Rookie Janniere is High in the Sky
Commerce City, Colo. (September 14, 2011) – Rapids 18-year-old rookie winger Josh Janniere has a bright future ahead of him. While he continues to work hard to develop on the field, he’s also already laid the groundwork for a potential music career down the road.
As a youngster growing up in Canada, Janniere had an interest in hip hop and rap music and soon realized he could listen to a beat and quickly come up with lyrics, a technique commonly referred to as freestyle rap.
“I like music a lot,” Janniere told ColoradoRapids.com. “It’s something I enjoy doing and something I was able to do - make music and songs here and there; something I did for fun.”
In the 11th grade, when his friends were coming up with fun rap names, Janniere went with “General J” for his artist name. He says it has no particular significance, other than using his first initial.
One day, Janniere was searching for beats and instrumental music on youtube when he found one that peaked his interest. Soon, he had the lyrics to General J’s debut song, titled “High in the Sky.”
At the same time, Janniere’s friend, Justin Singer, was trying to get into the music video industry, so he approached Janniere with an idea.
“I wanted to help him out,” Janniere said. “I had a song and he asked if I wanted to shoot a video, and I agreed to it. I went to a studio to record the song and then it actually took us about a week to make the video.”
The video was instant success. Not long after posting it on his General J youtube page, the video had gone viral and accumulated over 20,000 views. The attention was not expected, so Janniere pulled it off the video site so he could continue to focus on his other passion, soccer. However the video had also already been provided to HipHopCanada.com, a portal that promotes Canadian hip hop artists, so it lived on. Singer also posted it on his Vimeo account. (WATCH ON YOUTUBE BELOW OR CLICK HERE FOR VIMEO)
Still, he kept the brakes on the suddenly rising music interest and joined Toronto FC’s youth system, where he played for two years. Prior to the beginning of the 2011 season, the Rapids acquired his rights in exchange for a 3rd round supplemental draft pick.
“I haven’t done a lot since I’ve been here,” Janniere said of his music. “I want to focus on the Rapids and my soccer.”
On the field, Janniere continues to improve. He has yet to make his MLS debut, but he did make his professional debut by playing the final 10 minutes of Colorado’s 2-1 U.S. Open Cup loss to Chicago on March 31. He was then on the 18-man day of game roster on April 30 when the Rapids hosted the Fire, and has appeared in all eight Reserve League games.
“It’s been a great year so far,” he said. “I’ve been working hard every day, doing extra stuff after training. I’m the youngest on the team, and those are the rules of the game – you have to work your way up. The coaches have been great in helping me with my development and in trying to improve as a player.”
General J has also written and recorded a second song called “Bright Lights.” That song has not been released to the public. Janniere smiled when asked when he’ll release it, or if he has other music in the works.
“Maybe in the off season,” he said. “I hope to do some more on the side. I don’t know. You’ll have to wait and see.”