'But my friends and just the crowd that I was a part of, I didn't feel like it was welcome as much as it should have been. 'When I was in high school, in my headphones, I would listen to a lot of carnatic music, a lot of Tamil music,' he said.

The Markham-based artist says his musical journey under Maajja is also about learning to embrace his culture. 'I know based off of my sangeetham training and the way that I say things and my cadences, I do carry a lot of the things that I practised in sangeetham, I just don't know if people would recognize that.' REDISCOVERING CULTURE How do you show your Latin roots? These 2 GTA women are using social media to find out Philip, who's from Whitby, Ont. but was born in Sri Lanka, says what makes Maajja stand out is how it allows artists to be raw and authentic without barriers, something many young South Asian artists want to do as a way to express themselves, and something they may not find a space for in the mainstream music industry. 'I think it's really important for the younger generation to be proud of their mother tongue because I wanted to make it sound cool.' 'I hear a lot of people saying that, 'Oh, I want to learn Tamil because I want to understand your songs better.' I think that was the best compliment that I've received so far,' Philip, 31, told CBC Toronto.

Naveeni Philip, also known as Navz-47, says the the music she's making with the label is helping other young Tamil people feel connected to their culture and language. They are helping artists get on traditional radio and online streaming platforms, while helping them build their music careers. The label, called Maajja, launched early this year. It's helping artists record songs in Tamil and other regional languages in a bid to break down the stigma facing music from different cultures in the mainstream recording business. South Asian artists using their own language and the sounds they grew up with are breaking into the entertainment industry thanks to a new music label based in Toronto.

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