RCH: From Watching Cartoons to Attracting Views
London-based rapper RCH talks to us about his new EP and how he became familiar with self-confidence. No cap. No compromise.
Meet RCH (@lordrch), the London-based rapper who just dropped his new EP Awake Watching Cartoons. After releasing UK Trap fusion Elegant Flows, RCH has once again hit us with a banger, only this time he has added a personal touch, narrating his life before self discovery at uni. RCH, abbrevated from his name Richie, is an acronym for Recieving Constant Happiness and a prediction for your state of mind after giving him a listen.
When I called, RCH was at home savouring what was left of the Sunday afternoon. “The weekend is actually a scam”, he joked. I laughed in agreement as I looked out of my window at the mild 3pm afternoon.
After a quick natter about the trickery of Sunday pretending to be an actual day, I swooped right in, asking the artful RCH how he would describe his music. His answer was the best I’ve heard in a while: “I work hard not to put myself in a box, but if Kanye West, Travis Scott, and Playboy Carti’s musical ability had a baby, and Wiz Khalifa adopted the baby, that’s how I would describe my sound, but with a splash of Frank Ocean”. It’s a bold comparison and we love it. RCH is living proof that a hint of cockiness can go a long way, especially within the music industry. Awake Watching Cartoons is a smooth synthesis of the above artists, but of course, the trademark RCH flavour is what completes the tune. Written as an account of his life before having a breakthrough with his sound, Awake Watching Cartoons is a reminder to RCH’s fans to keep going when trying times feel like the worst of your life.
The mantra that has shaped his career, to “come to a place where believing in yourself is enough”, is at the forefront of his self-confidence and his brand. RCH’s vibrant character emanates his music, and we love to see that he has the same personality out of the studio. Known as the kid who was ridiculed at school for his crazy dreams, RCH will tell you from personal experience that “you can never have too much confidence in yourself”. It was the lack of faith from his school friends that pushed him to work harder and rate himself higher; you can never go wrong making lemons out of lemonade, or in this case a good tune out of negative energy. “Having humility is obviously important, but sometimes cockiness can get you places”; an approach that has certainly worked for RCH so far.
As for future ventures, RCH has an album with his producer Peco.44 in the pipeline. He describes it as a “multi dimensional project with influences of Kaytranada, Drill, and UK Trap”.
Collaborations? The young rapper doesn’t have any planned right now, but would “love, love, love to have a Travis Scott feature”, and work with Yxng Bane, J Hus, Che Lingo, Benezer, and Sam Wise. RCH sticks to one rule: to only work with artists that he likes and respects. You’d think that’s obvious, right? Well actually “artists do collabs for the bag although they hate the other person’s music”. It makes you wonder how many hits were made off the back of two artists who had no chemistry IRL.
RCH won’t have that problem anyway, and we might see a few of these dream projects come intro fruition. Watch this space.