Emerge: Get to Know Big Deal

Odiya rapper Big Deal is one of the six artists who are part of Rolling Stone India and TuneCore India’s new editorial campaign ‘Emerge.’

‘Emerge’ will profile and chronicle the lives of six breakout artists from across India: Big Deal, Hindi/Gujarati artist Priya Saraiya, Assamese singer Antara Nandy, Bengali artist Rupam Islam, Punjabi musician Gurnazar and Haryanvi artist Vishvajeet Choudhary. Discover more about each artist’s process of making music and why they chose TuneCore to put their music out into the world.

Born to a Japanese mother and an Odiya father, Samir Rishu Mohanty aka Big Deal’s music often addresses subjects like identity, culture and racism. He raps in Hindi, English and Odia and doesn’t shy away from discussing the racism against North East Indians, violence against women and other subjects that may be considered ‘taboo’ in India. “Being a musician for me is extremely important because I can express my emotions and vent out through my music,” he says.

There’s a lot of responsibility in being an independent artist–in addition to expressing himself, it allows him to address any topic he wants. “Being an independent musician is even more important because I can make the type of music I want to make,” he says. “There’s nobody to tell me that you have a make a song about this or you need to write a song like this. I do whatever my heart desires.”

He hopes what he is doing will inspire others to raise their voices as well and do it because of their love for music and its power. “I’d like to tell my peers and aspiring artists that you should make music because you love making music and not for any other reason,” says Big Deal. “That way your music will be amazing and timeless.” 

On his decision to choose TuneCore as the digital distributor for his music, the rapper explains, “TuneCore is an amazing platform for independent musicians. They help us distribute our music worldwide and the best part about them is artists retain 100 percent ownership and royalties.”