'Raja Has No Friends': Sakré's Mixtape Intersects South Indian Classics & Lo-Fi Hip Hop

Lo-fi music is steeped in nostalgia. Short for 'low fidelity', the production style embraces the imperfections that make us feel at home. Fuzzy sound quality, the soft hiss of an old cassette tape — lo-fi taps into a different time to bring us comfort. In lo-fi hip hop, this feeling is kicked up a notch. With sampling at the heart of hip-hop music, the combination of the two genres evokes a feeling that’s difficult to describe; a sense of peace found in the mix of what we already know and something completely new.

Joel Sakkari, also known by the moniker Sakré, is a Bangalore-based producer who injects his memories and South Indian cultural heritage into the lo-fi hip-hop genre. He explained to us that sampling was the backbone of early hip-hop music, as “producers from the West [took] sounds from obscure R&B records and creatively [flipped] them into hip-hop beats.” In his two-part beat tape, 'Raja Has No Friends', Joel uses this same technique, but with the South Indian film classics he grew up on. “Following that very tradition, I wanted to reinterpret sampling using our Indian musical heritage,” he says.

Raja Has No Friends flips old songs, mostly by famed composer and playback singer Ilaiyaraja, and a few other Kannada classics. Joel felt particularly moved by Ilaiyaraja’s music “because of his unique approach to harmony and sound design,” which the producer described as being unlike any other composer of the time. In Raja Has No Friends, Joel says he took phrases from Raja’s compositions, chopped and rearranged them over a new harmonic structure, bass line and a groove, effectively sticking to the philosophy of sampling. The resulting beat tapes are a dynamic, groovy fusion of the past and present. While Western lo-fi may feel nostalgic for its DIY, throwback feel, Raja Has No Friends elevates those elements by reaching out to a distinctly Indian audience. 

Joel’s passion for music started young. He played the piano, guitar, and experimented with computer programs that record and manipulate sound, all throughout his childhood. He later started working with Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software, MIDI setups, and synthesisers like the Model D, Yamaha YC, Teenage Engineering OP1, to produce music. On Raja Has No Friends, Joel attributes what he calls his “old yet new kinda sound” to the Roland SP404, a device favoured by many sample-based producers. His years of experience helped him adapt his own workflow with the SP404, which he uses to produce and perform live. 

Raja Has No Friends bridges Eastern and Western influences, as well as past and present, together. This distinct sound is achieved through the creative integration of Joel’s background into his work and the years of play, experimentation, and hard work that went into developing his craft. The soundscapes he creates are distinct, yet universally nostalgic and as a listener, nostalgia feels like it is at the core of this beat tape. “Nostalgia was never the intention; it came as a byproduct," says Raja. “Nostalgia has now become an integral part of how people look at my music.”

The visual world Joel builds with his friend and collaborator, Kiran Kallur, builds on the feelings from his music. Kiran conceptualised and captured all the images for this project, highlighting pieces of everyday, old-school life in Bangalore like idlis, sambar, and filter coffee. Like the simplicity found in these images, Joel says that his tracks remind people of the simpler times we will never have.

Outside of his work as Sakré, Joel Sakkari released music from 2019 to 2021 under his original name. He has also been an active member of the folk fusion act Vasu Dixit Collective and synth-pop band Droolfox since 2018.

Follow Sakré, AKA Joel Sakkari, here.

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