Artist Spotlight: Rak-su

Shot by @just_ea

Rak-su are on a mission. Having rose to mainstream fame on the ITV show The X Factor, the group have been redefining and sonically progressing ever since. They’ve been blessing us with bountiful, genre-spanning and vibrant music for years now, and have been particularly prolific this year; releasing the ‘Lost Tour’ EP followed by their debut full length project, the eclectic and harmonious ‘Finally Free Mixtape’. 

While the boys take inspiration from an incredible array of styles - ranging from afrobeats, house, pop and baliefunk - there is one constant characteristic that defines their music, and that is positive energy. It’s rare to find a sound so immensely and overwhelmingly upbeat, and it’s really refreshing to witness. Their new banger, ‘Catching a Vibe’ with Scrufizzer and Alika, is no exception. With its bouncy rhythms and colourful cadences, the song is the perfect epitomisation of the winning formula that has led to the group amassing millions of streams.

I caught up with the lads to discuss their busiest year yet, the groups dynamic, and connecting with their fans through social media. 

What have you been listening to?

Over the past couple of months, Jamaal has been playing H.E.R - Back of my mind! Ash has been listening to Pa Salieu and recently Myles has been loving CLB. 

How has the past few years been, in terms of your quest to elevate your artistry and popularity?

To be honest the past couple of years has been way more about elevating the artistry than the popularity, especially within the pandemic. We’ve grown a lot, written a lot, produced a lot & become self-sufficient musicians whilst falling deeper in love with the music. 

How important is social media to your marketing and branding?

Social media is really important for marketing but personally we’ve used it as somewhere to interact with our supporters. We do things quite organically and love talking to everyone - we probably should look at it more as a marketing tool. 

How does the group dynamic work, both in terms of decision making and the writing process?

We act as a democracy with decision making haha - everyone gets to vote and the majority decision wins unless someone is willing to cry over it! Basically if someone feels strongly enough about any one particular thing we’ll trust their instincts and go with them! 

As writing is second nature for us now we’ll be in the studio, all jumping on the mic and throwing melodies out, then when someone does something we love we’ll say and start to put words to it based on how we’re feeling or what we want to speak about.

Do you ever want to go in different ways stylistically? How do you maintain a fully fulfilled collective?

Yeah for sure. Stylistically where our hearts are musically is quite diverse - we’ve not often showcased all the different sides to us but we’ve started to more recently! 

We’re fulfilled as we all have our studio set ups at home and even away from working together as we all write and record songs at home too so we’re always expressing ourselves.

You are really effective at both paying homage and incorporating elements of diverse music cultures and tendencies into your tunes. Why do you choose to do this?

We are all influenced by the things we grew up loving, right? And often when we start a session a classic might be in our minds so we sample it! We think it’s a beautiful thing as long as credit is paid & it’s not a hidden thing you know. 

Your Spotify numbers are absolutely nuts, with over 600,000 monthly listeners and tunes on millions of streams. How does it feel to be heard by so many people, to have such a significant platform to communicate your truth?

We try not to get too caught up in the numbers as they’ll inevitably go up and down but we’re really really happy. We feel like there was a period when all numbers were going down and we were a bit written off by people so it’s nice to be moving back forward again and have people appreciating what we’re doing! 

Your recent mixtape ‘Finally Free’ is really eclectic and vibrant. What are the main themes and ideas behind the project?

The main theme was just finally being free musically. Free to make and release what we wanted. Having the skill set to write, record & produce anything we wanted! And also being free from lockdown & free from certain industry pressures, so overall just freedom, finally… haha  

The resounding thing that I took away from the mixtape is your craving to always catch a vibe, to get people moving. Is this purposeful, and why do you choose such an upbeat timbre?

Yeah we love being upbeat, having fun and making other people feel that way too! Especially when it comes to live shows and tours - there’s nothing better than everyone living their best lives with us. 

How did the collaboration with Alika and Scruffizer for the new single come about?

The collaboration came about initially through Lazy Joe who was working with us and Scru & we both put verses on. We’ve been fans of Scru for years and we’ve met a few times! With Alika,  Ash knew her through Twitter and always thought she was amazing so we asked her to come to the studio and help with a chorus and she smashed it! 

How important is collaboration for you and why?

Collaboration is important because people are dope haha! New ideas, flavours, vocals, the best things in life, from food to music in our eyes come from merging cultures and peoples thoughts.  

I know you’ve not long finished a tour, how did it feel to be back performing again?

The tour felt absolutely amazing and long overdue! We had to postpone it 4 times but it was worth it to finally feel that euphoria again with all the fans. Sometimes in this game you can really doubt yourself but it was a reminder of the love & why we do it. We came away feeling supercharged.

Where did you perform and was there a favourite show?

Our favourite place to perform was London! It was the biggest show we’ve ever done by ourselves. We sold out the Shepherd’s Bush Empire! We had family in the crowd watching us do our thing! It was a surreal experience and one we were fighting to make happen again. 

If you are introducing yourself to a new listener who has never heard your music before, what track are you putting on?

If I had to introduce someone to Rak-su I would probably play them 'La Bomba' because it's Afro/Latin influences, high energy, big chorus & rapped verses will make you want to dance haha - it sums us up pretty well.  

What’s next for Rak-su?

Now we’re well rested, better artists, better performers and sitting on music way better than what we’ve had before it’s time to really start running. 2022 we’re coming for everything!! 

More music, album, another tour…Spreading good vibes to the world!