27-year-old Indonesian rapper, Ariel Nayaka (A. Nayaka), talks about his life experiences that led to the debut of his new single titled “Orang Lain”. Instilled in his mind was a philosopher’s saying – the only thing constant in life is change, and it seems that as years go by, he slowly realizes he is no longer the same person that he used to be.
“Sometimes, people think that change is a bad thing when perceiving that someone has changed or when someone has moved on to the next stage of their lives. I want to talk about the positive side of change. Changing into someone else in the sense of evolving to a new level of yourself and finding a better version of yourself—that’s a good thing,” said A. Nayaka.
A. Nayaka said the decision to put more emphasis on his native language in this song was not a deliberate choice, rather, it correlates to the concept of the song. He makes most of his songs in english, however he incorporates Bahasa Indonesia to deliver the main message that he is still himself under it all. “No matter how much you change, you are still you at your core. I pieced that message together when the song was done,” he said.
Joining him in the song are two hip-hop superstars – SonaOne from Malaysia and YHB Sleepsalot from Singapore. The collaboration started organically when Sona sent a beat he created to A. Nayaka and YHB, and they both got back to him with a hook and a verse. A. Nayaka came up with a hook and verse, whereas YHB wrote a verse.
While Sona handled the mixing, A. Nayaka shot the lyrics video and got a friend to work with him on the editing; another friend of his, helped him with mastering. Even the cover art was created by A. Nayaka and his pal.
“There weren’t a lot of third parties doing the material for this project. I’m really happy about that because it allowed me to be very hands-on with everything. This is probably the first project that I was very hands-on with everything,” A. Nayaka elaborated.
“Orang Lain” peaked at #31 on the Spotify Viral 50 Malaysia chart. The song also went viral on TikTok after the Freestyle Challenge was initiated by A. Nayaka.
