Sosocamo x Gjivai Zechiël - Mould breakers

North Carolina isn’t exactly a hub for cultural and historical significance in the US. Its most notable contributions to the US lie in its vast and beautiful mountainous terrains and abundance of rural landscapes. As far as the 51 states go, it’s lower down on the list of relevancy. But it’s still found a way to leave a big mark on the world of hip-hop.

When Petey Pablo released Raise Up in 2001, an emphatic rallying cry and a statement to the rap world that North Carolina was here and wasn’t going anywhere fast, it may have glossed over the attention of the wider world. You ask 90% of hip-hop fans who Petey Pablo is and a wave of confusion will wash over their face. But you ask North Carolina residents who he is and what he did for a state which had been but a blemish on the world of hip-hop, and their eyes will light up.

Petey Pablo didn’t take over the rap world but he did enough to show his state that this world wasn’t elusive to them. Raise Up sent off a chain reaction on the southern East Coast of the United States. It was a bold anthem which paved the spotlight for the likes of Little Brother, Rapsody, J.Cole, DaBaby andCordae to quite literally raise up from the North Carolina streets and all make names for themselves in the hip-hop world. Today you can’t write a book on US rap’s lineage without dedicating a number of pages to the state. 

Dutch midfielders these days are surrounded by an air of class. It’s etched into their DNA to be silky on the ball and appear as though they always have time on the ball. It’s like they’re made for us fans to hammer on about how easy they make it all look. Think Frenkie de Jong, Tijani Reijnders and Ryan Gravenberch. No matter how natural their performances on the pitch appear, this is a result of countless hours on the training pitch being moulded in the vision of Dutch youth coaches.

And those Dutch youth coaches have a vision which was moulded by that of Johan Cruyff and his total football ethos which swept through the country’s education system, clasping itself onto the fabric of every player and every curriculum along the way and resulting in a nation with a footballing culture which is built on expression, technique and individuality.

And perhaps The Netherland’s infatuation with Cruyff’s incredible football brain has seen it’s modern day climate wielded a bit too far in his idealisms. Now Dutch football is filled with a lot of the same types of players. Far removed are they from the days of wingers with frightening pace and effectiveness; skillful yet bullish strikers and imposing, gritty defensive midfielders. They’ve even seemed to stop producing number 10s. Though Donyell Malen and Brian Brobbey have offered somewhat of a resurgence of the striker position in Dutch football, you have to go back to Robin Van Persie over a decade ago to find their last world-class number nine. 

There’s a lot of Dutch centre-backs who are pretty with the ball but can’t defend, there’s a lot of midfielders who look great on first inspection but who you don’t want to be stuck in the trenches with. Sometimes it feels like Dutch football’s focus on what Cruyff wanted has been confused with just creating the most stylish and aesthetically pleasing players who aren’t perhaps effective enough at the pivotal qualities which separate the good from the great.

De Jong, Reijnders and Gravenberch, for their obvious talent, do have shortfalls which teams need to cater for. They aren’t defensive midfielders who have the awareness and discipline to sweep and screen the backline. They lack the allure of great goalscoring prowess and aren’t clairvoyant creative passers to make a real difference in the final third. In other words, they excel at the least important things a midfielder needs at their disposal. And this is the three best midfielders of a nation which prides itself on their ability to creative technical wizards.

But a breaker of chains is on his way to put an end to this cycle.

Perhaps it’s the lack of vibrancy  in North Carolina which leaves people with a lot of time to sit with their own thoughts. Maybe it's the nature and extraordinary views which give the brain every excuse to sit down and reflect. But most rappers to come out of the state since Petey Pablo have all traunced down the path of introspective and lyrical hip-hop. From Little Brother to Rapsody to J.Cole to Cordae, they’re all artists with messages layered through every song that requires the listener to sit on every word if they want to get the most out of each artist.

Even Dababy toyed with this approach during the peak of his career from 2019-2020. Up until now he remains the only big artist to herald from NC which has predominantly stayed away from the conscious side of the pond. Until now.

Sosocamo and Gjivai Zechiël are quickly breaking away from their predecessors to become something that neither The Netherlands or North Carolina are used to in the last 10 years.

Sosocamo

24 year old Cameron Sanders has music in his blood. Born and raised in North Carolina, his father was a well-known RnB and gospel producer. At 14, in a bid to emulate his dad who would never let him in a studio session, Sanders bought his first music set up with a $100 Amazon gift card.

Like most belonging to that generation in the US, Sanders had the likes of Future, Young Thug, Kendrick Lamar and North Carolina’s own J.Cole providing the soundtrack to his early life. But his similarities to Cole musically would stop at the area they grew up in. 

Because Sanders, unlike most of the rappers who have come out of North Carolina, doesn’t fit under that conscious umbrella. This isn’t a good or a bad thing, however it is different from the norm. The lyrical and subliminal content of his songs are very surface level. They bounce from talking about girls to talking about drinks to drugs to money to cars. It’s fun and easy to listen to without being too demeaning and something you’d feel awkward to play around your folks.

Sosocamo’s sound is one obviously laced with inspiration from both Future and Thugger. That’s not to say it’s a carbon copy of two of the genre’s biggest innovators but you can tell he’s a big admirer of their work. His cadence and use of autotune draws automatic comparisons, but a lot Sosocamo’s production, which is mainly engineered by his girlfriend Grayto, is evidently R&B influenced and so there’s a really unique blend of southern trap and more soulful sounds in his music.

So early on into his career, he’s been able to tweak that dreamy, hazy, late-night sound to create an array of vibrant yet dark songs which are the perfect backdrop to those late night contemplative car rides or just chilling out in your room. 

This is just a reflection of the person Sosocamo is. In interviews he doesn’t come across as someone who takes himself too seriously. He seems chilled out and pretty fun, quite happy to be where he is. And so it makes sense when he describes his music as stuff you can ‘chill and have fun to’ because that’s more or less who he is.

Sosocamo’s breakthrough came in 2024 when his song ‘Keep Steady’ went viral on social media. Now sitting at over 100 million streams on Spotify, it’s a great introduction to the artist. Light and bouncy production perfectly complemented by the ease of his tone and flow. ‘Keep Steady’ was the lead single for the album ‘No Service’ which dropped last year. A homage to North Carolina which apparently isn’t known for it’s telecommunication networks, the album did everything it needed to do to show that Sosocamo was definitely a name for the present and future.

With 13 songs that don’t even total half an hour of run time, it’s fast paced and enjoyable. Having your producer also being your partner can perhaps blur the lines between personal and work life but it also means that the beats and production on almost every track are going to be perfectly suited for you. Who else is going to know your tastes as well?

The music Sosocamo is making is as soul-fulfilling as it is objectively good. He’s taken the best from a lot of the trap genre’s most influential artists and moulded it with his personality and the influences of his father to carve out a lane unique to him in the rap world. He says that he thinks his music is getting better with every song and so if it’s already this good so early into his career, what is it going to be like in a few years time? 

Gjivai Zechiël

If there’s anyone out there who might break the mould of aesthetic Dutch midfielders who possess skillsets which don’t move the needle, then chances are it’s going to be Gjivai Zechiël.

The 22 year old has been on the books of Feyenoord since 14, making his first-team debut 3 years ago. The midfielder hasn’t exactly been a huge name on the tongues of most Dutch fans and anyone around Europe privy to watching youth football. Up until this season, his future at Feyenoord seemed in question as he became swept up in a cycle of loans at Sparta Rotterdam and FC Utrecht. But it was the twelve months Zechiel spent at Utrecht last season which turned everything around.

The Dutchman played 50 games for the Eredivisie side, gradually turning into their most important player and lynchpin of their midfield. He found the back of the net 10 times and grabbed 10 assists too and instead of sending him on loan the following 2026/27 season, Feyenoord elected to keep their midfield maestro.

And if anything, Zechiël has gone up another level at the beginning of this season. 5 goals and 4 assists in his first 8 games is an extremely impressive tally for a midfielder who finds himself away from the box so often. Obviously you have to take the Dutch league with a pinch of salt given its current level and how far ahead the bigger sides are from the rest of the pack. But Zechiël’s performances at Utrecht and his displays so far in Europe lead the belief that this is a very talented footballer.

He’s one of those players that appears taller than he actually is. Maybe it’s because of the giant afro on his head or his relatively slender frame and long legs, but it was surprising to see his height listed at 5 '10'’ on Fotmob. Like most Dutch midfielders, he’s very switched on upstairs. Zechiël plays the ball quickly and with very good weight on his passes. He seems to know when he has time and when he doesn’t and plays accordingly, even if his back is facing away from play.

He can maybe look slightly languid upon first glance, but Zechiel is deceptively quick with great acceleration to explode away from players when he has the ball. The De Jong and Gravenberch trademark. No matter where he’s playing, he’ll always show for the ball and look comfortable receiving it in all areas.

There’s a real air of maturity to his game. It’s in the way he sniffs out loose balls before possession has even been lost and in the way he springs forward without the ball to support attacks. He’s separated from the aforementioned midfielders he shares a nation with because you can tell he wants to make a real impact in the final third. Perhaps it’s a result of coach instructions or just the way he’s wired, but it explains why his output has shot off like a rocket at the beginning of this season and why it was impressive last year too.

Zechiël’s approach to duels is also noteworthy because he goes into them like someone not afraid to get stuck in. This is often a concern for Dutch midfielders because many don’t like to do the nitty-gritty dogwork required in the centre of the pitch. But Feyenoord’s number 8 looks like he’s got it in spades. 

Although his intelligence, stature and awareness might make Zechiël a more than solid number 6, his dribbling ability and eagerness to get forward make him a very interesting box-to-box player. He’s agile and quick with his movements. A fan of little feints and drops of the shoulder to create a second of space, he’s inventive enough to find his way out of tight areas and has the composure and technical ability to keep the ball close to him at all times.

With many Dutch midfielders, you can get hoodwinked into believing they might be better than they actually are because when they have the ball, they look brilliant. But what you have to do is look at them when they don’t have the ball, in both an attacking and defensive sense. Gjivai Zechiël wants to score goals and wants to protect his centre-backs. That might sound like the bare minimum, but not every young midfielder these days chooses to do it or simply can’t.

For some reason he still finds himself starting in the under 21s for the Netherlands despite being included in their senior squad for this round of Nations League fixtures. Less indicative of his quality and more of a footballing nation which has struggled massively to develop and identify their most effective players, it would be very surprising to see him not displace either Tijani Reijnders or Frenkie De Jong in the next coming years. Because frankly, he gives you more than they do.

Sosocamo and Gjivai Zechiël, although wonderfully talented, they’re being written about because they’re different to their predecessors in a wildly refreshing way. And it’s their originality compared to the ones that came before them that will take them as far as they do end up going.