Rachit Srivastava popularly known as Rachit is a rapper/producer
based off Delhi, India. He started his musical career in 2017.
Belonging to a small city in Uttar Pradesh called Gorakhpur, Rachit
comes from a lower middle class setting and has been known in the
underground community for his songs showcasing the daily struggles
of middle class people in India while bringing out the positivity
through his music. Being Multi talented, Rachit not only writes and
sings his songs but he also produces and mixes & masters them
himself, setting DIY goals for fellow musicians. Rachit has also
worked with popular musical acts like Mumbais Finest, Enkore,
Seedhe Maut, Smokey Tha Ghost, Full Power, D’Evil to name a few.

In this interview spotlight, I chat with Rachit about the latest music, challenges, technology and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)

I’m from a small city in India called Gorakhpur famous for Gita Vatika – the printing press which publishes the holy Hindu scripture “Bhagavad Gita” and distributes it all over the world. Considering the type of music more prevalent in and around my city, I create a very different type of music which was kind of unfamiliar to this place a few years ago. I basically create Hip Hop music with my vocal melodies inspired from Bollywood and the rap verses are the result of the style I developed by listening to the legends like Rakim, Jay z, Snoop Dogg, etc.

What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?

I have always been fascinated by music. I remember how once I got an instrumental version of a Bollywood song and played it all day long trying to sing the lyrics over it. My introduction to rap music was through Akon’s song Smack That which featured Eminem. I loved his part and started listening to his songs and through him discovered other artists. I was attracted to the realness emcees brought in their songs with the lyrics painting a vivid picture of their surroundings. This made me pick up a pen and start expressing my feelings as well. I first started with poems, wrote a couple of them and then switched to writing rap songs over the beats downloaded from internet. That’s how it started. I Really enjoy creating songs, the whole process of it, from creating beats to writing lyrics to recording to mixing. This is what keeps me going. I feel a spiritual connection to the nature when I’m creating music. The desire of this ecstatic feeling draws me to make more music.

How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?

My new song “Kya Woh Sukh Me” talks about the miseries of people from different financial classes, showing how having money doesn’t imply being happy. Some people are suffering food scarcity, some are facing depression, some having lack of facilities, some living in a conservative environment. The hindi title “Kya Who Sukh Me” literary means “Are They Happy?”. My last release was my debut EP titled Imperfections which talks about appreciating one’s imperfect bits and staying happy with what one has while trying to accomplish more. With my songs, I always try to hit a subject which would make people think and change their ways to lead a better and happy life. You can listen to my new song here – https://youtu.be/W-AdCTiz2CI

Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this over saturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?

Being an indie musician, you’ve got to do everything my yourself when you are just starting out and you don’t have enough money. I myself have produced music, written songs, made cover arts, shot and edited videos, released and promoted the songs. All these tasks done by the same person can be sometimes tiring. But if not for the technology that exists today, I wouldn’t have been able to do all these things by myself. The DAWs come up with plugins which kind of eliminate the need to hire musicians to record different instruments. The plugins save the cost of buying costly gears to mix and master the songs. Online advertisements help in promoting the songs. The distribution companies are a blessing for the indie artists. The list goes on

What was the last song you listened to?

The last song I listened to is “Never Change” by Jay Z. I love how he speaks straight facts in his songs directly and it hits up in a different way. Jay Z is definitely one of my most favorite rapper.

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?

I haven’t had a chance of using Vinyl. From CDs and MP3s , I prefer MP3s because they let you listen to music on any portable device that lets you use MP3s.

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?

I generally use Spotify to listen to music because of their new artist discovery algorithms. I find new amazing artists on Spotify almost everyday.

Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?

People can connect to me on my Instagram ( @thisisrachit) , Facebook (@thisisrachit) and Twitter ( @thihttp://twitter.com/thisisrachitsisrachit) . I make sure to reply to all the messages I receive and build a real relationship with my fans. I have a website which is in development stage right now. It will be live by the mid of this year.

Anything else before we sign off?

Through IMD, I want to ask everyone to appreciate what they have and not compare their lives with somebody else’s  .  Like J. Cole says, “There’s no such thing as a life that’s better than yours”. Keep working for more but stay happy with what you have.