"'Welcome to the Bay,' by Richmond rapper Fijiana, puts an Indo-Fijian flavor on Bay Area rap. (Still of music video by Heaathh/Erik Saevi) Where else but the Bay Area can you find some authentic Indo-Fijian slap? Directed by Heaathh and Erik Saevi, "Welcome to the Bay" keeps racking up tens of thousands of views on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, earning praise locally and abroad. And at the same time, it's added to the longstanding conversation about hip-hop, cross-cultural connections and appropriation."
"For six months a life-threatening autoimmune disease caused the rapper intense mobility issues and concerns of organ failure. "I fought through it, somehow I made it," she says. "There's something about going through something like that," she says, "as unfortunate as it is, I really think it brought me closer to myself, my art and my intention in a way that I don't think I've ever felt.""
Fijiana is a Richmond-based rapper of Indo-Fijian and South Asian descent raised near Richmond's Black community. The music video Welcome to the Bay, directed by Heaathh and Erik Saevi, has amassed tens of thousands of views on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok and earned praise locally and abroad. The song fuses Indo-Fijian cultural elements and Bay Area rap aesthetics, contributing to conversations about hip-hop, cross-cultural connections, and appropriation. Fijiana endured a six-month life-threatening autoimmune disease that caused severe mobility problems and organ-failure concerns, and she incorporated recovery scars into the video's visuals. The collaboration with producer Shub, who is based in India and met online, expanded the song's international reach.
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