Cheeky boy band Rak-Su are determined to transform their TV win into a long career
Watford’s Rak-Su, last year’s winners of The X Factor, were the inevitable post-One Direction response to Simon Cowell’s hit factory. With their choreographed, all-original blend of rap and smoochy R&B, Ashley Fongho, Jamaal Shurland, Mustafa Rahimtulla and Myles Stephenson came to the show with a ready-made following.
“We never even thought about winning,” says Ashley, 26. “The only thing we cared about was having I’m Feeling You – which was a song that we’d released independently – played on TV. We were just like, ‘Look. All we need to do is nail this first audition and we’ll be fine. And whatever happens, happens’.”
Since then they’ve corralled Wyclef Jean and Naughty Boy for Top 5 smash Dimelo and spent the summer touring with Little Mix.
Ashley, who previously balanced life in RakSu (the name is cumbersome slang for Tracks versus Suits) with a job in financial recruitment, admits the group made calculations of their own as the show progressed.
“There was probably a 50/50 split between the fun, cheeky side of Rak-Su and our more deep, introverted side. But when we were going on the show, obviously we knew that the fun, cheeky side was going to take us further. And so that’s what we focused on,” Ashley says.
Going all out to concentrate on the group was a risk, but a calculated one, for each of the band’s members.
“Jamaal was literally about to start a masters degree,” Ashley explains. “Myles was the manager of a big company.
“We were all doing well, but we all had a passion and realised that if we didn’t follow that passion now, it was just going to be something that you sit in a pub talking about that you could have done. When it comes to a career, if the band didn’t work out, we could go back to it in a few years’ time.
“Recruitment’s not going anywhere. University’s not going anywhere. But the chance to live a dream is obviously fragile.”
The months ahead will show if, by bucking the The X Factor’s formula, Rak-Su can make it out in the real world – once the success of winning the show has worn off.
Ashley knows there is a way to go but he has big dreams for the future.
“A world tour... that would be the pinnacle,” he decides.
“I think for me and three of my best mates, who have known each other since being kids, to wake up one morning in Rio de Janeiro because of our music.
“That would be... yeah. That would be everything.”
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