User:EllenZoe/sandbox/Rexx Life Raj

Rexx Life Raj (born Faraji Omar Wright) is an American rapper and singer. He has released four albums including the Father Figure trilogy, and four EPs.

Early Life
Faraji Omar Wright grew up in Berkeley, California. His mother was in a gospel group called The Marshall Quartet with his aunts, uncle, and grandmother. His father was a Black Panther. In middle school, Wright began recording his own music, making the beats on a Casio keyboard and singing with a karaoke machine, making CDs he sold at school. Wright went to middle and high school with G-Eazy.

In 2010, he played offensive tackle and guard for the Fiesta Bowl-winning Boise State University football team. After graduation, Wright returned home to California to pursue music while working at his parents' package delivery business. "Neo-soul music became my favorite when I could begin to appreciate it. I was into Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, and Musiq Soulchild. [Kid Cudi's] Man on the Moon: End of Day is one of, if not my favorite album of all-time," he told Billboard.

Career
Wright adopted the professional stage name Rexx Life Raj for his rap and singing career. He released his first EP for sale, Hidden Clouds in 2014, which featured the single, "Put On". That same year, he released the Portraits EP with producer Tele Fresco. In 2015, he released another two projects, the full-length album, The Escape, with guests Iamsu!, Will Fraker, City Shawn, and the EP, Dreamland: Telegraph Ave., with YMTK, Ellen Purtell, and Lolo Zouaï.

In 2016, with his first album, Father Figure, Raj developed his sound, combining rhymes with singing "confessional" and political lyrics in tracks like "Handheld GPS" and, the album's first single, "Moxie Java" featuring another Vallejo-area rapper Nef the Pharaoh.

Raj's sequel album, Father Figure 2: Flourish came out in 2017 with features from G-Eazy, Russ,and Iman Europe. That year he toured with Mr. Carmack.

In 2018 he released EP California Poppy, produced entirely by Kyle Betty, and toured twice in support of both Marc E. Bassy and Bas, as well as his first headlining tour in Europe in 2019.

In 2019, Raj released Father Figure 3: Somewhere Out There produced by Sango, Kenny Beats, JULiA LEWiS, Avedon and Bay Area producers Kyle Betty, DTB, Wax Roof and Drew Banga. Songs included "Burgundy Regal," about his two childhood best friends, one of whom was eventually killed, the other incarcerated; "Your Way", an acoustic duet with Kehlani that also featured. Russ, and was premiered on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show. Father Figure 3: Somewhere Out was recorded most of the vocals in hotels and Airbnbs on the road touring as opening act for Bas.

Raj did a headline tour of the United States in 2019.

Philanthropy
Raj created Good & Proper, a Bay Area music events series to benefit Oakland's Youth Radio Media, a recording arts and media program for local high school and college students. He took place in Kehlani's benefit concert titled TSUNOVIGANG, that was put together to aid, Nova Phoenix, a 2-year-old Oakland native battling Leukemia.