I have a confession to make. I've been binge-listening to Palm Beach-based rapper Cochise the past several days. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a wide variety of music and artists, but lately it seems that I can't get enough of Cochise. He only started his music career a few years ago in 2017-18, with the release of EP Pulp and several singles, including Daniel Bryan (Yes), Bumba, and Baxter. So how in the world did he just land a major partnership with major online video game Rocket League?
Originally calling himself Yung Cochise, Terrell Archibald Cox is a 24-year-old rapper and songwriter perhaps best recognized for his unique "baby voice", a trait brought into mainstream rap by fellow artist Playboi Carti. His Jamaican roots shine through his music, with clear influences from reggae and dancehall, as well as interspersed Jamaican slang. Cochise utilizes the phrase "A weh dem a seh" for several songs. Several lyrical themes are apparent throughout Cochise' music as well. Almost every song reflects Cochise' spiritual inspiration. For example, in Sanji: "Forever I'm home, no matter the weather, God on my side, he making me better". Or in Usopp: "Pray to God, He forgive all the hate". Cochise makes plenty of pop culture references. Totoro is a track from his first album, Benbow Crescent, which is named after the character from the 1988 Japanese animated film, My Neighbor Totoro. But perhaps most striking of all is Cochise' infatuation with anime series One Piece, which follows Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates as they sail the Grand Line and seek to achieve their dreams. Multiple tracks are named in honor of the series and its characters, including the aforementioned Sanji and Usopp, as well as Zoro. The anime is frequently mentioned in the lyrics as well. In TURN IT UP, for example, "Stretchin' the bread like I'm Luffy". In the series, Luffy is a rubber man who can stretch his body because he ate the gum gum fruit, which aids him in his battles with those who stand in his way. Cochise played soccer in high school, so naturally some lyrics feature the sport, with references to stars like Argentinian winger Lionel Messi ("Shawty in my phone, but I still pass her like I'm Messi" in his most recent release, Long Way) or teams like English Premier League's Liverpool ("My shooters up, no Liverpool" in Hatchback).
Cochise came from humble beginnings, practicing his earliest rhymes through a PlayStation microphone in his Florida home. He found success on various music platforms and then released Pulp in 2018. But his really big hit came in 2019 with Hatchback, which would later be featured on Benbow Crescent in 2021. 2020 was the year that Charles introduced me to Cochise. It was the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic and Charles had joined my family for several weeks in suburban Alabama to escape the crowded Washington, D.C. suburb of Arlington, VA. Charles has been a fan of Cochise' music since the artist only had a few hundred followers on SoundCloud. I first heard the Hijack EP and singles like Redhead, and I was very impressed, giving him a follow on Spotify and adding his tracks to my playlists. From then on, I was happily along for the ride with highly-anticipated Benbow Crescent, a major success, and Tell Em, a collaboration with fellow rapper SNOT, released in 2021 and hitting number 64 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2021. The hype continued with a second album titled THE INSPECTION, released in the summer of last year. The album featured several larger players in the American rap scene, namely Chief Keef and Yung Nudy. It also included DON'T RUN, a unique collaboration featuring several British rappers, Sam Wise, BlazeYL, and Mally. And just last month, the collaboration with Rocket League (an online multiplayer game in which an estimated 6 million players a day play soccer using rocket-powered cars) appeared seemingly out of nowhere, Neon Nights. Three songs from the artist would be featured in the game's soundtrack, as well as "two limited time modes" and the opportunity for players to "earn Cochise-inspired challenge rewards". The ever-loyal fan, I have already changed my player title to THE INSPECTOR, the name of the opening song from Cochise' most recent album. The rapper even released a short teaser video on YouTube announcing this exciting partnership.
This exciting development is a full-circle back to 2020, not only the year that Charles introduced me to Cochise, but also the year that he introduced me to Rocket League. I have now been playing the game for two and a half years and I consider myself a pretty solid player, even surpassing Charles' skills. So I think it's safe to say: Rocket League and Cochise is a match made in heaven! Who knows what heights Cochise can reach if he continues to drop bangers like these!
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