Shit you should know, Rizkan Records 100% hipster
Attention: You’re about to witness the true potrait of a hipster.
Day by day, I’ve seen a lot of people making questionable decisions. Exhibit A, writing an acrobatic article questioning the hipster reality in the local scene that no one ever needed, understood, and most importantly asked for. I thought nobody uses the word hipster anymore and people stop talking about it as if it’s already officially removed by the law.
That word hipster is indeed very weird. It’s similar to the R-word. Back then, people loved using the word retard to call your friends stupidity and they’re okay with it but it’s not okay to call other healthy human being with that word today because it’s an fucking insult for all people.
Same thing applies to the hipster. After all, hipster is very broad terms that craters many innocent people around the globe. Anyone can be a hipster or perceived as one as much as the strong anti-hipsters gotta be looked. But the whole idea is no one’s sure with the definition of hipster. In this regard, it’s safe to remind that we should not call out hipster to people and communities because you know, it may be hurtful.
But I would like to make the word hipster cool all over again in this article and start tracking the stereotype and the lifestyle, because you know I’m a piece of shit, and I should thank to the recent hipster hater article who happened to test my stupid brain limit by questioning the hipness around me.
Now. Who the fuck is hipster around me? Am I a hipster? Or everyone I know is a hipster? But if everyone is a hipster, it’s not longer a hip. Maybe that’s why it’s pointless to talk this shit. It has lost the cause.
Then, something brilliant comes into my tiny head, I’m looking for the most hipster of all time around me. Perfect. I found one. Rizkan Records!
In case you’re unfamilliar with the label, Rizkan Records is a dead broke music label from Tangerang Selatan and the label always fail to make a huge commercial success in the local scene. Yet it seems every cool people knows about this label, or have no fucking knowledge or appreciation whatsoever about the label but dig his rosters.
After doing a short investigation, I believe he is solid as rock the hipster figure that I’m looking for; the most hipster music label I’ve ever witnessed. For starter, here is some questions inspired from tons of BUZZFEED hipster quizzes, and my answers to those shit.
Is the release considered to be rarity and obscurity records?
Absolutely. Everything is released on tapes. Rarity? It’s limited to 50 copies and sorry no repress policy.
I bet the label released the bands you’ve never heard of, and amazingly it’s very good. The main reason of this devotion to tapes culture because it’s cheaper and the hipster loves it.
Evidence:
have a better taste than you?
Honestly, he has the world best taste in listenable music. The band rosters aside, check his album of the year list or his podcast called Hello Bastards. He is responsible for importing on the music that only himself and God know how to find it. More importantly he is not a latecomer. He already enjoyed and released a Durham band called Martha way before the tastemaker dorks at Pitchfork digested it and praised the band, and none knows it. Once someone really tried hard to have a right taste, it’s no longer qualified to be a hipster. If you wanted be like hipster Rizkan, try to do it effortlessly. Like tons of shit you dump into the closet.
Everything looks artsy ?
Yes. All over the the Bandcamp page. The most important part is the release description. His words are the main aesthetic. Well, just imagine Wes Anderson with straight C+ in writing class makes the pop-punk album’s sleeve notes for living. Dang, it’s very much cool being uncool.
run the label by himself?
He is not the trust fund kids. To be a sincere hipster, all you need to prove is willing to make a Big Effort by Yourself (BEBY). DIY is no longer hip. So, yes.
the rosters and the label owner wear clothes from thrift stores?
I don’t know whether it’s thrift clothes or just bootleg or preloved, but basically they can’t afford to buy anything fancy off the music sales.
Is he an artist?
Yup. Have heard of Ache? In case you’re looking of it, it’s on the worldwide hip corporate webzine Vice that always has a supportive relationship to hipster culture.
Evidence:
Have a beard and glasses?
You joking? Of course.
Mustache culture?
Yes, take a look at the label’s logo. It’s a long and wild handlebar.
Flannel shirts?
Always, dammit.
Evidence:
It still goes on
Does he work in the media?
heck yes, he writes for his newsletters, Radioheyhojkt and Fukked Up Pop. That’s hell of a writing job. Read again everything I said about the artsy questions.
Pinch-rolled his jeans?
Nah. He prefers ripped ol’ jeans that I can smell it’s not washed for 2–5 years.
Featured in the elitist publication?
Yes baby, The Jakarta Post. It’s de facto of hipness reading material choice. I always read it every morning (Just kidding, I never grab it once in my entire life).
Conclusions
Yeah, Rizkan Records universe fans probably hate to read this. But based on the essential facts above, it’s important to admit that Rizkan Records is the hipsterest corporate music industry. My first warning; Don’t think of listening to his releases without even thinking of overprice thrift stores on Instagram.
I also agree that being hipster is all about knowing and deciding what’s cool before the rest of us adopting it. What sets Rizkan Records apart from the fuckton of hipster agents is that Rizkan as the handsome person, is the most sincere hipster I’ve ever known and also the most fragile one.
His knowledge in cool and uncool music is honed by the environment around him. Did I already mention effortlessly? Ok. I did. As a struggling label owner and artist, he earned a cultural coolness not by passively buying the subculture with his parents wealth or education process in liberal arts school, but merely an intensive digging to the hype he believed the most; punk in general, shitload nonexistence bands he supports, his friends, and my blog (I strongly presumed that).
Being hipster may be a phase in our life. And maybe not. But unlike your hipster friends who always shift the streetwear brand favorite as they are getting older, Rizkan Records will never care to that things. Because he doesn’t have the money. He will stay doing this shit like a boy splashing in his bathtub, making waves for himself and his squeaking rubber ducks, until his lovely wife tell him to stop messing around with his life. That also means it captures a vulnerability. Fucking A, a record label can also be vulnerable.
So that’s the thing. And that’s why I colossally love Rizkan Records.
However, out there must be a very smart people willing to do a dead serious research on a real definition of the local hipsterism (whatever the fuck that is), instead of some dude stereotyping and bashing hipster to innocent people and communities who never thought themselves to that term and me who just basically do the parody of it. Then. Please. Go ahead take the chance before it was cool.
