How did you get into this business of disk jockeying? What attracted you towards this?
Interestingly enough, I actually got my start DJ'ing at comedy clubs as many of my friends were comedians and loved the type of underground hip-hop music I used to play for their introductions on-stage. But it was always radio DJ'ing, or more specifically hosting and interviewing that I was most into, as coming from a journalism background I loved how I could help expose audiences to new music or interviews that would intrigue and inspire them in some way. I stayed away from club DJ'ing as I was never really into the mainstream music which people in clubs wanted to hear. I know I'm occasionally confused as a club DJ since I go by 'Deejay Ra', but I hoped by spelling 'Deejay' in its traditional way that people would assume a difference from the regular club 'DJ'.
Where do you think South Asian Entertainment Industry is going in North America?
To me, the South Asian entertainment industry in North America is very much like the Latin or hip-hop entertainment explosions that happened in the 1990's - in fact part of the reason I got more into the South Asian scene over the past 5 years was my disapointment in how the majority of hip-hop artists were becoming very R&B oriented as far as their lyrical content, whereas hip-hop used to be one of art's best forms of political protest for the underprivileged in North America and worldwide.
I love that we're seeing South Asian artists from North America doing English music in genres of pop, rap, rock, dance, etc. plus that we have some amazing Indian-American actors creating movies reflecting our culture here, rather than us constantly looking to India for Bollywood music or movies as the source of our entertainment. That's definitely the future of the industry here and we should be very proud of what has yet to come.
Can you tell us about some leading South Asian names with whom you are associated and your experience with working with them?
Well I always give a lot of credit to Russell Peters as he was my first mentor in the Canadian scene, him being a deejay and radio host on the side while doing comedy also showed me how important it was to be multi-faceted in this industry. Just being around him at his comedy shows and constantly getting his advice was a huge inspiration and invaluable to my career.
I've worked with the majority of names in the South Asian music scene in one way or another, but doing Panjabi MC's first North American interview back in 2001 in Toronto was probably the highlight of my career as I was a big fan of his bhangra and hip-hop fusion, which he was certainly the pioneer of. We recently had a chance to do part 2 of the interview when Luv To Bhang brought Panjabi MC back to Toronto, that was another once in a lifetime experience as both Panjabi MC and myself have achieved a lot over the past ten years, so it was amazing for me to be able to reflect on that with another huge inspiration of mine.
What do you do when you are not deejaying?
Besides working on radio, TV and event projects full time, I'm also the exclusive management for recording artist Prita Chhabra and consult for a number of other music artists in any free time I have left! I also founded a 'Hip-Hop Literacy' campaign back in 2003 with the support of many rap artists and Hollywood actors, plus I'm involved with a number of Canadian charities and inner city projects in the States, so I can definitely say I'm busy 24-7 in one way or another!
What was your experience with FILMI festival? Tell us some thing about it.
Working with FILMI the past 3 years has been a dream come true, as having a music background I always wanted to get involved with film in some way. So us introducing the world's first South Asian music video programming at an Indian film festival 3 years ago through FILMI truly created history, and it led me to start taking my music video programming to film festivals in Tampa, Vancouver and Chicago - in addition to my getting involved as a producer with several short and documentary films!
Your one ambition in life?
To create positive change in people's lives - whether educationally, socially, or spiritually.
For more about Raoul Juneja (a.k.a. Deejay Ra) visit his Raoul Juneja web site LyricalKnockout.com.
-Tia for StarBuzz Weekly, Toronto
Interestingly enough, I actually got my start DJ'ing at comedy clubs as many of my friends were comedians and loved the type of underground hip-hop music I used to play for their introductions on-stage. But it was always radio DJ'ing, or more specifically hosting and interviewing that I was most into, as coming from a journalism background I loved how I could help expose audiences to new music or interviews that would intrigue and inspire them in some way. I stayed away from club DJ'ing as I was never really into the mainstream music which people in clubs wanted to hear. I know I'm occasionally confused as a club DJ since I go by 'Deejay Ra', but I hoped by spelling 'Deejay' in its traditional way that people would assume a difference from the regular club 'DJ'.
Where do you think South Asian Entertainment Industry is going in North America?
 |
| Raoul Juneja with Russell Peters |
I love that we're seeing South Asian artists from North America doing English music in genres of pop, rap, rock, dance, etc. plus that we have some amazing Indian-American actors creating movies reflecting our culture here, rather than us constantly looking to India for Bollywood music or movies as the source of our entertainment. That's definitely the future of the industry here and we should be very proud of what has yet to come.
Can you tell us about some leading South Asian names with whom you are associated and your experience with working with them?
Well I always give a lot of credit to Russell Peters as he was my first mentor in the Canadian scene, him being a deejay and radio host on the side while doing comedy also showed me how important it was to be multi-faceted in this industry. Just being around him at his comedy shows and constantly getting his advice was a huge inspiration and invaluable to my career.
I've worked with the majority of names in the South Asian music scene in one way or another, but doing Panjabi MC's first North American interview back in 2001 in Toronto was probably the highlight of my career as I was a big fan of his bhangra and hip-hop fusion, which he was certainly the pioneer of. We recently had a chance to do part 2 of the interview when Luv To Bhang brought Panjabi MC back to Toronto, that was another once in a lifetime experience as both Panjabi MC and myself have achieved a lot over the past ten years, so it was amazing for me to be able to reflect on that with another huge inspiration of mine.
What do you do when you are not deejaying?
Besides working on radio, TV and event projects full time, I'm also the exclusive management for recording artist Prita Chhabra and consult for a number of other music artists in any free time I have left! I also founded a 'Hip-Hop Literacy' campaign back in 2003 with the support of many rap artists and Hollywood actors, plus I'm involved with a number of Canadian charities and inner city projects in the States, so I can definitely say I'm busy 24-7 in one way or another!
What was your experience with FILMI festival? Tell us some thing about it.
Working with FILMI the past 3 years has been a dream come true, as having a music background I always wanted to get involved with film in some way. So us introducing the world's first South Asian music video programming at an Indian film festival 3 years ago through FILMI truly created history, and it led me to start taking my music video programming to film festivals in Tampa, Vancouver and Chicago - in addition to my getting involved as a producer with several short and documentary films!
Your one ambition in life?
To create positive change in people's lives - whether educationally, socially, or spiritually.
For more about Raoul Juneja (a.k.a. Deejay Ra) visit his Raoul Juneja web site LyricalKnockout.com.
-Tia for StarBuzz Weekly, Toronto 
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