“We got local musicians in the house!” DJ Delicious spoke into the microphone at the Homecoming dance on Sept. 25. Immediately after, the introductory bass notes of “srt!” blared through the speakers, hyping up the crowd on the dance floor in front of the quad steps.
“srt!” is senior Sahil Shaik’s first single. He and senior Rishi Atreya have been experimenting with making and releasing rap music on SoundCloud, an online audio distribution platform.
“It made me very proud that people were singing the lyrics to my song at our school dance. I would’ve never guessed that would have happened,” Shaik said. “It was very monumental.”
Atreya, who goes by the artist name “Reesh,” released his first single “Off This Earth ‘Freestyle’” on July 10. Atreya first wanted to make music because he hadn’t found music that catered toward his own preferences and wanted to fill that gap.
“Why can’t I just listen to myself?” he said. “I never really had the drive to get famous or anything, and the desire to make good music is still what pushes me forward. But at the same time, now that I’ve created more music, I feel like there’s been pressure to make more and more.”
Not long after Atreya’s single, Shaik released “srt!” under the artist name “luvshakes” on July 13. Shaik said he wanted to make a song that would be “extremely hype” while driving.
“I worked on ‘srt!’ for about two weeks, and it was a huge struggle,” Shaik said. “I had to keep rerecording to hit notes, use presets and find lyrics that I liked. But hearing those lyrics while driving on the highway and with the bass turned up goes hard.”
Shaik and Atreya’s friendship and love for music have persisted throughout high school, and their music-making journey began the summer after their junior year. They began by making a Discord group chat and freestyle rapping (rapping on the spot) in calls and listening to music together.
“We would call each other and listen to music often, and then we started getting more into freestyling — coming up with flow from the top of your head,” Atreya said. “The more and more we did it, the more we felt we could create a song.”
Their freestyle lyrics would often draw from their aspirations to “make it” in the music industry. Atreya has had this aspiration since his junior year, but never had the time to pursue it until last summer.
“I also wanted to start making music because it’s nice to do on the side to get away from all the academic pressure, which is especially hard in Saratoga,” Shaik said.
Shaik’s style was heavily influenced by artists like Juice WRLD and B Lou, as well as genres like ‘90s hip hop and the underground rap scene. His first single is mostly about a Dodge SRT, a car frequently referenced in this style.
Atreya’s biggest inspirations are artists from the angelic rage music genre, including SoFaygo, Lil Tecca, Ski Mask the Slump God and XXXTENTACION.
In addition to these artists, the duo draw from their own personal experiences as well.
“I don’t like lying about what I say,” Atreya said. “It’s more of a projection of where I would like to be.”
On Sept. 10, Atreya and Shaik collaborated on the single “rackies4u,” which features a slower tempo in contrast with Atreya’s style of fast rapping.
“Atreya was always more into classic rap and hard lyrics — the rap that’s so fast that it’s hype.” Shaik said. “Personally, I’m more into melodies and not full on rapping.”
Shaik and Atreya have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from their peers, with many of their friends advertising their releases on Instagram and other forms of social media. The two are also working on getting Spotify creator accounts to establish themselves on more music streaming platforms.
Though neither has concrete career plans for music, they both aspire to continue it as a hobby.
“A career seems quite impossible, but of course I hope for it,” Shaik said. “It’s therapeutic for me, and it will never go away in that sense.”