Mumbai-born Aryaana G releases first single in collaboration with US rapper OT Genesis

Before shifting base to Los Angeles from Mumbai in 2019, Aryaana G was your regular Gen Z—opting out of college to pursue a career in digital content creation. In fact, her urban lifestyle-inspired digital content has garnered consistent followers on social media. But for the 21-year-old, music has always been an obsession. “It’s the thing that drives me the most… I don’t think I could do anything else,” admits Aryaana, who recently released her debut single ‘Stockholm syndrome’. For the same, she collaborated with 32-year-old multi-platinum American rapper and songwriter OT Genesis.

Raised appreciating the likes of the Beatles and Eagles, Aryaana took to the piano at the age of eight. Fluently shuffling between various genres including classic rock, dubstep and country, she finally zeroed in on her favourite—R&B. Talking about her collaboration, she says that she has always admired OT’s work and was thrilled when he agreed to collaborate with her on her first single. It all happened during the quarantine period, and was set up by Enable, the artist management firm that signed her on. Aryaana sent OT her song—she has been nurturing the idea for the song since she was 16—who came back with his rap addition. She also met the duo Almost Famous during the lockdown, who helped breathe life into the project. “With Almost Famous’ music production, OT’s rap and my vocals, I was blown by how well everything came together,” she smiles.

The track, which was shot in Los Angeles, was inspired by Aryaana trying to make a decision about a problem in her personal life. It made her realise the complexity of human nature and the whirlwind of emotions surrounding it. ‘Stockholm syndrome’ is defined as feelings of trust or affection felt in many cases of kidnapping or hostage-taking by a victim toward a captor. In the case of this song, the concept is brought about by exposing duality within oneself. It’s about having two sides to one personality—ie, your light side versus your dark side. “While you feel trapped and suppressed by this ‘dark’ side, you can’t help but also feel affection and love towards it. It’s what makes you, you,” explains Aryaana.

Prior to shifting base to Los Angeles, she interned with film score composer Rohit Kulkarni for a little over a year. The result was projects such as Jungle Cry (2019) and Mai Ghat: Crime No 103/2005 (2019). When she first moved to Los Angeles, she signed up with Collabtribe, co-founded by Hardik Zaveri and Alaanna Panday. A multi-tasker-of-sorts, Aryaana creates content both individually and with her gang of girls at Collabtribe. The group comprises Alaanna, Alaviaa Jafferi, Srushti Porey and Aaliya Kashyap. They have come together with one mission—to promote their ideas and beliefs within their community in order to form a collaborative narrative. A travel-lover, she uses her social media platform to talk about her travels. In fact, with her Instagram page getting a lot of traction, she plans to start sharing her music on it soon. 

What next, you ask her? “A full-blown album hopefully releasing this year. Apart from that, a few other exciting collaborations,” she says. And what does OT have to say about this collaboration? “It is special for me because I don’t do music with a lot of women. It’s been a great experience. Make sure you listen to Aryaana,” he says. We’ll take him up on that.

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