networking pop, hip-hop, and R&B. At present he’s on the forefront of Canada’s surging Punjabi music wave, boasting a number of billion streams between Spotify and YouTube, and promoting out enviornment excursions all through each Canada and India, with a U.S. and Europe tour kicking off this summer season. Alongside the best way, he’s skilled an excessive life-style improve.
“I really like dressing up,” he says, unabashed. “I really like shopping for good garments, automobiles, good timepieces. I all the time wished it, however we didn’t actually have the cash after we wished it. Now we’re making it, so we’d as effectively spend it someplace, you realize?”
Born in 1997 within the rural village of Gurala, Jaskaran Singh Aujla misplaced each his dad and mom by the age of 9 and says he took care of himself for a number of years earlier than shifting to Canada to dwell along with his sisters. Kicked out of faculty as a result of making music him greater than going to class, he supported himself as a longshoreman whereas writing songs for different artists — refusing to stop till the discharge of his 2018 breakout hit, “Don’t Worry,” a duet with the Punjabi star Gurlez Akhtar. After paying all these dues, Aujla has earned the best to savor his success. “I really like residing life and simply having fun with,” he says. “Yeah, I’m fairly good at doing that.”
He’s additionally fairly good at making hit songs. Final 12 months Aujla turned the primary South Asian artist to win the Fan Alternative Award on the Junos, an honor he shares with Canadian superstars Avril Lavigne and Justin Bieber. “When you’re dreaming, be sure to dream huge,” he mentioned as he accepted the trophy. His upcoming reveals in North America and Europe, often called the It Was All a Dream Tour, will start this July, quickly after the discharge of his third solo album. Aujla’s greatest dream of all is to take trendy Punjabi music worldwide and make it the subsequent Afrobeats or Okay-pop — a sound that may entice folks exterior the tradition to gravitate towards one thing actual.
India, after all, isn’t a monolithic place however an enormous subcontinent containing 22 official languages, greater than 1,000 dialects, and 28 numerous states. “Punjab is a state on the north facet, and we communicate a unique language than the remainder of India,” Aujla explains, stress-free in an opulent resort suite overlooking Miami Seashore. “There’s an enormous Punjabi tradition. Punjabi meals is totally different. Punjabi songs are totally different. We’ve a drum known as a dhol. We’ve our personal keyboard software known as a harmonium. However we don’t use them in each tune anymore. We’re attempting to flip the sounds and create a fusion.” Inside India, Punjabis are sometimes often called hardworking, passionate individuals who know occasion.
Within the early 2000s, the standard Punjabi dance music often called bhangra blew up within the U.Okay., dwelling to a Punjabi inhabitants virtually half 1,000,000 sturdy. Jay-Z cosigned the motion when he hopped on a Panjabi MC remix in 2003, scoring a large chart hit within the U.S. A number of years later, British Asian artist Jay Sean blew up sufficiently big to signal with Money Cash Information and collab with Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj, however most of his greatest songs have been recorded in English.
This time round, the wave is coming from Canada, the place the Punjabi inhabitants is twice as huge as within the U.Okay. “It’s mainly one other Punjab,” says Aujla, who was shocked early on to seek out Canadian Punjabis who don’t communicate their native language. “We’re simply attempting to carry the tradition up, educate extra folks about it,” he says. “Like folks know Latin lure or Afrobeats.”
With greater than 1.4 billion folks in India and a couple of billion South Asians worldwide, the numbers are there to construct a significant motion. “It’s not gonna occur in a single day, however the extra we discuss it, the extra songs we put out, the nice music we do will assist it turn into a factor. I actually need Punjabi music to be heard extra on the streets,” Aujla says. “Enjoying in resort lobbies and cafes. Like, it must be a traditional factor — and funky.”
Working with Indo-Canadian producers like Ikky, Yeah Proof, and Signature by SB, Aujla and a handful of like-minded artists have created a brand new sound and constructed a following. He’s additionally collaborated with American acts from OneRepublic to YG. And whereas he sprinkles English into his lyrics, he’s decided to remain true to his roots and push theth Punjabi, the pure, genuine type of the language — a standard rural slang with minimal affect from Hindi and different dialects.
“I don’t need my music to sound like one thing that’s been completed earlier than,” says Aujla, who retains a man named Milano on his group to assist him bridge the hole. “He doesn’t perceive Punjabi, however he is aware of the tradition. Taking him with us, it simply helped me create one thing totally different. How will we flip these sounds? How will we mix them into one thing that makes it cooler? Like, if any person doesn’t perceive Punjabi, they might simply vibe with the music or the melodies.”
After leaving Miami, Aujla will return to the luxurious villa in Dubai that he now calls dwelling, then spend every week within the little village the place he was born. “My dad and mom didn’t even take me to a hospital,” he says. “My mother had the supply at a home. It’s loopy to suppose that I come from a village with solely 200, 250 homes.” That’s the place he says he discovered all of the morals of life after his dad and mom handed, elevating himself as an orphan, urgent his personal college uniform each day.
Though Aujla is meant to be taking a break in Miami, the work by no means actually stops. After our interview, there’s a photographer ready to shoot promo pictures for Warner Music Canada. And naturally he’s obtained to finish the music video earlier than leaving city. “Even when I’ve break day, I’m nonetheless working, however at the very least I’m not writing on a regular basis. The writing course of will get sort of heavy, ’trigger it’s a variety of considering.” Nonetheless, he loves creating new songs. He compares it to opening a portal — the melodies come from elsewhere and move by way of him. His songs inform tales about his life and his folks, inspirational tales which might be common sufficient for everybody to narrate to.
Aujla’s success permits him to dwell the excessive life, and his followers love seeing him dipped in ice and designer outfits. However there are additionally drawbacks to success. Gang tradition within the Punjabi neighborhood has been well-documented, together with the alleged extortion of profitable artists. “In Canada, sure, and in India — it’s been there all the time,” Aujla says. “Even the previous Punjabi singers have been going by way of it. They went by way of extortions or gang violence, which makes it actually exhausting for you as an artist. However I really feel prefer it’s getting higher now.”
On his 2021 debut album, Bacthafucup, Aujla’s music mirrored the rougher facet of life, however on newer work — together with the 2023 set Making Memories — he grapples with the accountability that comes with having such a big viewers. “Artists inside the tradition are attempting to make a stand,” he says, “and coming collectively to maintain the violence out of their lyrics.”
He has additionally made some extent of placing apart any rivalries with artists within the booming Canadian Punjabi scene. Aujla has written for Diljit Dosanjh, the 41-year-old O.G. of the motion, reportedly penning the title monitor of his 2020 album G.O.A.T. in simply 10 minutes. Throughout a present in Mumbai final December, Aujla was joined onstage by AP Dhillon — whose 2024 album The Brownprint cemented him as one other prime Punjabi artist — dispelling social media speak of any pressure amongst artists. “Music isn’t a fucking sport,” Dhillon declared. “There is no such thing as a winner or loser on this sport.”
“If we don’t do it now, when else are we gonna do it?” Aujla tells me. “Again within the days even I had just a few grudges towards some artists — I don’t know over what?” He laughs. “I’m over all that. We’re all from the identical place, and I really feel like proper now all of us realized that that is the time to help one another if we need to make it huge. ’Trigger unity is every thing.”
On considered one of his earlier solo tracks, “Let Em Play,” Aujla sampled the Hollywood Stroll of Fame speech the place Snoop Dogg famously declared, “I wanna thank me.” Aujla says he pertains to the work ethic, the boldness, the audacity. “Once I was again dwelling, I used to take heed to a variety of Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent,” he recollects. In latest instances, he’s collaborated with Bombay rapper Divine and shared the stage with Hanumankind. “I might undoubtedly say J. Cole is likely one of the guys that taught me write correctly,” Aujla provides. “How you can move properly and match English phrases into Punjabi and never sound compelled. That’s the principle factor. It has to sound pure.”
And naturally he named his tour after the timeless Biggie line, “It was all a dream” — the sound of a younger man whose complete life is altering as a result of he discovered a strategy to faucet into his God-given lyrical items. Aujla undoubtedly pertains to that feeling.
“Coming from the place I come from, I by no means thought this might be the life that we’re residing in the present day,” he says. “I’m very grateful getting all this, particularly by way of music, all of the love and help. Once I got here to Canada, to a completely totally different nation, I didn’t know what I used to be presupposed to do. So it was all a dream.”
That’s the sensation he’s attempting to convey on his subsequent album. One factor he doesn’t have but is a name for the sound that’s taken him to date. “It’s such a tough query, ’trigger I don’t even actually have a reputation for this style but,” he says. “It’s Punjabi music, positive, however is it pop? Is it people? Is it rap? We’re getting impressed from totally different cultures and rooted in our personal tradition and attempting to combine every thing collectively. We nonetheless don’t have a reputation, however when we’ve got it you’ll be the primary to know.”
From Rolling Stone US.