Rapper Rae Mulla On How To Be Hot, Radical Honesty, & His New Single ‘Pantone 448 C’

Some rappers build entire careers on a platform of being ‘provocative’ and ruffling the feathers of the ‘status quo’. From Kendrick Lamar to Run The Jewels to JPEGMAFIA to Ice Spice, rap as an art form has historically used the reactionary nature of the public at large as a vehicle for their larger artistry.  

Whatever your opinion of them, what’s undeniable is their magnetism and homegrown rap mainstay Rae Mulla has magnetism in spades. Behind his ostensibly devil-may-care, laidback SOBO-boy disposition lies an almost surgical lyrical precision and artistic curiosity that pushes him into sonic and thematic territories that many of his contemporaries would likely struggle to reconcile with creatively. 

Rae asserts that he’s never trying to be polarising just for the sake of provoking people but rather, it’s his unflinching commitment to ‘radical honesty’ that drives him to push boundaries of what’s acceptable. Whether it’s in the grab-you-by-the-throat samples and synths that he incorporates into his music or the eyebrow-raising lyrical themes he dives head-first into with practically every release, Rae’s ability to provoke a reaction comes directly from his earnest commitment to being his most authentic self. 

His latest single, ‘Pantone 448 C’ was inspired by, as Rae puts it, “hooking up with an ugly girl.” One Google search for the ugliest colour in the world later and the song came to life.  “If you have moments in your life that are interesting and you’re trying to create interesting art, why not just tell people exactly what happened instead of trying to be ‘deep’,” explains Rae.

He isn’t a fan of overexplaining what he creates but there appears to be a fair amount more to the song than immediately meets the eye. Though wrapped up in a veneer of vanity and self-indulgence, it appears to zoom in on the vapid standards that we go through our lives having to deal with. What’s most interesting to me is that, unlike some artists, Rae isn’t trying to offer a remedy or a solution or even any sort of heavy-handed commentary. He’s merely calling it as he sees it. 

“I like to look at things like I’m observing what’s happening – I’m not trying to pick a side,” says Rae. “I just find things like this intriguing. There are moments in my life that are very ‘conspiracy theory-like’. The song started out about being about this girl but it ended up being about so much more. The hook is about the girl but the rest of it is about everything else that I’m currently seeing happen around us.” 

It’s at this point I see that signature ‘radical honesty’ breaching the surface and I get a real sense of what Rae is trying to do as as performer. You may not agree with his approach but it’s refreshing to see an artist who refuses to hide behind a facade of feigned righteousness. He’s all too aware that what he says through his music may just rub people the wrong way but he chooses to do so anyway. 

“I don’t think anyone has a responsibility to do anything,” asserts Rae. “I appreciate honesty in all aspects of life. I like it when people are honest and don’t say or spin things just to be likeable. Just say what you have to say and deal with the consequences. We’re not perfect people and I don’t think anyone should expect that.”  

Artistic personas are an inevitable part of being a performer. It’s a mask you don to immerse your audience in your art and it allows you to separate your real-life flaws, worries, anxieties, and fears from the experience that you’re creating. Personas are what help artists push forward the storytelling that’s embedded in their work, but as time goes on it often becomes difficult to separate the persona from the real person. I can’t help but wonder how much of the Rae we see publicly is really him and how much is embellished for the sake of his craft. 

“So far, over the ten years I’ve been doing this, I feel like nothing has been spun,” he says. “I think it’s more like it’s been ‘magnified’. The words may not be literal and they’re not always meant to be taken literally, but the feeling and the emotion behind them is very real.”

Rae’s overarching goal as a creative is to set the bar higher than ever before for himself and his fellow rappers across the homegrown musical landscape. “I don’t want people to think this a parlour trick,” he explains, “because it really isn’t. Most of the people in this industry are talking about shit that means a lot to them or their working to push some kind of boundary. Rap music allows for that precisely because it’s so defiant. It allows for you to fuck around and push the envelope of what it is.” 

And push the envelope he certainly has. His body of work thus far has consistently strived to bring something new, insane, and fresh to the table and it certainly stands out amongst what’s becoming a more and more crowded homegrown hip-hop landscape. I ask Rae whether he personally sees himself as an ‘alt-hip-hop’ artist and he’s quick to call out my careless blanket term. “Rap is the genre; not hip-hop. Hip-hop is a culture and I want everyone to know that,” he exclaims animatedly. “I don’t see myself as a hip-hop artist precisely because I don’t come from that culture. If the culture wanted to embrace me I would be very happy with that, but I just say that I’m a rapper because that’s my skill; that’s what I do: I rap.”

Beyond, just the sonic appeal of Rae’s music his talent as a creative director is clear to see in the way he and his collaborators conceptualised and shot the music video for Pantone 448 C. Drawing on a myriad of pop cultural influences, the video features a bald, syringe headed Rae digging for treasure amidst a surreal graveyard-like wasteland of vanity, false opulence, and decadence. Directed by Rae himself, and edited by Jahaan Noble with cinematography by Dhruv Lapsia, it visually spotlights the hedonism and excess alluded to in the song’s lyrics. 

Rae admits that budget constraints forced them to cut the video shorter than they would’ve ordinarily wanted to and that a lot was left on the cutting room floor, including snakes and an eight-foot syringe designed by artist Sajid Wajid Shaikh. “The budget didn’t meet my vision but I managed to get things going at least,” he explains. “The movies that inspired me aesthetically were ‘Edward Scissorhands’ for the outdoor stuff and the ‘Holy Mountain’ by Alejandro Jodorowsky for some the other stuff. ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ is always a running theme for me too.”    

With so much of Pantone 448 C’s release cycle being focused on ‘ugliness’ and its juxtaposition with the vanity of modern society, I end our conversation by asking Rae how he defines ‘beauty’ and how he sees it manifesting in his own life, career and personal experiences so far.

“I haven’t thought about beauty in a while but I have been thinking about luxury. I would say my definition of luxury is comfort. If you’re not comfortable as a person, both internally and externally, you’re probably going to be ugly. If you’re comfortable with how you look and who are, you’re going to be hot.”    

You can folllow Rae here.

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