Globe Trotting Through The Clouds: An Interview With Ver$ace Chachi

by | Dec 20, 2016 | HIP HOP & RAP

Versace Chachi? Is that spelt with a dollar sign and some cent signs? Or just a dollar sign?” The person across from us at Lamplighter asks, half kidding as we wait for him to arrive.

Versace Chachi? Is that spelt with a dollar sign and some cent signs? Or just a dollar sign?” The person across from us at Lamplighter asks, half kidding as we wait for him to arrive.

“One dollar sign. That’s it,” I smile back.

This article was featured in RVAMag #27: Winter 2016. You can read all of issue #27 here or pick it up at local shops around RVA right now.

She doesn’t know it, but her question was actually pretty funny, a nod to the irony of this whole situation. You see, regardless if she’s a hip-hop fan or not, her sentiment is actually a pretty common one amongst those in and out of the scene.

Ver$ace isn’t quite a household name amongst Richmond hip-hop fans yet, but he will be soon. When he finally arrives to our table, he’s surprisingly full of energy for someone who just got back from a month and half long tour through Europe. And for his third international trip, it appears the rest of the world has caught on to Ver$ace before the city has.

A couple of years ago, Ver$ace was like most MC’s around town, with rap as side hustle sprinkled in with a few local shows to stay relevant. He worked a 9-5 and dabbled around with some creative outlets, but never considered his music as a career. Then, with a promotion and more comfortable lifestyle in sight, Ver$ace left the corporate world to move to New York. He wanted to take rap more seriously.

Crediting his friend and fellow-collaborator Space God with the opportunity, Ver$ace took New York as his training ground to becoming a rapper. Every day was just video games, weed, shooting videos, writing blog posts, and most importantly, recording new music. He changed up his image and started pushing his music hard, with the internet taking notice.

After gaining notoriety overseas for his singles on SoundCloud, Ver$ace took his act abroad, taking his first tour to open for SpaceGho$tPurpp and Young Simmie, as well as XXL 2016 Freshman, Denzel Curry for a show. The audiences loved him, allowing him to sell-out a second tour as the headliner. That brings us to now, where kids in Berlin and Paris are coming up to him the third time around, rapping every last one of his words.

However, despite being a globetrotter, Ver$ace still calls Richmond not only his home, but his “favorite city in the world.” He claims his stomping grounds have more hustle, more culture than all the places he’s seen. He has a love for this place, which is why he left in the first place… to bring it all back home.

Let’s start with the basics. Where are you from in Richmond?

I don’t exactly [say] where because I’ve stayed all over. I don’t claim no hood or nothing crazy like that, but I’m from the south, the Southside.

As you ask, “who the fuck is Ver$ace Chachi?” How did you come up with that name

Well, I used to go by a different name, Spitaz, and by having a “Z” at the end, everyone thought it was a group. I would go to the stage or an open mic and they’d say, “The superstar Spitaz are coming to the stage!” And they’d say it as if it was more than one person. So, I said ‘this shit is fucking annoying. So one day, I bought some Versace glasses at Sunglass Hut. We were really young and shit. I paid like $300 for it and my friend was like, “Oh, your new name is Versace Chachi” and he just kept me calling that shit. It was so annoying. Then all my friends kept calling me it, and they called me that shit until I adopted the name and ran with it. It’s kind of catchy so I just went with it, ever since that day.

You’ve toured all around Europe. How did you get started with that?

I moved to New York about two years ago, actually. I was up there, I had this friend Space God. He’s an artist I met here in Virginia, but I went up there a few times and met with him and liked New York so I moved there. During the process, I met a few people, did a lot of blogging, and finally put my shit out on SoundCloud. I noticed people in Europe were gravitating towards it a little more than here. I had a fan base in Richmond, but it’s just “here.” I had people where I’d go to shows and they’d show me love, but I didn’t feel like I could fully progress and prosper, which is why I went to New York. During that process, I was putting videos and songs out. More people started reaching out to me and I eventually got a tour manager in Europe. We set the tour up with Simmie and SpaceGho$tPurpp, and from that day forward, shit’s just been rolling.

That’s really cool man. I had heard asking around that you had a tour with them

Yeah, I was fucking with them. I still fuck with them. I’m not with them, but they decent people. I met them, we scheduled a tour overseas, and it was dope, bro. That brought a lot of attention because back home, I know pretty much every hip-hop artist out here. I’ve been doing this since I was 15, 16, so I know pretty much everybody. But I felt like there was no way for me to progress back home. I’d do all the shows — those are my peoples, don’t get me wrong — but it was like, “I’m not trying to just do this locally; I really want to step out and do something different.” And then I had option to move to New York, so I took that option and packed up and moved up.

After your third overseas tour, what would you say the hip-hop shows are like there

That shit is fucking insane. It’s crazy because they might not speak English well, but they know your lyrics. They’d come up with their tattoos and spit all your words — that shit is mind-blowing. The first time I went out there, it really fucked me up like, “This shit is not real!” But it motivated me to want to go back.

What was your favorite city?

I personally love Berlin. Paris is cool too, but it’s overrated. It’s like when I moved to New York. At first, I was really excited, but after a while, it’s like, “Oh, it’s just New York.” That’s how it was with Paris, but I had fun there. I fuck with Amsterdam a little bit too, just because of the weed. It’s still Hypebeast, but it’s cool. I always get lost when I go over there.

How would you say Richmond’s culture compares?

I feel it’s better. This is my favorite place in the world. I think every other place is just Hypebeast. I love it because we’re overlooked. We have so much shit here that a lot of people don’t know about. If you haven’t lived here, you wouldn’t know. I’ve seen Richmond grow. It’s slowly growing, but it’s still growing. The styles have changed so much too. This shit used to be dry, but now there’s [streetwear] stores on Broad Street. That shit was crazy.

Talk to me about your label TTF. It seems like it’s a lot of people from a few different cities. How did you all link up?

I created TTF about a year before I met Space God, and it was originally Richmond based, but the first day I met him, we just clicked. I was taking trips back and forth to New York. But he’s from New York, Jay Purp is from Toronto, TrippyGod is from Florida. I have a few other artists from Richmond that are in process of getting things done. It’s a new age in hip-hop where it’s so easy to contact someone, so we’ve been talking for years. Then one day we just said, “Fuck it. Let’s bring it together and make it bigger than what it is.” With these people we have now, everyone has something to offer. They already had their own shit going on. “He didn’t need to pull from me. I didn’t need to pull from him.” We just finished the album in Europe so that’s coming out soon.

You make a lot of references to older, early 2000s video games. What are some of your favorites?

Jet Set Radio, for sure. Chilu, and maybe some sports shit… maybe 2k or Final Fantasy. But I like all sorts of games. Before I was rapping, I was playing video games. That’s all I’d do. Just smoke weed and play video games. I get inspired by that shit, even to this day. I got tons of game systems. If I wasn’t making music, I’d probably have some crazy YouTube channel on some nerd shit.

What are you playing now?

I’ve been on that Pokemon Go shit lately. I only have 70 or 80, just hit level 17, so I’ve been lacking, but I’m about to get back on the field tonight.

Any crazy Pokemon in Europe?

Yeah, I caught some crazy shit, but I was roaming so it’d kill my battery. I’d go outside for like ten minutes and lose like 20% battery, so I couldn’t go ham like I wanted to. But since I’ve been back, I went to Monroe Park and was lighting shit up. I leveled up five levels in one day. Niggas ain’t ready out here.

Your music is reminiscent to the Cloud Rap movement that came out a couple of years ago. Why that sound? Why do you think people still gravitate towards it?

My bro SpaceGod influenced me a lot with that, and being on the internet, with SoundCloud and watching dudes like TeamSESH with independent movements, I was inspired by that. Just that nostalgic-type feel. I would make a song about a video game before I make a song about money or shaking an ass. I feel like that’s too mainstream, so I gravitate more towards the cloud rap. Plus, we smoke a lot of tree. When I moved to New York, we had a 50” TV and we’d just play video games and smoke weed. We had the mic in the room too,so we’d just smoke, watch kung fu, play games, and then make songs about it.

What exactly do you mean by nostalgic?

Just retro shit, like Dreamcast and things like that. I fuck with the Dreamcast a lot because it was so slept on. It’s just the culture I grew up on.

You can check out Ver$ace’s latest EP with Chemist this fall, as well as his latest music on SoundCloud.

Joseph Genest

Joseph Genest




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