Ranidu Lankage was born in 1982, Colombo. He is an RNB and HIPHOP artist. Now he is a DJ player who performed in the world-famous Ultra music festival. Ranidu was able to raise the international profile of Sri Lanka by becoming the very first Sinhalese artist to broadcast a song on BBC Radio. He was also the first artist in Sri Lanka to play his songs on popular Indian tv channels such as MTV, CHANNEL V & Z MUSIC.
He is a graduate in Economics from Yale University. Did you know Ranidu Lankage was educated at the Royal College, Colombo, where he was ranked Third in Colombo district in the GCE Advanced Level exam in 2000. He is genius not only for education but also for sports. He had represented Sri Lanka in squash at the Asian junior championships and he was a permanent member of the Royal College cricket team.
Ranidu performed with Bathiya Santhush at the music festival in Kazakhastan,2001. He has produced hits like ‘Oba Magemai’ which was very popular in Sri Lanka in 2003. It became popular not only in Sri Lanka but all over the world. Ranidu and Ashanthi became the youngest Sri Lankan artists to sign with an international record label, Sony Music India. In 2007, DeLon’s ‘Nasty Girl’ debuted at NO.36 on the Billboard Charts. The ‘Oba Magemai’ album released through M-Entertainments label was one of the top-selling albums in Sri Lanka.
In 2003, He returned to the studio to create his second album ‘Diviyapura’ that released in 2004. That album included the song ‘Ahnkara Nagare ‘ became very popular on chart shows within days. This song was also listed on the BBC’s Asian Music list. ‘Diviyapura’ album became one of the most successful albums by a Sri Lankan artist. Afterall his song ‘Kelle’ also featured on the BBC Asian chart. That song aired on several radio stations around the world.
The album ‘Iraj’ featured three tracks by Ranidu, Ninda noyana handawe, Madhumathiye and Playas lounge. In March 2005, Ranidu performed at the Sydney Opera House with Iraj.
Ranidu collaborated with Iraj to produce ‘Mata aloke genadewi’ song, also aired on BBC RADIO 1 , BBC ASIAN. That song was included in the “Bombay Bronx”. Ranidu’s third album which contains Sri Lankan music, Asian hip hop and reggae music. This is the first combine Sri Lankan music with American and Caribbean style rap.
He collaborated with so many artists on this album including DeLon, Iraj, Danga Dasanayaka, Yohan, Yauwanan, Holee Smokez, Anson of the DID crew from Trinidad.
The song ‘Herde Keniththuwa’ produced by Iraj, was the theme song for the 2006 movie “Anjalika”. It was the first time he works for film industry. ‘Pa salaba sala ft Anson’ was released in 2006. It was on the “A” list of Asian networks. Ranidu Lankage, a talented singer who currently away from singing, is still a talented DJ artist today.
Excerpt by- Parana Rap Paasala
