Freshman Zach Bernagene might be known to his friends as Zach, but he is known to his fans as Gosha Guppy. Having recently released his debut rap album, Bernagene performed a release show with fellow Wash. U. rappers Rob Apollo and S.B.A. on Saturday, April 13.

Bernagene released his first single, “Hit My Line,” in August 2016, and has consistently been making music since then. Hailing from New York City, Bernagene stated that the city contains a variety of different and clashing sounds, and he likes “being able to manipulate that [sound] with my own voice.” When discussing his creative process, Bernagene explained that “it’s literally a concept in my mind, and I go and tell my producer, ‘Yo, here’s what I have, let’s see if we can make it.’” Though he writes the lyrics while his producer creates the beats, the partnership does their best to “match the lyrical content with the beat.”

Balancing his school work and his music can be difficult at times as Bernagene spends “3 hours to 4 hours a day doing something music-related.” An English major, Bernagene remarked that the extensive reading and writing required helps with his music and in the songwriting process.

On April 12, Bernagene released his first full-length album, “Let’s Talk Love,” which contains eight songs. Though it was released less than a week ago, Bernagene began working on the album at Washington University’s First-Year Summer Academic Program (FSAP) in 2018. At FSAP he wrote numerous songs, including “A Beautiful Day to Get Robbed.”

The emotions on the album range from betrayal to rage to distraction, among others. Regarding the songs he chose to put on the album, Bernagene said that “Every song that I made on the album was specific, so I wanted to convey a different emotion of love.”

Bernagene’s current favorite song on “Let’s Talk Love” is its sixth track, “The Amazing Life of Richie Rich.” He finds the song “very soothing and calming… it’s super airy and you can just vibe out.”

An interesting quality of Bernagene’s album is how personal it is; he stated that “all the songs on that project have direct references to people in my life and my experiences.” When explaining specific verses, he described many of the lyrics as “references upon references.”

After releasing the album, Bernagene described the immense response from his peers as heartwarming, emphasizing that “one, I’m very thankful, and two, the fact that you even listened to me…it means a lot. And people are just generally liking it and stanning over it.” He was very grateful of the positive feedback, and especially enjoyed how excited everyone was at a concert he held in conjunction with Wash. U. Records shortly after the album’s release.

“Let’s Talk Love” can be streamed on Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play Music and SoundCloud.