ARNO FARAJI ANNOUNCES DEBUT MIXTAPE + SHARES NEW SINGLE ‘BLACK SUNDAY’ RETURN TO RAJI MIXTAPE OUT NOV 18

Today Arno Faraji is elated to announce the release of his debut mixtape, RETURN TO RAJI, out this November 18 via The Orchard, alongside his new single ‘Black Sunday‘. LISTEN HERE.

‘Black Sunday‘ is Faraji’s most revealing work yet, lyrically musing on family, risk and the pay-off of sacrifice. Giving thanks to his parents for the opportunities that have landed from their cross-continental migration, ‘Black Sunday‘ is a compelling recount of the ongoing considerations emigrants face. Here Arno‘s stakes recall Ye’s ‘Hey Mama’, reflecting on “rewriting pasts” against shiny horns and a rolling piano-led beat.

In his own words, Arno shares, “Black Sunday is a track that had me reflecting and thinking about identity, specifically how I came to be. Within that reflection, I also thought about ‘placement’, I thought about growing up out here in Australia with my native cultural context, getting into music and art as more than a hobby and feeling the pressures of how that’s looked at in some POC migrant families.

There’s this pressure on traditional academia and getting into good schools to have traditionally good jobs and get good money which is meant to translate to better lives and more generational wealth, which is actually a dope end goal, but I feel like the view of the road to get there is so strict and folks feel like you can only get there or achieve a better life only by those means. If what you want to do aligns with the traditional version of ‘good’ the plan is pretty sound, it’s safe and has been proven to work, but it’s more of a tug when the things you want to pursue and what drives you doesn’t align with that and is seen as riskier. Coming out of school I almost conformed to the traditional route due to my fear of the unknown and things not working out, as a result I almost didn’t get to do a lot of the things I’m grateful to be doing now.”

With Arno‘s highly anticipated debut mixtape due to arrive on November 18, including the previously released ‘Gravity‘ and ‘On The Move‘, his debut project will relay his own life experiences against the pursuit of music. With a core focus on the joy that comes from the hustle paying off, doubt in the face of momentum and the questions of ‘will I’ or ‘won’t I’ make it, RETURN TO RAJI is a vibrant display of Arno‘s most creatively fulfilling, colourful and experimental work ever.

Speaking to his debut mixtape, Arno shares “Return to Raji is a collection of tracks coming from the vault that also act as a window into my life/perspectives I’ve had over the past few years. These track’s meanings and importance to me only grew more over the span of their creation. This tape helped remind me of a few things, exisiting just before the pandemic, through the effects of a few huge lifestyle changes and even now as I guess we’re all trying to make a new version of normalcy. It had me relearning things I kinda forgot about myself.”

His return earlier this year was embraced by triple j, NME, Acclaim, Pilerats, Sniffers, RAGE‘s Wild One, MTV, AUD$, Purple Sneakers, SYN and more who praised his “reputable brand of free-flowing, quick witted hip-hop music” (Purple Sneakers) highly, hoisting his ability to balance “classic hip-hop and funk influences” (NME) in a “distinctive Arno way” (Pilerats).

‘Black Sunday‘ is out now, buy/stream it here.