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Janakan ‘Jana’ Loganathan (born 15 October 1997), better known by his stage name Janakan, is an French/English rapper from Paris, France and raised in Harrow, North West London since the age of 8. He became a fan of independent music since Tupac Shakur’s hit song ‘Dear Mama’ which made Tupac his inspirational idol. He is also a fan of cars and calls himself a ‘Car Enthusiast’. Janakan speaks several languages including English, French and Tamil. He describes himself as passionate about fashion, purchasing designer wear from Versace, Gucci, Fendi and Louis Vuitton.

 

According to Janakan, the rappers Tupac Shakur, Nas, Snoop Dogg, The Notorious B.I.G, 50 Cent and the Wu-Tang Clan were among the hip hop artists that he listened to while growing up. He also considers himself a general music lover, and is an admirer of the work of English R&B singers Amy Winehouse and Adele. On the topic of his music genre, Janakan has said: “You really can’t categorize my music, its human music.” Janakan’s music often features multisyllabic patterns, poetic rhyme structures, intense storytelling, as well as rapid and melodic deliveries. Janakan eventually took a gap year between his A-level and his University. He returned later to study at Sixth Form and received an A* in AS Media Studies, A in AS/A2 Music, B in AS/A2 ICT and B in AS/A2 Art. After his qualifications, he decided to go Univeristy College of London, better known as UCL which is ranked top 15th university around the United Kingdom. Studies really worked out for Janakan’s success as he was working while producing albums, mixtapes and singles for his fans. He had to balance his career with his music which wasn’t impressive until when he decided to plan his daily routine with the help of his school friends Jack and Muhammad.

 

Janakan is mainly into underground and Hip-Hop/Rap music and this made him fix his mind through his idol artist Tupac Shakur. He is part of one of the UK’s most popular underground rap crews ‘A-Team’. Janakan and his crews started off as a small gang in the North West London, they were involved in many activities during their rise to stardom. Janakan has numerous mix tapes, including #iAintPerfect 1 and iAintPerfect 2 featuring artists from all over the UK and Blue Cheese which featured N-Dubz. His first mixtape #iAintPerfect was an underground success. #iAintPerfect was given away for free on various online outlets. His mixtape, Blue Cheese have supposedly sold more than 10,000 unites. This success helped his popularity expand outside London. Having gained considerable critical acclaim within the UK rap scene, he has recently signed with Coke Boys Records. Janakan was given the chance to do a Fire in the Booth by Charlie Sloth, which helped Janakan progress in his career. He has hit over 1 million views on YouTube which gave him the energy to contribute with BBC 1Xtra, BBC Asian Network, Capital FM and Radio 4.

Although just being signed to Coke Boys Record, Janakan was in the process of releasing the most anticipated “iAintPerfect 2”. He released visuals for ‘Trust Nobody’ & ‘Hometown’ which were instant hits on YouTube ranking up thousands of views within days. He also released a video for ‘London Boy American Dreaming’, featuring Brixton’s realist DVS. With Janakan very much in the promotion stage for his anticipated mixtape, it was stopped abruptly as he was sent to America to perform at French Montana’s album launch ‘Coke Boys’. This meant ‘iAintPerfect 2’ was released with very little promotion due to Janakan’s absence.

 

Furthermore, Janakan has been offered a sign up deal with the multi-millionaire artist Jay-Z’s company, ROC Nation which he has agreed with the deal to release his upcoming album ‘London Boy’ featuring artist all over London to give others a chance to express their talents to the world. Once his album was released, he gained a high amount of profit which he decided to use it for his next project, however, he also decided to purchase a car that is suitable for summer where he can use it for his next visual video shoot. For his video shoot which hit hundred million views, he used sports cars from all over the country and used it in his video as he is a passionate of cars since the age of 4. This made his fans turn into a car enthusiast just like him.

 

Additionally, mentioned previously, he is the leader of A-Team, alongside his brothers Gunna Dee, Joe Grind, Spender, Young Giggs (YG), Kyze and Tiny Boost. The group’s main producers are Boom Productions (aka BoomBlast), Universe, Pablo Productions, Paws Production s, Bayoz Musik and Simple. In 2011, Janakan appeared in Channel 4 TV drama Top Boy and Waterloo Road. He also featured in the comedy film Anuvahood in the same year. Two years later, in 2013, Janakan released the album ‘London Boy’ which sold thousands of copies across the country and on iTunes. The album featured artists such as K Koke, Dappy, DVS, P Money, Giggs, Sneakbo, English Frank, Don Jaga, Squingy, Meek Mill, French Montana and lots more.

 

Janakan has won 2 awards and was nominated for 2 other awards which were won by other artists. Janakan has been nominated by the American Music Award for the “Sprint New Artist of the Year” in 2011, he won the award of “Best New Artist” in 2011, and he won the “Top New Artist” in 2012 and was nominated for the “Top Rap Artist” in the same year.

Alternatively, Janakan planned to launch his awaiting hoodie clothing line “Stack Notes, Act Broke” under Coke Boys Records and ROC Nation. His words were “I started this clothing line to ensure that my fans are close to me at all time and create a close bond between the fans and myself. I want them to feel special and also, I want to provide the goods in order to start my business to earn enough revenue to launch my own record label company.” This shows how much work Janakan is putting in to be successful in life and a lot of people are being inspired by him which gives his fans a create example to succeed.

 

October 21, 2013, Janakan became a self-entrepreneur where he established a clothing line under ‘Last Kings Inc.’ which is called “Disturbing London”, where he sold over 5,000 outfits across the world in just a year. He won the highest revenue of the year in 2013 by the London Clothing Line company which pushed Janakan to retail tracksuits, beanie hats, jackets and lots more to expand his business across the world with the help of Last Kings Inc. During the May of 2013, Janakan and his business partner Last Kings Inc. raised £3000 for the CLIC Sargent Charity to help the people in Sri Lanka (Tamils) who are suffering from having no houses to live in.

 

Later in 2014, Janakan continued with his career as a roadie, backup dancer and MC for alternative Hip-Hop group Rayners Underground, eventually branching off as a solo artist. As time approached closely, Janakan then moved to a different theme where most of Janakan’s songs revolved around the hardship and street life in inner cities and other social problems. Janakan wanted to be independent once in his life time where he flew to Dubai to settle down with his career and as a self-entrepreneur. He put the career on one side and took two months break where he was working on an exclusive album called ‘Keep Your Head Up’. Janakan said, “I want this album to wake everyone up and keep their mind up whenever they want to make a decision. This album will give you everything you need to do in order to succeed with the decision you all be making when the time comes. I promise you, I promise you folks that this album will wake you up from your sleep and all succeed at once, I promise…” This repetitive phrase from Janakan stood with his fans for a long period until when he decided to release the album under the record label ‘Coke Boys Records’ with an album launch in America with the help of his record label partner French Montana. The album was charted the #1 in iTunes and has sold over 4,000 copies across the UK.

 

Janakan is a big fan of independent music and ensures that everyone who wants to show their talent to the world has to have a platform with audiences supporting them in order to have a successful career. He is currently in the middle of signing up young talented artists across the UK to create a special platform for them where they all get a chance to show the world what they have become using the microphone and a computer screen to produce independent music. Janakan said, “If you have the determination to succeed then, work for it and don’t take the negativity personally. It’s your life, your dream, your success. Don’t let nobody bring you down by just a negative comment. Use it to improve yourself and come with something which can blow up peoples’ mind because nothing is impossible when you put in your work into it!” His words truly changed his fans who are always locked in with his latest songs and news updates. His words are very inspirational to the teenagers and adults and this is why he was ranked as the #1 UK artist across London in 2014. We, as members of Rayners Magazine, wish Janakan a successful career in the future and have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.