In the age of social media, freestyling is a tenuous ask for rappers, but Ches unfazed.
Shes got bars for days and she seems unflappable.
She speaks as calmly and thoughtfully as she does throughout her growing catalog of existential excavation.
J Rugg*
And its all presented with an impressive technical acumen.
Shes been producing since high school and has laced herself on standout projects like the multi-layeredFood For Thought.
Those qualms take center stage on standout Angel, where she raps to her brother over a vocal sample.
In 2022, thetwo opened a barber shopin Buffalos Elmwood Village.
Che talked toRolling StoneaboutThe Lotus Child, overcoming turmoil, and her brief time in the Atlanta rap scene.
It was a weird couple days with the weather in Buffalo.
On the days that we was trying to shoot and put things together, it kept raining.
He was like, Well, theres a field out here next to where Im taking my class at.
I pulled up, and we shot some scenes.
And as far as Monie Loves vocals, I hit her up late last year.
This sound good, how it is.
Were just going to stick with this.
Were going to get some footage, and were going to tie it together like that.
There was a few different, and those felt good.
At the time, I was still learning how difficult it is to get features and all that.
He reached out to me before he rapped on the song.
He was like, Yo, Im bout to hop on your song, you did your thing.
I was like, Oh, wow.
This was during the pandemic.
I wasnt even rapping at the time.
Its just, there was so many different versions of it.
But 2021, I started recording the vocals for it.
I think this will sound dope on here.
One of the musicians is a woman.
She plays the guitar on WisLove at the end.
I met her in DC.
I had did a show at Howard Theatre, and I met her there.
And then some of it came through my people, G. Huff.
He linked me and made the Brady Watt connection.
I was doing showcases for years.
It was hard trying to navigate and figure out how to make money off music without signing a deal.
A lot of upstate people moved to Atlanta at one point, and just stayed there.
I have a lot of immediate family there.
I was doing showcases when everybody was turning up to Panda, you know?
Im doing this and theyre doing that, and its like, What the hell is she doing?
Im getting booed on stage and its just like-
Oh, shit.Yeah.
That was a whole thing.
How did you handle that?I was shocked.
I thought I was up there spitting my best shit, and I got booed.
It was a humbling period.
I was at that point where I had literally tried everything and nothing was working.
So I went back home and I was looking for some different jobs within my degree field.
He had said this long paragraph.
And it was like, man, people was hitting me up like, Yo, your musics fire.
And I was like, Okay, Im about to get back in the studio.
And then, I ended up going out to Chicago, recorded the EP out there.
Everything at that moment is about what this particular person is going to do next.
I took time off because I had personal things going on.
Theres a new artist coming out every month it seems like, and just sustaining relevancy in it.
But thats where that line arrived from for me.
I dont know who listening.
Is it worth to keep going as hard as I have been going?
Can you take me into the period that you decided to take a break from music?
I lost my uncle in the same month.
I had stuff I had to take care of being rocked by those two deaths.
During that time, I just healed.
I started going to therapy for the first time in 2021.
I learned a lot about myself.
There was a lot of reasons why I started speaking about it in my music.
But I started realizing that okay, Ill go through it.
And so I just spent this time healing and enjoying life.
What are some of those things that brought you enjoyment?I fell in love.
But for me it did.
I feel like I grew as a woman.
Especially now being married.
I just spent that time enjoying my life, things that I never did.
I was always about work, work, work.
Even before I got into music, I was working about two or three different jobs.
I was always hustling.
In what ways do you feel like youve grown through marriage and your relationship?It taught me patience.
I wouldnt say I was an angry woman, but I was very closed off from things.
It opened me up.
It softened me up in a lot of ways.
My mother, shes a tough cookie.
So it softened me up in a lot of ways.
I was very hard and rugged at a point.
How is you and your husbands barbershop going?Really good.
Its in a really busy area in Buffalo, they call it the Elmwood Village.
We just built up clientele just from word of mouth.
We get a lot of walk-ins and different clientele, but its still building over the years.
What do you think youve learned as a business owner?Owning a brick-and-mortar is a little different.
Its a little more hands-on, more tedious in a way.
We have been fighting with the city because theres been plumbing issues.
Sewer issues that we was getting backed up with.
I finally recorded it a year later.
Our relationship inspired that.
You still dont fully know yourself and youre trying to create something together.
Its been a minute since Ive written and recorded all in one sitting.
Hell put a beat on.
Im a fan of it.
Like I said, I was a producer first, so Im a fan of so many different sounds.
Im a fan of it, so Im going to be on that.
You see a lot of sample-based producers that dont even sample anymore.
Sometimes, it wont be worth the headache.
