Canadian Producer Apashe and New Delhi’s Raga Make an Incendiary Collab on ‘Gasoline’

As we go along, more of India’s hip-hop artists are gaining the attention of artists around the world and vice versa. With Canada’s Apashe aka John De Buck, when an offer to perform at the inaugural edition of Lollapalooza India in Mumbai came his way, he felt like it was the right time not just to visit a country he’d heard much about from his mom and grandfather (who lived in Goa) but also explore rap and drill.  

Apashe sums it up as a “life changing experience” that included meeting family members who knew his mother from 25 years ago. “It felt like we had always been there,” he says in an email interview. Through artists like PAV4N (formerly of U.K. group Foreign Beggars) and New Delhi’s Raga, the producer was also introduced to many in the Indian music circuit. While hip-hop star DIVINE was among the first Indian hip-hop artists that Apashe heard, he came across Raga and reached out for a collab.  

It’s led to their trap-meets-rap rager of a track “Gasoline,” with a music video shot by Apashe’s go-to collaborator Adrian Villagomez in parts of Rajasthan and New Delhi, complete with a biker gang and mafioso aesthetic.  

While the producer was – like most of us – drawn to Raga’s distinctly gravelly voice and timbre, the rapper says he took his fellow beatsmiths Rakht and Ukato’s word about Apashe’s craft. “The mindset is simple – to constantly push my sound and bring all the different sides of me to the table. Your art can only improve if you don’t box yourself,” Raga adds.  

With the window to collaborate being a short one, the music video for “Gasoline” was made on the fly. Apashe recalls their time as a fun process that was adventurous, surprising and had the occasional bit of bad luck. There’s a searing conviction on the track and in the video, though, stemming from the trap production and Raga’s ability to get into it.  

The rapper says he’s always among those who want to push hip-hop in different directions and a collaboration is often the right platform. “Everyone listens to multiple genres of music and new scenes and sounds can only be created when collaborations like this happen. You wouldn’t want to listen to any genre if the sound didn’t evolve over time. All across the globe, rappers are innovating by blending genres and trying new things. I want to showcase all facets of my personality and that won’t happen if I stick to one type of beat,” he says.  

For Apashe as well, “Gasoline” saw him venture further from the sounds he’s championed with grandiose experiments on his 2020 album Renaissance. He says it’s the first of more new music. “I went out of my comfort zone a little here […] Most of the other upcoming songs are rather going to be in between that and my classical orchestral thing,” the producer adds. There’s an album coming up, more music videos and a “huge tour that will follow” for Apashe, who has just announced that he’s taking a brass orchestra on a five-city North America tour. With more connections and love for India now, the producer says he feels like he has friends there now. “I want to do what I can in hopes to go back more often,” he says.  

For Raga, amid several collaborations, featured spots and his own material, he’s exploring different sounds as well. He says, “I’ve got some crazy stuff lined up this year. Might even drop a proper rager of an EP with [New Delhi rapper] DG Immortals. [The] WIP title is ‘Midtown Madness,’ so that should set the tone for the project.”