What is the collaborative process like while y’all make music? How would you define the synergy?
The synergy for us drives with the feeling of “F*CK SHIT UP”. We have a lot of fun throughout our studio sessions, with Neil CK too. We grill each other, tease each other and have fun which results in an enjoyable recording process. It has been a long process for us and honestly, we have grown a lot since the “Lost In AMD” time, I mean we were figuring out things back then trying to work with each other and now we do know a lot about each other and that results in the synergy.
Siyaahi, Your part of the tape goes way too hard, a lot of your fans feel this is your best work yet. Now that your album A’raf is coming around, how do you feel you have improved your art over the years?
We have taken a lot of time to create this project, there were some verses that we had written and recorded earlier and some of the other verses that we had been writing since last year. To be honest, I have learnt a lot while making this tape, like production and the other technical aspects that come with it. I’ve gotten a better understanding of the post-production and engineering of a track. So yeah, it has been quite beneficial for my artistry too and even I feel like this is my best work yet. A’raf, my debut album will be dropping soon, and I hope it changes this thought.
Dhanji, one of the best aspects of your artistry is the way you package projects together. The ability to curate a full-fledged cohesive project with different songs and sounds is one of your prowesses. How would you describe the process of compiling this time around?
That’s a good question. I got out of the rut and we all have contributed a lot to this. There were times when I went like, “Please Public! Ek baar meri baat maano, ispe meri baat maano”. But we all move together like that, this time around it solely relied on the vibes, how we felt and how we’ve been and we just tried to capture that certain essence. The tape is about our city and our daily life, it’s about us.
Acharya, the tape is definitely one of the best-produced ones released in the scene, in fact your most outstanding work yet. How do you feel about your growth as a producer?
I believe this project was the one where I sat with Siyaahi and Dhanji with the intent of making a project. Lost In AMD was just a bunch of songs that we had and we completed a couple more to put together and make it sound proper. But this time around, We started from the ground up and really crafted the sonics in a way that we pleased. We were also listening to a lot of the same music because we would spend a lot of time in the studio. So based on that we built a vision in mind we kinda knew what we wanted and having these two trust me, I would take the sound of the tape in any direction that I pleased.
We kind of got to where we are. But in terms of my production growth, I think it’s the space I’ve gotten to sort of make a hard hip-hop album and something that puts a lot of different sounds together and takes you into a lot of different places emotionally. And I think it’s me putting a lot of “what I feel like” anything that I feel goes hard things that I f*ck with.
Throughout just making pieces and getting to this endpoint, things have been happening. It’s been a couple of years and the things that happened in life started sounding like the feelings in our music and that’s because I could put what was going on into the music and I think shows. So, I believe this tape requires you to sit with it, it’s not a tape you kind of go through and be like, “Oh, this is my favourite.” I think you need to come back to this a lot and keep listening.
Tell us about the features of the tape. How were the artists chosen? How was the course of working with them?
Dhanji: The idea, when we started putting together a list of the features we wanted, was to have underground heavyweights, the all-stars, the people we have loved and the people who have inspired us. These are the artists we have been seeing grow for a long time, like I met Rebel 7 for the first time for this tape and I had been trying to work with DRV for a long time too. Shoutout to Siege and Full Power, both of them are crazy.
Siyaahi: Gravity is our old friend, we already have a lot of songs together. ‘Lost In AMD’ had no features, so this time around we wanted to have a few features that were impactful on the tape and made it sound better and that is exactly what happened.
As the title suggests, the tape talks about this rap life y’all live. The hunger and the will to overcome it is prevalent throughout, can you highlight the theme more? Also, What is that benchmark that y’all chase currently?
Siyaahi: It has been like that I mean we showed love to the city and the city reciprocated with way more. The scene in Amdavad, being a tier 2 city, has been growing now and that’s what we address. This is the life we live, we belong to a city that hasn’t seen rap performances and it is a big deal to set up cyphers and independent shows here. We have built a community, a culture here that is insanely supportive.
Acharya: None of our lives are simple out here, there are way too many complexities in our day-to-day lives. Being an artist in this world is difficult, we have to pay our bills too, and we need to get our things sorted and live a decent lifestyle. So the stuff we speak about is the stuff we need, stuff we get reminded of every time. The city aids us in the process but also limits us to a certain magnitude. So that is what we intend to present, there is a scene out here too.
Amdavad is very well represented throughout the tape, the city is another aspect of the tape that is focused on. What vision do you guys have to grow the scene further in AMD and practically how possible is it to make Amdavad the next big city in rap terms?
Practically speaking, it’s tough. But that is what visionaries do and we do have a vision with the city, with the scene out here. Funnily, we had an internal meeting at TPC the other day and we were discussing the major cities which had a strong Hip-Hop scene and how likely is it that Amdavad will make it to the list. It is never going to be there, it’s a fact. 1.8 Crore people reside in Delhi, while Amdavad has a population of 56 lakh. Statistically, it cannot be up there. But again, Pune had MC Stan, so I believe it is possible. “Tier 2 cities we UP! Sub-Culture we UP!”
Listen to the album on Spotify:
