How hip-hop hustler Sadhe7's love affair with music began in small-town Odisha

When the pandemic descended, a string of bad news for Subham Das followed. They had to close his crew's home studio BIGFISH Sounds and then another studio he was recording at Artistry had to close down too. But the hustler and hip-hop artist did not let this get in the way of his ambition. Subham, who goes by his stage name Sadhe7, is the judge of the Odisha Hip Hop Festival and recently, he put out a video inviting rappers to apply for it, titled Show Me What You Got. He was also the judge for Rap Odisha Rap, in which the winner won the chance to collaborate with him. And he is still resolute about the fact that he will put out his first album, titled Zulm, this year itself, come pandemic, rain or shine.

What's intriguing is that the Bhadrak-born artist started his journey with hop-hop as a dancer, not a rap artist. "I used to write poetry and shayari, but in my naivete, when I first heard rap I was so surprised because I thought it was restricted to dance music," says the 24-year-old sheepishly. But he did not waste any time tuning into the culture and by class VIII, he started listening to Kendrick Lamar, Jay Z and others. Then rap battles became the norm of the day, but family duties came calling. "I started a business but went into losses," shares the rapper who raps in Odia, Hindi and English. But being a hustler, he arrived in Bhubaneswar to pursue his Master's in Computer Applications from Rajdhani College and began his hip-hop journey again.     

The dance crew he was a part of back in Bhadrak was called DMX

Sadhe7 has experimented a lot with his tracks. The hustler tells us about Mere Sathiya, which released a month back and has 9.8k views now, and how he and music producer Ashis Mishra really had to knock on many doors to get it the release it deserved. And finally, it was released through Sam Production's YouTube channel. "I have been writing for over eight years now, I feel like now I have got the hang of how and where to employ punch lines and how to turn experiences into metaphors," says the artist with a smile. Indeed, anyone can attest to the fact that his life has been full of ups and downs and like a true artist he took it all and turned it into art.

Listen to his work:

Kyun 

Chitkara 

To know more about him, check out instagram.com/sadhe7_official_/