Rhythm of Love: In conversation with Tenacious

Tenacious, a Dimapur-based independent record label, aims at promoting hip-hop culture in Nagaland and also to provide platform to young upcoming rappers.

Launched earlier this year, the record label has signed six rappers from Nagaland — A Slim, Mc Olen, C Yung, AK Trigga, Ono X, and Sudu Rhax – and has a few projects in the pipeline. 

In today’s Rhythm of Love, the record label shares its objectives, challenges and more.

Eastern Mirror: Can you let us know something about Tenacious, the record label?

Tenacious:  Tenacious is an independent hip hop music label which was formed in January 26 2022 in order to elevate  the hip hop culture and also with a motive to help and provide opportunities for those underrated artistes in Nagaland.

Eastern Mirror: What does the name Tenacious signify? What is its USP?

The word “Tenacious” stands for not giving up easily or unwilling to accept the defeat. All the artistes associated with the label are people who have being doing music for a decade but have never stepped up to the limelight but still ready to go to any extend to achieve their goals .Thus, it was named Tenacious.

One thing that makes us different from others is that we display reality in our art whether it’s about music industry or about any topic, plus we don’t focus on the numbers or views; we focus on quality not quantity.

Eastern Mirror: The Tenacious label was founded with the aims at promoting hip-hop culture and also to give a platform to young upcoming rappers. How has the label maintained that so far?

It’s been a few months that we have started this label, and so far, we have dropped only one music video and we have gained a lot of positive response from the people. Everything we do is coming out from our own pockets; there are people willing to help us in our future but for now we are doing what we can by contributing among ourselves. For now, our main focus is to set a strong foundation, then only we will reach out to others who need help. The label has decided not to sign in anymore artistes for the next 1-2 years.

Eastern Mirror: What genre, themes/topics does the label in general represent and cover?

Tenacious is strictly a hip hop label and hip hop is all about expressing your feelings and emotion so we mainly focus on real talk, like the struggle we face, reality of life etc.,no makeup; we are all about keeping it real to our art because a lot of people don’t do that, instead they portray a lifestyle which they don’t live, but we the Tenacious try to keep it real and simple.

Eastern Mirror: Who are some of the artistes the label has worked with? Can you let us know something about them?

Till now, we have six artistes, one Producer and one Manager working with Tenacious.

A Slim, Ak trigga, C yung, Mc olen, Ono Axe, and Sudu Rhax are the artistes, while Rafa  is the producer and Bikash is manager.

A Slim/Akhriebou Sachii: He is a person who can rap in any beat or flow. He has been rapping since 14, has his own originality and knows exactly how to make a hit song.

Ak Trigga: He is that kind of person who you don’t want to mess with, especially when it comes to society norms.  He can spit real bars and will take on anyone who comes in his way, the first rapper to bring the beef scene in Nagaland.

Ono Axe: One of the best battle rappers from Nagaland and a street poetic. His skills are unmatched for any Naga rappers, the only Naga rapper who has battled in “spit dope”.

Sudu Rhax: He is a rapper mainly focusing on helping the young ones with his songs. He mostly spits about drugs, depression and hardships that youths go through and aims to spread positivity and motivate such victims.

Paolenthang Tuboi AKA MC Olen: He is a rapper from Kuki community and has been in hip hop scene since 2018. He delivers his struggles and life in his music and is the first rapper from Kuki community in Nagaland.

CYUNG: He is a rapper, singer and songwriter from Phom community. He has a unique cadence and ability to touch all types of genre in music; his main focus is in blending rock/punk with rap in a melodic way. He recently released his first project and has many projects in the pipeline.

Rafa Tuccu: He is an independent producer and artiste from Dimapur with a PG degree from Mumbai Music Institute.  Started off as an EDM Producer and DJ, gigging out at some clubs in Dimapur and Mumbai, he has worked with various artistes as a ghost producer. Rafa is the official producer of Tenacious.

Bikash Lourembam: He plays the role of manager and manages the team for shows, meetings, payments, etc.

Eastern Mirror: From a record label point of view, what makes an artiste stand out from the rest?

We are a group of 8 with 6 rappers one producer and the manager. Everyone has its own way of writing, everyone has faced a lot of difficulties in life whether it’s family problem, drugs related, depression, anxiety, bullied or rejection in the society so we portray our story in the form of music. Apart from that some are into underground hip hop some are into motivational rapping, some of us are into love songs.  Each individual has its own taste of music so at the end it’s like bringing different food items on the same table where everyone can have a taste of it.

Eastern Mirror: Tell us about the ups and downs of running a record label.

The main problem that we are facing right now is that being an independent label, we face a lot of hardships when it comes to production because we don’t have a proper set up studio; we have to spend money for production, and most members of the label are unemployed and some members are working 9 to 5 job in order to support themselves and their music, so it’s hard taking care of oneself and family, and at the same time pursuing what you love. If you want to be the best in the game, you need to bring your A game on the battlefield, so we would say that good production is one of the biggest trades that we are facing.

And like we said the label was formed only a few months ago, so we have not yet reached the level where we can afford the best of the best, but we are working from our own private studio. So, sooner or later, Tenacious will produce high quality production whether it’s video or audio.

Eastern Mirror: What advice would like to give to emerging artistes who are trying to make it big in the industry?

Stay focused; be consistent with your work. Many artistes failed to stay consistent. You can never reach your goal with just with one song, so keep making music, try to bring your own originality. There will be people who will criticise you, so always be ready for that, learn from your mistakes and never compare yourself with others; be your own competition as comparison will lead you to nowhere.

Eastern Mirror: Is Tenacious working on any new project?

Yes, we are currently working on 2-3 projects and we will be releasing those in a month’s time.

We will probably be releasing them one after another once everything is set and ready to go.

For updates and more, you can follow us on Instagram at 07tenacious.