Senior rekindles passion for making hip-hop

After blasting “Marvins Room’” at 3 a.m. or going bar for bar to “Family Ties,” many hip-hop fans think about what it might be like to pursue hop-hop as a glamorous career. For most, that’s as far as the dream goes.

Then there are fans like senior Rohan Chopra who not only dream of hip-hop stardom but also begin pursuing it in earnest. In his case, he began producing his own music three years ago. 

Chopra’s passion for music started early. He started learning how to play the drums at 8 and slowly transitioned into playing the piano. Later, Chopra began experimenting with popular audio mixing softwares like Garageband. After making only a few beats on the app, he was hooked.

In middle school, Chopra initially produced music as a hobby, spending his free time learning the ins and outs of Garageband through YouTube tutorials or exploring just exploring various features to figure out what makes good audio. Soon after entering high school, he made the switch to a more professional mixing software, Logic Pro X. Learning it was a step forward in the significant time he then began putting into creating his music. 

In 2021, Chopra wrote and produced his first song on Spotify. It was called “Stage Fright,” a mix of Rap and R&B. It is sitting at under 1,000 streams currently. Although his first release wasn’t a hit, it helped him figure out the steps to make a full song. Chopra continued to pursue his passion and began putting in more effort into producing full tracks, including the beat and lyrics. 

Then came his roadblock. After releasing “Stage Fright,” “Who I am,” “Pull Up,” and “So Lit,” Chopra had to take a 2-year hiatus from releasing music, due to other parts of his life such as academics taking time away from making music. In part due to having less time to devote to music, Chopra said that his break from music was because it takes much more time for him to write lyrics and a beat compared to just a beat.

“In my junior year, it was more like a hobby; I didn’t have much time due to all the schoolwork,” Chopra said. “Now that it’s senior year, especially during this past summer, I’ve made a lot of music and am trying to put a lot more time into it. I have that drive to keep making music.”

This past summer, after putting in around five to seven hours most days producing music, Chopra released a new song in July, “Murder on the Dance Floor.” 

Chopra noted that pursuing a music career is not a very viable career path, especially since the field has so many people chasing stardom. The oversaturation in the music industry makes Chopra have concerns with taking music on full time after high school, but that won’t stop him from investing in himself to try to pursue a career. Over the summer, Chopra built a home studio, including a mixer and a microphone to help produce higher quality music.

As his senior year comes to a close, Chopra has plans to expand his advertising and the ways he promotes his music. Outside of distributing copies to his friends and relying on word of mouth, Chopra has been expanding his music expertise into school domains as well. He made the mix for the senior boys dance for Quad Day and will also be making the mix for the senior All Male Dance for Bombay in The Bay. 

“I think this is just another way I like to express myself but recently I’ve fallen in love with making music,” Chopra said. “So I guess I’ll see where it can take me.”