The Alchemy Between Footy and Hip Hop: Cousin Feo
The Death at the Derby rapper on the wildest rivalries in world football, his LA Galaxy collabs, and how the Rose Bowl's debut MLS game generated a unique and lifelong perspective
Cousin Feo is an artist and musician who crafts records that fuse hip hop with soccer, drawing from the passion and intensity of the biggest rivalries in the world’s game. Feo stopped by to talk about the genesis of his sound, his lifelong support and collaborations with the LA Galaxy, and how his perspectives reflect through the vibrancy of the game.
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Selected text edited for clarity:
Joie Galactique: It was cool meeting you at Arrow Lodge Brewing for the MLS season opener. There were a lot of people there - myself included - buying your records.
Cousin Feo: It’s interesting, you never really know what you like until someone puts it in front of you, and you’re like, ‘oh yeah, I rock with that.’ The music and what I’ve been able to do as an individual - let alone the Death at the Derby shit, which involves my boy Dubplates the DJ and my brother Lord Juco who’s out in Toronto - we’ve been able to tap into a certain thing. People who love hip hop who also are big fans of the game - arguably the two biggest cultures on the planet in terms of impact and all kinds of other angles we can get into.
Definitely being here in LA, it’s a blessing to get hometown support in any fashion. Furthermore, just being able to get love from all different countries and parts of the planet, rock with different producers from different countries and so on and so forth. I didn’t know it was going to hit - when I put the first project out, there was no expectation. I didn’t know if people were going to rock with it or not. And like I said, thankfully they did, and it is what it is now.
How would you say the city of Los Angeles is reflected in your sound?
Cousin Feo: As far as the production and even my style, as far as rapping and whatnot, I’m definitely not traditional West Coast sounding. Because of my uncle, I was feeling whatever tape was on deck - Wu Tang and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony were two of the earliest groups that I was listening to because those were the hand-me-down tapes I could get from my uncle back then, and then from there I really started expanding my taste with music.
My interest in reading and writing since I was young, and listening to cats like Wu Tang and shit, was just mind blowing for me at a young age and definitely influenced my style moving forward. But I’m born and raised in LA, so there’s elements of that upbringing that I’m always incorporating into the music, whether it’s through the slang, referencing certain spots or certain streets, whatever the matter is when I’m painting a picture. I try to blend it in and be myself, number one.
Anyone that knows me knows what I’m about - they know it’s West Cost first time all the time. The city’s been supportive, from the Galaxy community to the underground rap supporters in the city - it’s been love. Doing the grassroots approach, in terms of just getting out there. Just like I was doing with you guys at the bar - just politicking, enjoying the game, having a brew, and letting people know you not too much different from them, you just make music.
Your debut LP The Repertoire was released last year - how does it speak on themes of transition and transcendence and really coming into your own?
Cousin Feo: That project is actually something that would have dropped before I even started doing this footy rap shit - it’s entirely produced by my French homie Keor Meteor, who I actually dropped the first two soccer projects with. And those ideas really came from some kind of crazy vision or something. The project is a little over ten years old, to be honest - it found the shelf only because this soccer shit did take off, and people did enjoy that first project. So it gave me the ammo to keep shooting away and putting stuff out.
As I went, I got the “A la Carte” circuit, then Death at the Derby was born. So now that I had the audience and the listeners to better appreciate The Repertoire, I felt like it was time. I wanted to kind of switch it up from this whole box that I’m as far as ‘oh you know, you do the soccer rap shit.’ And that project is a piece of me, man. It’s a very personal project, it’s a very concise project in terms of time, but the whole project itself is a story. It’s literally a day of what life was like ten years or so ago. And it’s different moments or stories, whether I lived them or someone close to me lived them - I weaved them all together in this graphic novel, kind of audiobook scenario. It’s a special piece - the vinyl’s gonna be coming out pretty soon, a couple waves of merch to compliment it as well, and some visual pieces that aren’t your typical music videos but more like movie trailers.
How is hip hop the perfect complement to soccer?
Cousin Feo: Hip hop is just that culture of making something out of nothing. Seeing your favorite producers flip and sample a record, taking this little sound or this loop that they love and just turning it into some whole other shit. All the different artists, the different rhyme schemes, the level of lyricism that’s out there - it’s alchemy, in my opinion. So growing up listening to Wu Tang and the influence that they had - their ability to combine this martial arts culture and everything that came with it into their music - they were able to mesh it in a way that was new but natural. It just made sense, even though you hadn’t heard it before.
Subconsciously, that just got imbedded in me. That influence from them flipping the formula and just doing something different - I just approached what I was doing with the same attitude.
The Death at the Derby series stems from you supporting Manchester United and Lord Juco supporting Liverpool while highlighting the intensity of rivalries around the world. “Turkish Empires” is insane, with Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe, “Favela Favorites” with Flamengo and Fluminense, “Chilean Crack” with Colo-Colo vs. Universidad. Do you have a favorite derby in world football?
Cousin Feo: Man, I might have to go with the Boca-River one, there’s nothing like it. It’s crazy, having done all these derbies and just researching more of them, there’s nothing like Argentine football, let alone that derby. That derby, for it to get moved to another country to play in for safety reasons - these fan bases are on another tier with it. So I’d have to say that one - it has crazy stories, the fan bases are nuts, there’s nothing like these motherfuckers. I’d probably have to say that, but there’s so many intense ones.
Let’s say for example in the US, in MLS, we got the New York and the LA ones, but they’re literally rooted in some crosstown rival shit. Like that kid across the street you don’t like kind of energy, as opposed to these derbies that have political roots and social roots attached to them, which makes the rivalries that more intense. So it’s been ill to not only get the response from the people who like the music, but as a footy fan just to educate myself more on a game I enjoy watching and love to talk about. So it’s kind of giving back in a way.
It’s fun getting lost in that rabbit hole of world football rivalries through music.
Cousin Feo: It was a very natural thing. Juco reached out to me, just showing love. He had heard the record that me and Keor had made, A Little Caviar, the first EP that was French-themed. And both me and him, we both got Zizou in our top five personal favorites. So he hit me up and said, ‘yo, this Zidane record is crazy,’ and we just built from that. And in talking we find out he’s a Liverpool fan, I’m a Man U fan, so that was a funny thing too. And we decided to just go with that.
What gave me the confidence to even hit Juco up was I knew he was a footy fan, so I know he knows his shit. Without him being on that same level with me, this wouldn’t work. We both genuinely love the game and we’re nerds about it, to be honest. So being able to have that knowledge and use it and flip it in rhymes, it benefits the quality of the records. It’s been a perfect match - bringing my brother Dubplates who provides his services with his cuts and really adding the culture to the whole shit, where it really brings you in and makes you feel like you’re at a game. Without those two guys, none of it works.
Dubplates is slowly becoming a bigger soccer fan. That’s the ill part - especially when you hear people who were never really footy fans or never really had any interest in soccer per se, they’ll hit up from time to time like, ‘I find it more interesting’ or ‘I better understand now because of what you all doing with the music.’ And it’s like, ‘yo, that’s dope.’
How did your collab with MURS come about on “Galactic Blacksmiths”?
Cousin Feo: I got connected to the Galaxy first and foremost through somebody in the front office - good people regardless of what’s going on, it really has nothing to do with them in the first place - homie reached out to me on Twitter at the time when I had dropped this album called Provoleta. They asked me if I was from LA, if I was a Galaxy fan, and they asked me to come perform at one of these preseason events at the Digs - all the supporters’ groups were there, good vibes and everything. We performed a 25-30 minute set, did a couple pop ups. That further solidified a relationship with me in the club in terms of a creative.
The same person that connected me to the club got the same relationship with MURS. The day we did a pop up, MURS came over to where we were at, just genuinely showed love, bought a record, and he was just straight up - like, ‘yo, let’s cook.’ He was just a genuine dude, very down to earth. From that pop up, some months passed, and I finally got some beats that I felt we could do something with. We finally narrowed it down to a joint. It was all very organic, nothing was forced, nothing was done under pressure.
Obviously being an OG not only in LA but just as far as the rap game is concerned, and all his experience and knowledge, I’m in a position where I can be a sponge and just learn. It’s always a privilege to be able to talk to him and just pick his brain about certain things. And the record, on top of that - the Galaxy community is a special community. They definitely showed the record love, spreading it around, and now people have another little gameday anthem just to set the vibe right.
The Galaxy have put out some pretty tone-deaf marketing videos featuring supporters without mentioning the boycott so far this year. Talk about your “Chicharito” collab with the Galaxy and how that connected with the community in a way the club currently isn’t?
Cousin Feo: As far as that situation, again: shout out my boy in the front office who has brought these opportunities to me. I’m not necessarily owed anything - as a fan and someone who can remember being at the first game ever at the Rose Bowl, it’s an honor and a privilege to do anything with the club that you grew up supporting. Even with the feelings that we have with regards to the boycott and Klein Out and that kind of stuff. There’s not one person as far as the creatives in the community that wouldn’t want an opportunity to work with their club, just under better circumstances.
When EA Sports unveiled the player ratings and shit, they hit me up and were just like, ‘we’re trying to do something for Chicharito, this is the budget, whoop de whoop.’ I hit a homie of mine by the name of VON POE who shot the video, edited it, and we came up with a concept. I literally made one fucking call, and every supporter that you see in the video was there in an hour. Credit to the homie VON POE - his point was to emphasize the supporter. We cooked up something that was just levels above what everybody else in the MLS did, as far as their players and whatnot. I saw a lot of basic videos shot on people’s iPhones most likely, and we went head and shoulders above that.
My whole thing is I’m an artist first - I love the Galaxy. I do what I can to support the club and furthermore support the supporters’ groups in whatever way I can. But I can’t even say that I put in the levels and the amount of hours they have to making the club what it is in the stands, and the community that it is. I’m always trying to give back in ways that I can, and have them be a part of what I do and show that I appreciate them for allowing me to be a part of what they built.
What do you think the club do to restore trust with the supporters?
Cousin Feo: I mean, we all know what they can do number one: get rid of the prezzie. But transparency, man. Any relationship, any working relationship, any healthy relationship - doesn’t matter who is on the other end of it: transparency and communication, bro. That’s the foundation. If you don’t have those things, then you probably have a shitty relationship, which is exactly what the fuck we have.
Until they can acknowledge that and embrace that, then maybe we can have some progress, maybe we can restore the relationship and the faith and the confidence that the F.O. needs from the fanbase to support the product that’s on the field. So they got a lot of work to do, but obviously the first major step would be getting rid of Chris Klein. Until we get to that point, I don’t think they can do much.
Circling back to the video situation, it’s very tone-deaf, given everything that’s going on, using images of supporters in the videos. To a degree, I understand the admins that are running these accounts. They’re being told what to do, it’s their job, they’re getting paid. The issue isn’t with them personally, it’s with the people who cut their checks. Unfortunately, the situation is so damaged at this point that we need an extreme solution, and this is what the fans want and are going to continue to push for. They got my support, and I’ve been saying that from day one.
What do you remember most about your first game seeing the Galaxy at the Rose Bowl in 96 - how was that a powerful experience and how did it create this fandom in you?
Cousin Feo: Growing up, my uncle on my mother’s side of the family played professionally in Guatemala back in the day. So he was the first and strongest influence in terms of telling my mom, ‘hey, you should get him into the sport.’ He would take me with him and my older cousin to his practices and put me in there and have me play with older kids and get over the fear of getting hurt. He just sparked an interest in it. When we had family functions, obviously the fam was watching the games - that was a bonding element.
Also - growing up with my stepfather who’s Salvadoran - when the news came out about the Galaxy and that they were going to add Mauricio Cienfuegos to the team, him, my uncles, and everybody they knew were going to the game. Just on some prideful countrymen shit, you know? And back in the day, you could get tickets at a grocery store - we used to get them at Ralphs for like 15, 20 bucks, and we went to the game.
The Rose Bowl is a big ass stadium. I just remember how full the stadium was for a team’s first game - they didn’t even know if the league was going to last. But it was just a prideful day for Central Americans, for Mexicans, for people who love the sport in this country. It was a way for me and my step pops to connect, especially at a very young age, and that inspired me as a young player too. I think any young kid that plays and you’re pretty decent, playing competitive club as a kid, you have ambitions. You feel like you can be a pro one day. I think that’s part of the experience. That all stemmed from seeing those games live, the crowd energy, how the people cheered for their favorite players - just how a player can make people feel.
That stadium, that community is a way for everybody to escape from the week - escape from whatever issues they might have personally. It’s a sanctum for a lot of shit, too. That’s how I felt when I was on the field, as a player, growing up playing club and a couple years in high school. It was influential more than I thought - you don’t really realize until you’re older and you can reflect where your influences come from and how things impact you. But that was definitely a special moment for sure - I can remember it vividly. I remember all the different little booths that were set up, posters, jerseys, MLS soccer balls, food - everything, man. It was a good memory for me as a kid for sure.
It sets the tone for a lot of what’s to come. Soccer opens yourself up to the world, and to have that from a young age is really powerful.
Cousin Feo: Everybody wants to be a part of something, bro - family, team, whatever you want to call it. People want to be a part of things, want to be in places where they’re accepted, want to be in places where they feel they have things in common with the people around them. And that’s what the sport does. It creates that for a lot of people, including myself.
Thankfully, everything did grow in the right direction - aside from maybe the last 8 years of the club’s history. But that moment is what kept you interested for the future. What’s this going to be like? Is the Galaxy going to be this or that? Fast forward, we’ll be here getting high off nostalgia because that’s all we have left, you know?
If you were president of the LA Galaxy, what are the first three things you would do?
Cousin Feo: Having the foundation of the academy solidified, that would be up there. An analytics department - things that are the norm for a majority of clubs across all sports, the fact that the club lacks that is insane. Those two things are key for the future, but also, financially, just making smarter business moves and decisions.
And then, obviously, focus on the fans. They’re the lifeblood of what goes on. They create the atmosphere, they spend the money - there needs to be a sense of value and respect for the supporter. You can do all kinds of perks and offers and all kinds of giveaways to sweeten the deal, but just a genuine focus on making the fan experience the best they can, so people feel like they have a say in their club. Maybe restructure the club more to a European or South American style where the fans really have a vote and say in what goes on, and connect the club that much more to what even gave the club existence in the first place.
Those things would be my priority the most - obviously we can dive into what kind of style of football we want to put on the field, what kind of players we go after, but I think foundation is important. Structure is important. Communication is important. The fan is important. Getting those things right would be key - everything else will fall into place with that.
Check out Cousin Feo’s music on Spotify, iTunes, and Bandcamp and subscribe to his monthly newsletter at cousinfeo.com. Give him a follow on Instagram at @deathatthederby and on Twitter @cousinfeo.