EVERY GENRE PROJECT - December 21 - Jersey Club
Genre of the Day - Jersey Club
Album of the Day - KING by DJ Jayhood (2017)
Detractors can say what they want about New Jersey, but the Garden State makes itself known by any means possible. Whether its penchant for gaudy leopard print, the wild shore’s parties, pork roll at the airport, or its continuum of uproarious dance genres, the state always stands out. Despite being marginalized by some hoity-toity New Yorkers and a legion of other states, Jersey’s cultural role in the American landscape is outsized. In today’s random genre, New Jersey manifests its state’s destiny, conquering shore to shore with an infectious take on dance sounds that rolled their way northbound over the decades, fanning out from Jersey’s turnpike into the clubs and beyond into the online sphere.
Jersey club’s origins lie in a favored vacation spot for Jerseyans—unless there’s some sort of Florida-Jersey rift I’m not privy to, which is certainly possible—down in sunny Miami. In the mid-‘80s, Miami’s take on electro and house began to take on a new life of its own, in raunchy lyrics and rapid rhythms characterized by prominent Roland TR-808 drums and bass, in turn inspired by reggae. In this journey from Jamaica to Jersey, the evolution of genres made a pit stop in Baltimore in the ‘90s. Baltimore club drew from the chopped-up vocal snippets of ghetto house and its collage of popular R&B and rap, while maintaining Miami bass’ unrelenting rhythms.
Jersey club came into its own in the 2000s as DJs inspired by Baltimore’s sound like the pioneer DJ Tameil revitalized Newark nights out with a gusto not seen since Jersey’s influential variation of house. Pushing towards the faster end of the spectrum at around 140 BPM, it blew up the intensity of the kick drums, often in distinctive triplet drum patterns that give it a signature up-and-down bounce. The vocal patterns are chopped and diced even more finely, with two or more often conjoined in a surrealist call-and-response manner. Distinctive sounds like bed squeaks and whip snaps add to the frenzy. As TikTok became a musical superhighway for all sorts of dance genres to percolate and kickstart trends, Jersey club has seen an uptick in interest—CookieKawaii’s “Vibe” took over the app’s airwaves in 2020, kickstarting a Jersey club rap wave that saw its biggest moment yet with Lil Uzi Vert’s “Just Wanna Rock” alien-Jersey club-rager in 2023). Online-hyperreality interpretations like Dariacore are also fond of its unfettered energy, often utilizing Jersey club rhythms and soundpacks.
Today’s album begins with an expected, ebullient chant of “Jersey!” full of energy before its insistent, commandingly repeated chorus—you really do not have a choice whether to put your “Hands on Ya Hips.” The beat demands it, like an overlord whose endgame is a dancing plague all across the state of New Jersey. “Skip to My Lou” flips a carnival-esque melody of a kids’ song into something irresistible to any dancer, while also embodying the genre’s giddy energy. The call-and-response sound collaging both enhances and subverts meanings, such as in the chorus of “Can’t Be Friends,” a song that came out of DJ Jayhood’s real-life heartbreak. The repeated “fucks” that interject with the sample’s dramatic pining blend into the beat, shaking the DJ’s and the dancer’s shoulders and forcing any listener to lose it to the music. Through the power vested in New Jersey and in meticulously-produced, dizzying drum patterns, we can all find ourselves releasing, rejuvenated, and reborn.
Bonus: a cross-over between a previous album of the day and today’s artist, the UK meeting NJ.