Since its inception, rap has not stopped renewing itself in France. After the trap, worn by Kaaris in 2015 or the drill popularized by Gazo in 2020, the French rap scene has been witnessing the advent of a new genre for a few months: the jersey.
Also known as jersey club but also jersey drill, this musical current, born in the early 2000s in Newark, New Jersey, is recognizable by its very fast BPM (around 150), its triplets – three short notes played in a single time- to his heavy bass but above all to his samples taken from rap or electro.
If in the United States the T-shirt has recently been popularized by artists such as Bandmanrill, in France we owe this revival to Kerchak, a young 18-year-old rapper from Bois-Colombes (92), who is releasing his first mixtape. , Confidence.
shirt discovery
“I started rapping in 2016,” Kerchak recalls. Then, at the age of 12, the young artist began to write his first texts, alone, at a boarding school. Then, helped by his cousins, also rappers, he formed his first group Erkos Squaad, before going solo, under the pseudonym Zolal.
At the time, Kerchak was still far from T-shirt sounds: “Throughout my little career, I rapped according to what was in style,” he explains to BFMTV.com.
“In 2016 I was rapping about what was going on that year, trap, like Niska when she started. After the beginning of 2019, I continued to follow fashion and got into exercises before managing to find a genre to stand out,” she adds.
While browsing YouTube, Kerchak discovered the shirt. From the suggestions, you come across “jersey club beats,” instrumentals that are reminiscent of an artist’s style or a popular music genre.
“Before, I would take prods and speed them up in the studio to rap over them. I loved it there because it was fast and there were good samples.
An innovative genre in France
Tired of the lack of revival in rap, Kerchak tries to import these innovative instrumentals in France. And there’s the click. Attracted by the creative possibilities offered by this musical style, the rapper abandoned his pseudonym Zolal, put on a balaclava and became Kerchak – a reference to the gorilla Kerchak in tarzan.
It is in this context that it was born Tastethe artist’s first single, which already has more than 6 million views on Spotify.
“At first I didn’t want to share this topic on the networks, I was like ‘it’s too weird’, ‘it’s too new’, ‘people aren’t going to like it’. Then I put it on Twitter, but seeing how mean this network is, I locked my phone and went to sleep,” Kerchak said.
When he wakes up, a pleasant surprise awaits him. Against all odds, the piece was appreciated, with some listeners even praising Kerchak’s innovative risk-taking, which offered sounds never before explored in French rap.
“I thought that people were going to finish me off, that I was going to cry alone in my room, but it actually had a completely opposite effect,” he adds.
A first project completed in 3 months
Given this positive feedback, the artist continues his momentum and posts several songs on TikTok in 2022. At a time when accelerated song remixes are exploding on the video app, Kerchak’s rhythm and dance t-shirt is quickly finding its audience. . The artist signs on the blue sky label (MadeinParis, Frenetik, Gianni…).
The following summer is productive for Kerchak with a series of freestyles, inspired by the different Tarzan characters, and the release of several singles: Grass R, Blue, Take it easy as much as Fearwith one of the best rappers of the moment, Ziak.
At the height of his popularity, the one who is dubbed the “Jersey pioneer in France” shares this Friday his first project, his mixtape Confidence, carried out in three months in parallel with his studies.
If he continues next week with a white BTS, the rapper who accumulates millions of streams assures – like the name of his project – to be “safe” for the future. “I can’t wait for my audience to love it. I hope this is the first project in a long series,” he concludes.
Source: BFM TV
