Tourists passing through Alsace often notice this very quickly. “Heim” here, “heim” there, many towns and villages in the region often end with this suffix. The reason is linked to the Germanic past of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin. In German, “heim” means home, village, hamlet.
And this same ending also allows for some rhyming. This is what the rapper “Tchovo” did with a title exclusively reserved for this Alsatian particularity. Posted on August 18 on TikTok, his twenty-second video has been viewed… more than 1.1 million times!
“It was a sound I made over a year ago to have fun with some friends. It was from a piece of XXXTentacion where he says ” she keeps crying “. It made us think of Schiltigheim, ”recounts the person concerned, Loïc Grunenwald of his real name. “In delirium”, the young 23-year-old artist began to compose the title “in twenty minutes”. Then had published it on his YouTube channel, but in private. “It was a joke, I didn’t really want it to come out and discredit everything I had done for others. »
But he therefore took the plunge two weeks ago, without being disappointed with the result. “It’s pretty amazing what’s going on. I had never had a video that exceeded 100,000 views and there… Now, I hope that people will bounce back on all the serious work that is behind this sound”, he insists, he who tries to break into the music.
A friday clip
For three months, the former salesman of sportswear has just stopped everything to devote himself to rap. “I have already released two EPs, about twenty titles and I still have a lot of content in stock. “Some are even accompanied by a clip, like soon his greatest success. “It will be released on Friday and it will be about 1’30”, reveals “Tchovo”, without explaining too much where his nickname comes from. “It doesn’t mean anything specific. Friends called me that and it became a philosophy. When I break through, it will have meaning. »
In the meantime, the young man stayed around his home, in Gambsheim, to shoot. “I had received messages to come to the Haut-Rhin but I didn’t go. I had enough “heim” around! In Alsace, nearly 25% of municipalities share the termination…