Rahmaan (it rhymes with “c’mon”) is a 21 year old artist from New York who first found his audience by mixing a modern and well produced hip hop sound with sounds from his Bengali roots. The result is something very unique that more and more listeners are enjoying every day. Whether it’s his success on music platforms alone, his moody but well thought out music videos, or even just his collaborations with some talented producers in the underground, Rahmaan is an artist that’s been consistently bringing quality content to the music scene since 2015 and will surely continue to do so in the near future.
UU: So when did you start making music? Have you always known this is what you wanted to do?
Rahmaan: I started making music as Rahmaan in July 2016, but started making music altogether in 2009 when I was in eighth grade. And honestly, since eighth grade, I’ve always kinda known that this is what I want to do. I went through some super dumb aliases, like ‘DJ Narcotic’ and shit like that, when I was just learning to produce a few things in the beginning. But since I come from a musical family and ethnic background, the idea of making music as my career was pretty easily ingrained in me.
I saw you’re from Brooklyn, how do you think growing up in the city affected your style?
So, I was actually born in Queens NY, then moved to the suburbs in central New Jersey when I was 6. I moved again to Brooklyn later when I was 20, but I’m currently back in central NJ for the time being. Living in an urban environment was definitely an experience that people take for granted — the amount of culture you can learn about on the streets, yours and others’ cultures, is endless. I had Jamaican and Bengali babysitters in Queens after school, so I learned a lot about culture and lots of different shit not many people can be exposed to – I even retained a little Patois since then [laughs].
I feel like being in an urban environment also made me more individualized as a person overall — in city environments, you gotta learn how to take care of yourself ASAP, you are your own responsibility. My parents always took great care of me, but there’s shit I had to learn on my own, of course. And that’s super different from the suburban environment I also grew up in, because you’re more ‘clean’-fed by your surroundings, essentially. So going from a place where I had a whole lot of shit to learn myself, to a place where I was fed knowledge easier, I was more about myself while I was growing up – and that kinda makes my music more about myself than anything else. Super personal, super me, 100% of the time. And super gritty here and there – ya boy tryna stick to the urban sound, you know?
Did you have any early music influences? Who were your favorite artists growing up?
My first exposure to music was in the womb, man. I was first exposed to Bollywood music through my fam, and man, lemme tell you, A.R. Rahman is a fuckin god. I aspire to work with him one day, or be able to know music to the ability that he does. He scored pretty much all of the classic Bollywood movies I used to watch growing up, and his attention to detail is nuts. So I used to listen to a whole lot of Bollywood til I was like 10, then I started listening to rock and punk and metal music, like Linkin Park, Nirvana, A7X, GnR, you know, that whole mess. Super influenced by rock still, like when I distort my vocals in my tracks and so on. Then moved onto rap when I was 13, I started listening to Kanye’s Graduation and Wayne’s Carter 3 and those made me love rap – to the extent that I started rapping [laughs]. I went back and peeped the classics, Ready To Die, 36 Chambers, whole lotta shit for years. But yeah, my music taste has kinda been everywhere, so I’d say everything I’ve ever listened to has influenced my style and demeanor a whole lot.
What made you decide to change your alias from Irahnik to Rahmaan?
Irahnik was just too immature for me, man. Like not just the name, but the branding, the personality Irahnik had, everything. When I realized I needed to mature up and introduce my roots into my music and personality, I had to dub that. It was a hard decision to be honest, but really, if I didn’t then I’d regret it more. I’d probably be bigger and whatever, sure, but I know I wouldn’t have been happy. I wanted to be known as a public figure, for who I actually am and not just some ‘rapper,’ and at that, Irahnik was too much of a high school rapper name for me to keep. So now I go by my middle name, Rahmaan.
You do a fantastic job of incorporating your culture into a modern sound, how do you think blending your Bengali roots into your HipHop/RnB style has contributed to your success?
Aw man, success is a crazy word [laughs] I’m not there quite yet, I gotta access my potential more before I can say I’ve had success. But blending my roots into my music has given me a fan base like no other, a fan base like family. And that’s what Bengali culture is about, family. And I love it. All my fans are my friends at the end of the day, and they keep me up when I’m down. Also, it’s definitely made me want to get deeper in touch with my background more and more, which is really helping me understand myself and my culture a whole lot more, and I love every second of it.
Looks like you’ve worked with a variety of different producers, with bigger names like west1ne recently and Oshi back in 2015, should we expect to see you collaborate with either of them in the future?
My man west1ne – perhaps!! I can’t say much yet. He and I go back a few years now, he’s from northern NJ so we’ve kicked it pretty frequently. Great guy. But Oshi, probably not for a while at least, to be honest — I haven’t seen him or talked to him since summer 2016. I hope he’s doing well though.
You’ve definitely gained some attention over the past few years, with your single “High” hitting over 800k plays on Spotify & “Longterm” passing 150k plays on Soundcloud, are there any tracks out now that you’re surprised haven’t reached that level yet?
Mmm not necessarily ‘surprised,’ because I know what I’ve done wrong marketing-wise. But I wanted “Shanti” and “Empathy” to pop off way more, and unfortunately that didn’t work out, but it’s all good. As my man Olukara once said, ‘take the L and move forward.’
Tell us a little bit about your recent EP Gracious, which track are you most proud of off that tape?
Damn that’s a tough one. I loved a lot of them and still do. But I’d probably say “Sapphire,” “Shanti,” and “Empathy” were my top three. “Sapphire” was dope to me especially since it was a kickass intro with some shit no one’s heard before, like I knew that when I counted 1234 in Bangla before the beat drop, people would go crazy for no reason [laughs]. And “Shanti” was my first song more into my culture, so I was super happy with that. Empathy was my first self-produced track I made off of that EP, and I loved the way I did it, especially the freefalling EDM-influenced section at the end.
You’ve mentioned trying to tackle the essence of toxic relationships in your music, what’s drawn you to create around this subject?
I’ve been through a whole mess of shit in the past, six times over to be exact. And over time I’ve slowly learned how not-alone I was in that aspect. A lot of people go through these relationships so they learn valuable life-lessons, but that shit is hard man. And I wanted to start making music as a form of therapy, both for myself and for my listeners, so they can get through their shit with a little help, you know – get through their emotions, help them cry it out til they can’t cry anymore.
Do you have any projects in the works right now?
Oh yeah. Better than Gracious, too. More me than Gracious was. Sexier, too. I’m tryna get people to orgasm to my music man [laughs]. But at the same time, feel their feels, ya know. This new shit gonna be wild, I swear.
Anything else you’d like to say to any current and future fans?
Aye don’t pass me up just cuz I’m ugly. My shit fire. [laughs] nah, just playing. But hey man, if you like my music, or even clicked that play button even once, I’m super grateful for you. Thank you for checking me out, and God bless you all <3
