Rinchere
Up and Coming Queens, NY Rapper
Hailing straight from Hip-Hop’s capital, Rinchere (formally known as Spectacula) is one of the most notable additions to the New York’s up and coming roster. Born to Haitian parents and growing up in Queens, music quickly became the sensation of this rapper’s childhood as he was introduced to R&B and Kompa at an early age.
He soon fell in love with the beat and the rhythm along with music’s “ability to grab the attention of anyone who chooses to listen for 3-5 minutes, be it meaningful, emotional or just plan stupid.” Dating back to elementary school, music became his hobby and so did rhyme; more so, it became a savior at a time in which the then-youth witnessed hardships of his parents’ divorce.
While focusing on musical development, from consistent releases to his independent business ventures, Rinchere continues to reassert his focus and dedication toward the creation process. “The World Watching” is Rinchere’s new single, a conscious hip-hop song about the current state of the world. Rinchere confides, “In a way this project was inspired by the documentary The Social Dilemma. The internet is a powerful tool that has innovated the world in many positive ways but at the same time it has done irreversible damage to humanity. This project is a retrospect on that. “The World Watching” is a 2022 revision of the Jay-Z classic “The Streets is Watching” and the video featuring & directed by Var Brown makes light on how much things have changed.”
Rinchere – The World Watching featuring Var Brown
Meet and Get To Know Rinchere
Kulture Vulturez: To begin, did you grow up in Queens? Can you breakdown what was it like growing up there for you?
Rinchere: Yes, sir. [I grew up in] Queens Village, to be exact. For the most part, some ups and downs. But, I feel like, you know how they say if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. I feel like it definitely prepared me for the ability to adapt and whatever environment I’m in.
Kulture Vulturez: How can you breakdown how Queens is different from other boroughs of New York?
Rinchere: I would say Queens is a little different because for the most part, it’s a lot more houses in Queens and than the other boroughs. I think geography wise, Queens is probably the biggest borough. It’s a lot of different environments built into Queens. It’s a little bit more universal with the appeal. Queens is like a little slice of everything. There is Queensbridge, different projects throughout Queens. There is also different sections where it’s completely different from the other. Even Far Rockaway is technically in Queens, but that’s almost like a whole another planet.
Kulture Vulturez: Can you break down the rap history or hip hop in Queens over the years?
Rinchere: From my lifetime, one of the biggest parts of hip hop history was “The Bridge is Over”, which was KRS One versus M.C. Shan. That’s one of the first big parts of Queens having an imprint in hip hop. Then throughout the early 90s, you got Nas, Mobb Deep, Cormega, Capone-N-Noriega. Of course in the early 2000s, we had 50 Cent and G-Unit having an imprint on it. Even today you got Nicki Minaj and all the new people coming up with with the drill sound throughout Queens.
Kulture Vulturez: Where did your influence comes from for you to get introduced to music?
Rinchere: My first influence is probably watching Video Music Box back in the 90s when I was in elementary school. Having to share that TV with my older sister, between me watching cartoons. We had to split it between cartoons and Video Music Box, BET, MTV Raps, and all that stuff. Just the cyphers and the performances intrigued me.
Probably one of the first rappers that really made me want to consider doing it myself was Biggie. Definitely watch Rap City a lot growing up. Seeing Jay-Z, Nas, all of those lyrical heavyweights put it down it kind of motivated me to start writing rhymes myself. Probably started off as poetry, but when I got a tape recorder from my father in elementary school, it kind of made me start trying to record my poetry. Eventually that evolved into writing rhymes.
Kulture Vulturez: When did you begin taking music serious, getting on a more professional level?
Rinchere: In high school we would have the cyphers in the lunchrooms, [as well rap] battles and all that stuff. It came to a point where I had so many of those battles that I had good reactions to it. It kind of made me feel like if I can have good reactions to a crowd of people, and if I expose it to a bigger audience maybe I can have that same reaction. So, I would say probably about 12th grade, at that time mixtapes was the biggest format to get your music out. I probably released my first mixtape in 2005, 2006, [when] I was teenager.
Kulture Vulturez: Can you say hip hop has been important in your life? Could you see yourself without it?
Rinchere: To be honest with you, I tried to [go without being an artist], for probably the last five or six years. Especially during these last couple of years, during this pandemic, I have found a way to fall back in love with it. It’s always the constant bridge between life and dealing with reality. I always find a way to come back to this music. I would say I probably can’t see my life without making music.
Kulture Vulturez: As an artist, what do you pride yourself the most on?
Rinchere: I pride myself the most on, for one lyrical ability. For two, just to try to give a perspective that’s a little different than what everybody else is doing. A lot of people try to glorify certain things and gloss over the real emotions that you deal with on a day to day basis. I try to do the opposite. I try to put those forward for everybody to relate. At the same time I try to give a perspective that’s a little different from the norm.
Kulture Vulturez: Do you feel that is missing in today’s hip hop? The creativity, artistry, and just realness?
Rinchere: For sure, for sure. We are in a culture nowadays, mostly because of the Internet, where everybody’s incentivized to copy. I think even if you look at TikTok, you get people that essentially just recreate a whole another video. It’s a whole trend of just doing the same thing everybody else is doing. I mean, it’s cool for fun and games, but somebody has to be able to move this thing forward. I definitely feel like not enough people are looking at it from that perspective.
Kulture Vulturez: Breakdown your latest single of “The World Watching”?
Rinchere: “The World Watching” came about, me reconnecting with some friends I had from high school that was producing, specifically my homeboy Vrsa. He sent me some beats and the style of which he was sampling {was similiar to] the boom bap wave right now and a sampling wave, especially like Griselda and Roc Marciano. The way they were flipping the samples was so unique to me that like it grabbed my attention.
At the same time, I was binge watching a lot of YouTube documentaries. All these new rappers and they history. Basically all the murders that were committed, all the “Opp Packs”, and all that stuff. There is a whole bunch of documentaries on YouTube about it. It’s the first time I even heard about it and I seen it and it just was crazy to me. Breaking down that one song when these guys was on a golf course (Yungeen Ace – Who I Smoke).
What seemed like an innocent viral song, it was a hour documentary breaking down how many people actually got killed that’s being depicted in that song. It just was so wild to me that this is the reality of the rap game right now.
Specifically, when I got that beat for “The World Watching”, it kind of reminded me of “The Streets is Watching” from Jay-Z from In My Lifetime Vol. 1. It kind of came together seamlessly with me just seeing that documentary. I was like, ‘Oh, it’s crazy how back then people was worried about the streets watching. Nowadays it’s literally the whole world is watching.’ The internet goes up to the whole world. These videos is getting hundreds of millions, even in some cases, billions of views. Depicting trauma that’s in a neighborhood. That now has become a worldwide coverage.
Kulture Vulturez: How has the response been for the song?
Rinchere: So far, the feedback has been pretty good. It’s gotten some pushback with some of these social media sites because of the videos depicting some guns. They marketed it as shocking material even though the context is not being read. I know a lot of these social media sites, they put flags up for certain things to flag it up as shocking material. For the most part, for the people that were able to see it the feedback has been good. We still pushing. We’re still pushing through. For the most part, we gotten a good response. Definitely a lot of people that appreciate the message.
Kulture Vulturez: You also have a project that just came out Retrospec(t), can you break that down?
Rinchere: As I was saying a little earlier, I reconnected with some friends from high school. Seeing the last project that I put out ‘The Game of Life’, and they said they was making beats. Even though these friends from high school, I never really connected with them on a music level other than us being in the lunchroom. They was sending me beats, and I said I like the fact that they was sampling a style that I feel like was different. It really motivated me to lock in and try to get this project done with them.
The sound of the beats was retro, but they had a modern tint to it. Once upon a time I went by the name Spectacula. The fact that the rhymes and the stories I’m telling on this project is almost like a retrospective of the last decade of hip hop. Also the fact that the sample on this [project] is retro, and my style of rhyming is kind of a throwback of how I used to rap back in high school. It only felt write the name of project Retrospec(t). The music is retro. The style of rhyming is like retro spectacular. It’s also a retrospective on the last decade and that culture in general.
Kulture Vulturez: So, what’s next for you following this release?
Rinchere: Definitely got a few projects in the works. Definitely some shows and stuff that I plan to have coming out in the summer, but for the dates you would have to check with me on social media to get the exact dates because nothing is locked in specifically. For the most part, I probably got another two projects dropping this year. I got a project that I’m gonna be working on possibly putting out towards the middle of the summertime. Other than that, keep working and keep grinding.