Ché Noir Talks The Color Chocolate EP, Project With 7xvethegenius, And More
Courtesy of JRUGG
We said it before and we''ll say it again. Ché Noir is Buffalo, NY's finest. Not only is she one of Buffalo, NY's finest, but she is also one of Hip-Hop’s most skilled rappers and producers—regardless of gender— in the game. Quiet as kept.
In Search Of Magazine caught up with the emcee who discussed her passion for Hip-Hop and her journey as an artist. Ché broke down her early influences and how she started writing poetry and rhyming at a young age. But it was the importance of contesting herself to devote herself to her birthright.
"It just really came from me challenging myself," she says on Zoom. "And to some people that may come off as jarring because a lot of people aren't as, not to say talented, but they aren't as passionate about [Hip-Hop]. Because to be able to break rap down, you got to be passionate enough to really pay attention that somebody just rhyme with that type of syllable, that flow, that scheme. That's something you got to really study and the art and to know to pick up on its hidden lessons."
Ché Noir blessed the zine with a conversation covering her work relationship with 38 Spesh, her recently issued Color Chocolate EP, a new LP, and a collaboration album with 7xvethegenius. She also touches on the current state of the music industry and the need for more authenticity and balance in Hip-Hop. Here is our conversation.
In Search Of Magazine: How did you become Ché Noir? How did you transform into the daughter of Illmatic?
Ché Noir: Man, honestly, it started with me being passionate about Hip-Hop. I was a little nerdy black girl from the hood, and I just was into a different type of Hip-Hop. I was into studying how people would write, rhyme it, and then make it sound like a conversation. I studied that.
And at some point, that's when I started penning myself. I would say I probably was around 11 or 12 when I started writing poetry and rhyming it, and then it became another level for me when I learned how to do it, but in a syllable phrase. And a lot of it is with each level for me was just a challenge. I'm a very competitive person, so for me, I like to challenge myself.
When I first started learning how to rap, that wasn't the easiest thing with the three or four or even five because MF Doom, he had so many syllables, you know what I'm saying? To know how to do that, you have to be skilled. And that was something I challenged myself to rap like that, but make it make sense. The next line goes with the line before it. I'm not just saying a bunch of nothing.
ISO: How did you formulate that relationship with 38 Spesh and how did it get to where it is today?
C: It just started with me reaching out to him. I inboxed him on Facebook and I sent him my music. And I didn't expect him to get back. I ain't going to lie. I remember telling my friend, I was like, he probably ain't going to get back, but I'm going to send him something still. This was when, at the time, I wasn't really doing music fully, but I was getting inspired, because I had stopped doing it. I had kind of quit. I was still making music, but I just was like, I'm going to chill out on it because it just got my attention at the time. This was like... This was 2018, the beginning of 2018, but I had stopped making music like 2017. I had kind of quit with the music thing.
What made me get back into it honestly was Westside Gunn hit me up. This is the end of 2017, and I was like, because I knew Benny. Benny at this time, this is when he first signed with Griselda officially, and the Shady thing came out. I think that might've been the year before that, but Benny had been putting people onto me since 2016, but it was a random thing. He had just randomly hit me up and just kind of picking me up and was telling the whole town, the whole buff like, "Yo, y'all got to get behind this girl. She crazy."
That inspired me to get back in, because I was just like, man, I'm making music, but I ain't nobody listening. It had ended up becoming a big thing and I ended up, hell getting back in the studio. I had went out to Detroit and recorded some music with a producer I knew out there, came back, I had some music sitting, but I ain't know how to really put it out.
I hit up Spesh, just seeing if he knew of me, because Spesh had took a lot of time off too, so I had seen that he was dropping music again. Him and Benny had put an album out, so I'm going to hit him up, see if he want to work, and he had got back to me immediately and I got on the phone with him. I was on the phone with him for 30 minutes and he's like, "Yo, you got to drive out here to Rochester. I got to meet you. We got to have a conversation."
At first meeting, I went up to Rochester with my cousin. The first meeting, he had a plan. He had a song he wanted me to get on. He had a rollout that he wanted me to do for an album. It was, "Damn, okay, we just talked yesterday." He had all of this mapped out. I respected that because he was actually the first person that was showing me love. That was like, "Yo, I want to meet you in person and I got to play with you." That was different and it made me more inspired to really take the music serious because I felt like somebody who was willing and ready to invest in me and helped me out and give me some type of platform, they believed in me and they was ready to take a gamble on me. You know what I'm saying?
Because a lot of times, I've worked with artists and you don't know what you're getting yourself into. Sometimes you deal with an artist, you may put money behind them, they're lazy, they waste your money and that'll turn you off from even wanting deal with other artists. But he didn't know what he was getting with me, but I always just wanted to prove that I'm not going to be a waste of time for you, because I want this shit just as bad too. But that's really how it started with us, and we just was in the studio every day for months for them or a year.
ISO: How did you come up wit the name "Ché Noir?"
C: We were in a studio just vibing, and my nickname was Ché growing up. I had a lot of different nicknames, but a lot of people outside of my family would call me Ché, and my maiden last name is Black. My friend just said some random shit one day, it's like "Noir" and I was like, oh, that's fire. Let's keep that. Because I was rapping, but I ain't had no rap name. People used to ask me because I was on shows without a rap name. I was using my real name. It was random sh*t we came up with in the studio.
ISO: That's hard. As you mentioned previously you're married, you got multiple businesses, you got a barbershop, you got a project on the way, The Color Chocolate EP, girl, you doing it all. How do you manage your time so well that you can give every faction of your life a hundred percent?
C: I always had a different type of work ethic. I think too, it's also important because outside of the music, if you got a healthy personal life where you got, we all go through shit. But you got people, a good support system. That's going to help along the way, because I don't do it all on my own. I own my business and it's a brick and mortar business, but we own it together.
When I can't do something, he's doing it. When he can't do something, I'm doing it. And even with the music thing, he has helped me out with a lot of things that has helped me. Because like I said, I was taking a lot of time off, because I didn't know how to do a lot of things. And then I've been more open to hiring a team of people that's been helping me build what I hope one day to be an empire.
But it's a slow steady start, but it's just really about having a healthy support system and people around you, rather it's a significant other, or it could be your family or your friends, people who just support what you're doing. I got a support system where if I get a call that I need to be in LA tomorrow, I tell them, "Okay, yeah, what time? Let's go. We out." And I used to drive back and forth to the city on that type of time. I got to be in the city tonight or I got to be in the city tomorrow.
But you got people that's willing to drop what they doing and ride for you because they believe in, and they want the same things as you, that makes it all more easy for you, and you able to manage all of these things. Because sometimes I'd even be thinking, I take time off and we'll go on vacations and take time off and then get back to work after resetting. But I love what I do so much, it don't feel like work. But I think what helps it is having a healthy support system.
ISO: You just dropped The Color Chocolate EP. Four tracks, real quick light work for you. Did you produce that whole project or did you get beats from elsewhere to craft it?
C: It was a four-piece that I just got. I got some beats from Playa Haze, shout out to him. I hit him up over the summer and he sent me two beat packs and that's how I got the two beats from him. Got some other producers, Grey Matter, that was just something I put together and I put it together after I was done recording my album. I was waiting to get verses back and now I'm in the process of clearing. I got one more verse I'm trying to clear and then it's going to be a full length album that I'm putting out in the spring. That's what we aiming to get that out in the spring.
But this four-piece came with me just like, okay, I'm feeling inspired. Let me try to cook up some more and see what I can come up with. And I was at four tracks and my husband was like, "You got four, why don't you just put that out? Your fans, they waiting for something. Ain't nothing wrong with just giving them something, they going to love whatever you put out."
So that's kind of how that idea came with me, just giving them a four piece. And when I released the vinyls too. And also it's me trying some different things with different rollout ideas that I have from my projects, different exclusive sales from my fans. Like okay, we're doing a vinyl release for this, but the vinyl is going to have nine tracks on there. It's going to have a bonus track and then instrumentals to kind of give them a different experience.
And I've never done it that way. I got that idea by talking to the people. I'm going through the vinyl company that I'm getting the vinyls through and just trying some different things out. That's another thing too. It's a lot of advice I got early on about marketing. You're in a safe place where you can market differently to your fan base.
ISO: You recently dropped "Junior High" with Your Old Droog and Evidence. How did that song come to be?
C: It's crazy because the "Junior High" record came up, I was writing that verse on my way to New York. I was going to Run the Jewel's concert my way there, I swear. And I went to the concert, I was like, yeah, I'm about to record something. I came back and recorded the verse, because we went there and then came right back. That night just on some random sh*t, we was like, "Man, might as well I got invited." And that's all that sh*t came.
ISO: Now, which verse from that session for "Junior High," which one came first? Was it Your Old Droog or Evidence, or was yours first and then you were waiting for those two?
C: I did mine first. I hit up Evidence, got his, and then I was like, okay, I got to put Droog on here. But when I sent it to Droog, I only had my verse on there, because I kind of wanted see how it would come together. And I had got Droog's verse back first and I got Evidence. Then I was like, okay, Evidence got to go in the middle. And then Droog got to end it because just the way he ended his verse and I was like, yeah, that's a perfect way to end it.
ISO: Which song on the project took the longest for you to write, if any at all?
C: It's crazy because all of them verses I just wrote in one session. The longest to finish was "Greek Scholar" with Icecoldbishop, because I had hit him up. I didn't have a song for him when I hit him up. I was going through some beat packs and that's how I got the song with him, because I was a fan. He's an artist that came on my radar when I had took some time off last year and he had an album. What was that thing called? I'm drawing a blank. The thing it was called Generational Curses. He had an album he put out that I thought was dope. He came across my radar.
I was actually on vacation when I was listening to it and I was like, oh, he's dope. I like it. I like his vibe. I had decided to hit him up when I was really working on something new. I didn't have a song for him, but I had just went digging, wrote it in this song. But that was the last piece, the last song that I needed to finish the EP. His came, I think he sent me his verse maybe a week before I turned it in.
ISO: The album that comes after this, is there anything you can give me without giving too much away about what we will get?
C: I don't want to say too much, but I will say this. It is somebody on there that my fans have been asking me to work with for a while, that it is done. And it's crazy because I've been itching to just announce it, but I'm like, nah, we going to hold it, but it's going to be a bomb. It's going to be a bomb. It's defintely going to be focused on where I come from and where I'm going. For me, I'm 29, it's hard for me to tell 29 years' worth of my life in just one project. It's always that in every project that I have because I grow every day, but I'm still healing and learning from my past, and I'm still going through things in the present.
So that's really what this album is about. It's reflecting on the past and just where I've grown, who I've grown to be, and being that kid of struggle, poverty or trauma or whatever it is. And just growing from that into the woman I am today who's a businesswoman, a wife, artist, a rapper, and a producer. It's always going to be a reflection of that.
ISO: How important is it for you to peel back those layers of self to reveal these deep, sometimes dark parts of your person. Secondly, how important is it for you to keep that going forward in Hip-Hop?
C: It's very important because I'm a somewhat private person. For me, I open up through my music and that's how the fans connect with the artists. I came up during an era where social media wasn't a thing. The only time we would hear from our favorite artists is if we somehow catch an interview of them or through the music, but it was mainly through the music.
It's like you get that connection through them, you get that connection with them through the music, I would say. It's crazy because I was having that conversation the other day, social media gives you more of a glimpse into the artist, but I just come up from a different era. For me, that's the way my fans connect with me. I get a lot of fans will tell me, "Yo, I've been through something similar or your music helped me get through this."
Because a lot of the music I listened to growing up, don't get me wrong, I liked the party sht, but most of the music that I connected with the most was the pain music or just the day-to-day type of music that's describing and helping me get through my life. That real sh*t. I was working, I had a bunch of different jobs coming up. But when I was working, I had music that I had to get me through my day of work at a job I hated, or when I've lost people or been through things, I got that certain... The music played a soundtrack to your life.
I try to give that to my fans. I want to connect with my fans through relatable issues and letting them know you can rise above it. If I can do it, you can too. it's something that's very important to me because for me, that's one of the main ways you connect with your fans is through your music. It's important to give that layer of yourself to them.
ISO: When you survey hip hop landscape right now, 2023, 2024, do you feel like that type of artistry is a priority among artists? Or do you think it's fallen by the wayside?
C: As far as people giving themselves and the music? No. I don't feel like a lot of artists really do it. You got some that do, and I respect them. But it's not really a lot of artists that do that. There's a lot of beauty in the streaming era of music because it is helping people like myself who are independent, where we could release music on bigger platforms and we get the chance to control the narrative of how our music is marketed.
But there's also a downside to it because when it's a market where numbers is the most important thing and what's selling and what's getting attention, it becomes a thing where, okay, you got people going into studios and literally copying and pasting, and, saying, "Oh, that works. So we're going to just keep doing that." "Oh, they're getting success doing that? Let's do the same thing."
And a lot of these artists are going through things and we're seeing this because it's all over the blogs. You go on Instagram and see it as soon as you open the app with the person's going through, but you're not hearing that through their music.
It's just, I definitely think it's something that more artists should take keys to because honestly, this is another thing too I noticed with the music I grew up with. Rumors have always been a thing in the industry, but a lot of artists would control the narrative on that rumor. They would address it in their music.
These artists don't even address it in their music. It's like when you're addressing music, it's like, okay, that's what really happened. Oh, I know there was some bullshit, but now they don't even care about addressing that. That's another way you can connect with your fans too, is addressing those things. If you're a public person and you're dealing with that, that's another way to connect with them. I don't get why they don't do it more. I know I would've if I was in their shoes.
ISO: Do you often get fearful for the state of Hip-Hop because of that? And do you see anybody, new artists right now, carrying that artistic sensibility?
C: Not anybody I see. You got some sprinkled in there. That's why I say you got to dig deeper. You got some that's trying to speak, but they're just not getting that attention that the other ones are getting. And I think, listen, I'm not against, because I always say, I always look at it like this like I respect any way, if you found the way, this is how you feeding your family. And anybody that's coming up from, especially where I come up from, you found a way to feed your family and be alive, listen, I respect that.
I think I feel like it needs to be more balanced with, this particular group and then this particular group, it just needs to be more balanced. I don't feel like it's a shared platform. It's geared towards one group and that's the part that I don't really care for. Because the industry, I remember like you said, you brought up the dance thing. And I say this all the time when I debate music with my people like, it was a time where it was looking a little, it was looking crazy. But, it was very balanced because you still had the Jay-Z's who was putting out records that was big records. Of course, Jay-Z coming with his sh*t. You had the Nas that's still putting out big records, so it was more balanced. Now it's just like it's only geared to one group.
And that's the only thing that worries me because why aren't the other ones getting more shine? I just feel like it needs to be more balanced. That's the only part that worries me because industry, because I've sat down in meetings with a handful of labels who have even admitted that I'm a talented artist, but they focus so much on numbers and fearful part for me because everything goes viral now. So, does it really matter to y'all the quality of it?
And that's the part that worries me the most because I don't think I've ever seen it this bad to where it's like, damn, it's no balance at all.
ISO: Is that a constant conversation you've had with other independent artists?
C: Yeah, I have. And I think I can't speak for nobody else, but for me that's a lot of the reason why I haven't taken that step on a label partnership. Because I had a situation last year where, I am not going to say who it was, but I had a situation where I was speaking with a label and possibly partnering on a project. And just the language, labels now they want to get on a train that's already moving. They don't want to risk or invest even if you are talented and got a fan base, you know what I'm saying? You just probably need an extra machine behind you, which most people do. But it's just different how they go about it now.
And that is a lot of the reason why I will try at least to see how far I can go doing it on my own. And I push every artist to do the same because if it takes you moving for them to finally believe, you can't trust situations like that.
I have that conversation all the time with artists. That's why I am blessed in a position where I have a strong fan base who supports me. They spend money with me. It may not be the biggest fan base in the world, but it is growing every year.
And that's something that the labels, they're always going to jump on whatever the next trend is. They don't even know what the hell they're doing half the time. You know what I'm saying? It's really up to us to set that narrative of how things are going to go, because now TikTok came out of nowhere and it's trending thing.
But now labels, if you pay attention, labels are doing things where they're doing high. They're doing like, I remember when YouTube became a thing, they had the Alvin Chipmunk version of songs. Now they're making, they're releasing versions of albums like that so they can keep up with the TikTok sh*t. And it's like, y'all not setting the trends. Y'all are hopping on whatever is the trend. Y'all don't know the hell y'all doing for real.
It's like I have that conversation all the time. I don't know what the solution is, but I know I'm just going to keep staying in my lane and focusing on what I got and growing from here because I've gotten here as far as I have on my own and enough people know me. I've been in enough doors. I've gotten into enough doors without all of that.
It's just about being consistent. Who knows? It takes years but I'm willing. I'm patient enough to wait because I know it'll be well worth it.
ISO: What would be the perfect label situation for you to consider signing to a major label?
C: I don't think it's for me. It was more so, I wouldn't mind doing a one project partnership at some point. Not a thing where I'm signed to them as an artist, just more so as a partner with my label and their label. And that's something that may come down the line, but it took me sitting down and talking to these people and actually learning more about the business for me to see that...It's going to be a time where that may be a good option, but right now it may not be. It may be better to keep climbing and getting your own self to where you need to be. Because if you got enough connections and you know enough people, whats the point? You doing it yourself. I don't know. For me, it'll have to make sense for me and my family, in my business for me to take that step. But as of right now, I don't see the point in me doing that.
ISO: Lets shift gears a bit. I heard there was supposed to be a joint project of some kind with you and 7xvethegenius. What's going on with that?
C: Yeah, we got an album. We're dropping it this year. I don't know when, but we're going to drop it this year. It is pretty much done. We're just putting some last minute touches on it. But yeah, it's pretty much done. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's nuts. I think it's 10 [tracks]. It might be 10. I produced one joint on there, but we got outside producers, we got Conductor on there. Yeah, we got Conductor, we got Black Metaphor, we got Khrysis. I'm trying to think who else. We got a few people. We got a few people.
[But this project]—It's different. It's different. It's a fire crazy project. It is different. It's crazy because we started working on it at the end of 2022 and wih our schedules, we finished a lot of, most of the records in three sessions. But with schedules, conflicting schedules and stuff, we pretty much finished up most of the songs. I think we just got one more song we had and just doing some little finishing touches. But it's pretty much done. It's done. We're dropping that this year. It's coming out this year. 2024. Just wait.
ISO: We looking forward to it! Is there anything else that we should be looking forward to from you this year?
C: Just my growth as an artist. The album that I'm doing, I'm producing the whole thing that I'm dropping. I produce the whole thing. And just another level giving them, because like I said, I've been producing for so long but don't really produce a lot. I would say I don't release a lot of records that I produce. I produce a lot, but I don't release a lot of the records with me being on it that I produce.
Just giving them another, I would say peek into the artistry of mine, because the last record that they heard me really somewhat produced fully is Food for Thought. But I didn't produce that whole thing, but I produced the majority of the records on there. Just giving them another peek. And this is a whole another level up. I'm doing different things with the production on here. And then also the album that I'm putting out that I'm fully producing, I'm tapping into some other, opening myself up to different concepts and subject matter and different sounds. And I think that'd be appreciative, especially in this time. And then I think it'd be something they'll appreciate. But it's just me showing my range as an artist and a producer. That's something I definitely want people to be on the lookout for is my range. I'm definitely leveling it up with that this year.
