Jerk (music genre)

Jerk is an Internet microgenre of hip-hop that emerged in New York City during the early 2020s, drawing inspiration from the original wave of jerk rap, known as jerkin' in the street dance culture, which initially gained popularity in the early 2010s.

The style had been originally pioneered by Xaviersobased and his collective 1c34, along with Californian producer Kashpaint. Artists such as St47ic and Phreshboyswag would be members of 1c34. Other notable artists in the scene include Islurwhenitalk, Nettspend, Yhapojj, Yuke, Fakemink, Maxon Margiela, YT and EsDeeKid.

The genre achieved particularly significant success within the United Kingdom,⁵ where it was heavily present in the UK Underground scene.⁶

Writing for British magazine The Face, music journalist Kieran Press-Reynolds described jerk as "fidgety rhythms, staggered snares and mangled vocals", and noted that a variety of jerk rappers "boast" but also showcase "a quirky and sensitive lyrical undercurrent [that] tends to lurk beneath the tough-guy facade".⁴

According to New York magazine The Fader, although Xaviersobased and his collective 1c34 are credited with spearheading the jerk microgenre,⁷ he never listened to the original wave of jerk rap and is more inspired by Milwaukee hip-hop's lowend scene in his "percussion choices".⁸

In 2021, New York rapper Xaviersobased formed the collective 1c34,⁹⁴⁷ who reimagined the sound of jerk rap into a completely different style, adapting its framework to fit the evolving aesthetics of underground rap.⁴⁷ They are credited with spearheading and popularizing the movement which was then further developed by Californian producer kashpaint.⁴ This new style of jerk rap blended elements of cloud rap, digicore, lowend and plugg.⁴¹⁰¹¹

Writing for The Face, music critic Kieran Press-Reynolds labelled tracks such as Xaviersobased's "Patchmade" (2022),¹² Phreshboyswag's "Inspire" (2023),¹³¹⁴¹⁵ and Nettspend's "Shine N Peace" (2023) as "jerk anthems".⁴ Artists such as Yhapojj,¹⁶¹⁷ ksuuvi,¹¹ Bloody!,² idkcap,² percosits,² Tenkay,¹⁸ Nettspend¹⁹²⁰ and Feardorian¹ further contributed to the movement.¹ "Underground heroes" like Duwap Kaine later drew influence from the style, releasing the album DuwapSoBased in 2023.⁴ Artists Islurwhenitalk and Subiibabii were credited with pioneering the "vampjerk" style, which drew from the microgenre of hip-hop music sigilkore.⁴²¹

While rooted in the US, the jerk scene gained further momentum in the UK underground rap scene, with the movement being regarded as a "new UK rap revolution".²²²³ The British jerk scene saw wider popularity in 2024, being spearheaded by artists like Fakemink^24252627 as well as YT¹²²⁸²⁹ with his singles "Black and Tan" and "Prada or Celine".³⁰³¹ These releases were followed by further contributions in the genre by artists such as Jim Legxacy,³² EsDeeKid,³³ Len, and Fimiguerrero.¹³³⁴³⁵

Writing for Dazed magazine, music journalist Solomon Pace-McCarick noted rapper Cortisa Star as drawing influences from jerk in her production choices.³⁶

Jugg rap (also known as Jugg) is a microgenre that draws from the "twitchy snare rhythms" of jerk.²¹ While writing for Pitchfork, music critic Kieran Press-Reynolds stated that the style's "breakout smash" was the song "everyday is the same" by rapper ocelot, who drew inspiration from rapper Islurwhenitalk "a sigilkore deity who pioneered this sort of ultra-twitchy, rhythmic meltdown that's as much dance music as rap".²¹ Artists such as ss3bby, xannaholik, fauxf6r and Heymylan, on top of the collective 25r3set, have also been noted as influential in the development of the genre. The style is characterized by "sequences of sound effects and sidechained bass that swallows everything".²¹ The term "FXspam" has also been used on SoundCloud to describe the scene for its use of "degraded samples".²¹