Exposed Vocals Interviews Mister Richie
Originally from London but residing in Essex, Mister Richie is a UK rapper/singer-songwriter/hip-hop artist at the age of 18. Mister Richie also goes by the name of Richdog or Reckless Richie. Mister Richie found a passion for music at the age of 9 years old and started releasing content as young as 14. He’s known for making music in the grime, hip-hop, rap and even R’n’B genre and also lives life by the motto “Grinding in Silence”. Mister is currently working on his EP “Richdog” which will be out later this year or early next year.
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Mister Richie: I go by the name of Richie, I was born and raised in in East London then I moved to Essex when I was about 8. The passion that I had for music at a young age made me want to become an artist, I used to have my eyes glued into MTV then I remember watching Changes by Tupac thinking to myself “Wow, I want to make music like that one day”.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Mister Richie: When I first made my Twitter handle back in 2010, I needed a rap name but at the same time, I wanted my first name in it aswell. So I was thinking, it couldn’t be just “Richie”, it had to be something that when people type my name in a search browser or YouTube, my material would be the first to come up rather than it being on the third page or the fourth page of the search. I took the word “master” then replaced the A with the I because it makes me feel like I am the master as there is no I in Master. After that, it just stuck to me, I called myself Mister Richie.
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Mister Richie: Online music sharing is calm, but everything is changed especially with streaming on Apple Music and Spotify. In my opinion, I think it’s getting hard to make money off putting your music online due to album sales and streams but I still like the old-fashioned method of selling CDs in HMV and Amazon mainly because that way people are paying to hear your music. I do give my music away because I don’t feel like I’m at the stage where people should pay money to hear my music because my fanbase isn’t that colossal yet. I still have so much to learn as a musician and I got plenty of time deciding whether I should start charging for my music. However if I did drop an album with some of the hottest features in the music industry, then the fans can start paying.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Mister Richie: As an artist or a local band, you could be the most talented person on the planet with no connections whatsoever and you’re still wondering why you’re not getting any radio airplay or gigs. This is because it’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know. You could know all the answers in an exam paper and still not get to where you need to get to whereas you could know the manager of Atlantic Records personally and still get to where you need to. Personally, as an artist, the best thing to do in order to get a gig is to build up a fan base locally in order to get on local gigs and also radio airplay locally.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Mister Richie: I usually write my songs at home, I’ll have one of my producer send me a beat, before I write to it, I have to freestyle to it in my head or out loud in order to experience different type of flows. When I go out with my friends, I’ll experience something and I’ll think “ooh, I need to put this in a song when I get home, it would make a lot of sense”. I’m not of those people that need a quiet environment to write music, I just write when I write. If I’m honest, I don’t write my bars down enough, I just improvise, freestyle off the dome, top-of-the-head kinda thing. Sometimes I write quickly, sometimes I write slow, for example, after I’ve recorded my song, one of my producers Essjay will be like “right boys, we’re making a track” and my friend Adrian is like “already?” like literally everything is quick, we’ll record it, mix it and post it on soundcloud in five minutes. Normally it’s a 3 or 4 man song so I’m usually the first person to finish my verse.
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
Mister Richie: https://soundcloud.com/recklessrichie this is my soundcloud link here where I post my music, everything is there from the freestyles to the features. When I was around 14/15, I used to make freestyle videos off my friend’s Blackberry and the link is here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJvwFNmNj8JSfTmE6ArCMrA. For now I just use SoundCloud and YouTube, I’m currently chatting to one of my people about putting stuff on Apple Music and Spotify. Sometimes when I don’t make music, I do little freestyle videos for fun that my friends record on their phone and upload them on social media like Instagram or Twitter.
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Mister Richie: I would make a record label called Richdog Records, I was thinking of making it Reckless Records but I feel like that name has already been taken. This record label would consists of musicians from different genres, I would send scouts to find the hottest unsigned artists on soundcloud and YouTube and get them signed to my label.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Mister Richie: There’s different ways, sometimes I put a cheeky link on Twitter or let a couple know on Snapchat that I have a song coming out. I have over 1000 followers on Twitter and Instagram but I let people know that I have music, I would tell people to share it only if I feel like people need to hear it. I’m not one of those people that must @ everyone on Twitter or force people to listen to my song. It’s not that deep. Music is music. If you don’t like me, don’t listen to my music. Simple.
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Mister Richie: Normally, I ask my friends for feedback and they tell me I’m doing great, boost up my confidence a little bit but they say I should start making music videos or freestyle videos and uploading them to bigger platforms and my own YouTube channel also. I’m in the process of working on my first EP which is called “Richdog” which will be only available on Apple Music, Spotify and Google Play and also Soundcloud obviously. It’s an album with four or five tracks, I don’t know, I haven’t decided yet. But before I do that, I need to increase my fan base and gain a bigger audience. But for now, I’m gonna do more shows and make music videos.
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Mister Richie: I would probably be one of those angry stockbrokers or traders, being stressed because I lost little money or running my own sandwich franchise called “Richie Deluxe. I dunno why, I just love making sandwiches!!
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Mister Richie: I don’t really have any responsibilities, not like I have a kid, I’m just a young black boy enjoying life. I just do what I gotta do by any means necessary. I’m focusing on school more but I’m still writing songs, I like to leave my songs unfinished so it gives me time to think what I’m gonna do next or how I’m gonna present it to the audience.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Mister Richie: More music, more freestyles, more videos and even more shows! I need to be consistent, I can’t sleep on the job. I’ve been rapping since I was 9 and releasing content since I was 14 whether it was a YouTube vid recorded on my friend’s phone. I need to make up for the times I wasn’t releasing music by being consistent and dropping as much content as I can and trying to get everyone to jump on the Reckless wave.