FIFA U-17 World Cup: Timothy Weah grooves to a different beat

Timothy Weah spends most of his off-time writing lyrics and developing music. (Source: AP)

“Paris, she’s the baddest since she has it…..you can comment on the magic…..she walks by stopping traffic….” That’s the main verse from Paris Interlude-X-Rated, one of the six songs Timothy Weah has recorded in his amateur hip-hop career. It’s also the only one that he’s uploaded online so far for public consumption.

His songs have got all the ingredients you look for in a Trap Soul — one of the more popular R&B sub-genres presently —number. It’s got the rather outré and explicit lyrics, a swift yet distorted rhythm — like someone’s messing with the music system — a catchy rap interlude and melodic verses.

The song itself is about a girl called Paris and the protagonist’s adventures with her. But the main verse could well be about American soccer’s latest sensation himself, his skills with the football anyway. For Weah showed against Paraguay in the round of 16 clash that he certainly has it in terms of being among the baddest and most cerebral strikers in the world at his age level.

His second goal in the hat-trick certainly had a tinge of magic in it and the football world stopped and took notice of Timothy Weah as he emerged as one of the brightest teenaged talents in the world. That he did so only a few days after the senior USA team had failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986 only added gravitas to his achievement.

“From a young age, I really loved music of different styles, like jazz to whatever it is. Growing up in New York, the hip-hop culture is pretty big,” he says.

The junior Weah isn’t one to play down his footballing talents either. The striker, who signed a contract with French heavyweights Paris Saint Germain in July and has practised with their reserve team, spoke following his Paraguay performance about being confident of making it to the first team and playing alongside the likes of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe sooner than many would imagine.

He’s equally comfortable talking about his famous lineage. When asked whether he was already sick and tired of talking about his father, former AC Milan and Liberian legend and President candidate George Weah, the 17-year-old insists, “Not at all. You can keep asking me about it and I’ll be happy.”

But it’s while talking about his other passion, music, that Weah really lights up. He counts Tupac Shakur and Big E (Notorious BIG), two of hip- hop’s most revered legends, among his role models. This despite both, who like Weah tried to create music whose focus was more on strong lyrics than rhythmic shenanigans, having been shot to death more than four years before Weah was born.

“Though I was born in the 2000s and not from Biggie or Tupac’s era, it’s still trending and they are big stars. I am just a person who loves music and I thought why not create something myself when I am home or during free time. Some friends of mine actually DJ and whenever I go to visit, they always drop some beats and we see what we could do to it,” he explains.

According to USA Soccer’s official website, Weah even has his own microphone set-up in his apartment back home and spends most of his off-time writing lyrics and developing new sounds and beats. If not, he’s spending time with his DJ friends — Paris Interlude features DJ Fleetzy —pushing the envelope of trap soul music.

Even as his father campaigns to bring a change to his homeland — a cause that Timothy says he supports — the son is trying to create his own niche, not just with the football but also with his musical talents in Weah’s adopted land.

Though he does hope someday to open studios in both Liberia and the USA, for now he’s content recording music with his friends.

“One of them has a studio in his house. So I go there and we have fun like teenagers. We just record and it’s funny sometimes and we keep it to ourselves,” he says.

With time, even some of Weah’s teammates in the under-17 team have got wind of his other talent. And according to him, he’s only heard “encouraging” words from them in addition to the understandable jibing.

“They listen to it and they like it and getting some love from them is really encouraging. They sometimes joke about it and say ‘Well, well, we have got Tim singing’”, he says breaking into a smile.

Like Weah, the USA team too seems to have found the right rhythm with their game in this World Cup, and they will be hoping for some more magic from their talismanic striker to turn many more heads, like Paris is believed to do in his debut number.