Cheap Date is i-D’s series where we take our favorites out for under $40, get to know them, and have a good old fashioned hang.
Jackzebra pushes through the double doors of Dancing Crane Café at the Bronx Zoo (still free on Wednesdays, by the way). He’s wearing a maroon hooded bomber over a gray sweater, black New Balances, and jeans that could be anything. It’s a uniform he’s perfected—a simple, repeatable aesthetic, like Mark Zuckerberg’s endless gray T-shirts—so he never has to think about what to wear. Jack’s got bigger things to worry about.
At 24, he’s already one of China’s most distinctive voices in cloud rap. Raised in Xujing, a quiet suburb outside Shanghai, he started making music as a teen, eventually finding ways around China’s “Great Firewall” (online censorship system) to build a following abroad, one that now eclipses his audience at home. Early cloud rap pioneer Bloodz Boi, often called the genre’s godfather, heard one of Jack’s tracks online and urged him to rap exclusively in Mandarin. He took the advice.
Since then, his output has been relentless: more than 20 projects, two albums under his jackapplepeople alias, countless collabs, and last year’s Hunched Jack Mixtape, his first release with New York’s Surf Gang. Founded in 2018 by producers EvilGiane, Eera, and Harrison, the collective quickly became a launchpad for experimental music, shaping the sound of a new wave of underground artists like Snow Strippers and xaviersobased. Across the project, Jack works with heavy-hitters like vaporwave pioneer James Ferraro, hyperpop producer Glasear, and Drain Gang affiliate Woesum, creating a layered, moody blend of hypnotic plugg beats, spectral vocals, and fleeting melodic fragments. Its philosophy, though, is deceptively simple: if you’re bored, find something to do.
Jack himself is just as straightforward. “I’m just a regular guy,” he says, grabbing a ketchup-slathered fry. “These are actually pretty good,” he adds, washing the fries down with fruit punch. I soon learn that, despite the endless zebra GIFs under his posts, the ‘zebra’ in Jackzebra has nothing to do with the African equine—it’s just Jack plus his given name, Zhang. Over lunch (total: $40.78), Jack and I talk music, city vibes, and what makes him tick—though, sadly, the zebras are sheltering from the snow.
Sahir Ahmed: I love your music, but I don’t understand it. Do people say that to you often?
Jackzebra: Yeah, I get that a lot, mostly from Western listeners, but they still vibe to it.
If you had to reduce Hunched Jack to one idea, what would it be?
Me, I guess. It’s just Jack. After the release of King of Kings in 2024, I went to a dark place—like, personally. The album helped me process that. And I’m always hunched over.
Do you feel like people try to decode your music?
Maybe, but I feel like it’s just vibe music. It’s simple.
Do you have a favorite verse on the mixtape?
From “Avatar”: “Hating you is my motivation to move forward
I curse you a thousand times in my heart
The missed opportunity, the whole world is gray.
I crumple you into a ball and throw you in the trash.
I’m so strong, you’re so weak.
If you don’t believe me, then come find me.”
How do you decide what to write about?
Honestly, I don’t really think about it. I just listen to the beat and start writing.
Where do you find inspiration?
Life. Everything, like when I wake up, eat breakfast, have dinner.
What do you have for breakfast?
Noodles.
Dinner?
Noodles.
Why do you think you gravitate toward making “sad boy” music?
I guess I’m a little sad.
About what?
Maybe I’m just a bored guy. I feel like I’m always bored.
What do you do when you’re bored?
Make music.
Has a song ever made you cry?
“春天里,” by Wang Feng. It means, “In the Spring.”
How’s it been working with Surf Gang?
It’s just friends-and-family shit. They’re really cool guys. I feel like I can record songs faster and have more inspiration because their backing tracks are so unique, from 808s to melodies. I actually met Giane in December 2024, at Elipropper’s place. He pulled up, a few other people came through, and they were just cooking.
Do you feel a difference when making music in different cities?
Yes, because I never really sat down with producers to make songs together in China, except for 1kbps, but we lived far apart. He was in Shunde, Guangdong, so we rarely met. But since that night at Eli’s, I found that making songs with producers in real life is different. You can feel the energy in the room. I feel that I have a unique chemistry with the Surf Gang crew. It’s very positive. Many feelings can’t be expressed in words, you can only experience them live.
How did you meet everyone else you collaborated with on the project?
Online, but also shoutout to Glasear. We met in a Shanghai club in, like, 2018, but I was just a regular guy, and he was making beats back then.
Working with so many different producers, did you ever feel like there were too many opinions involved?
Honestly, I don’t listen to anyone else’s opinion. I’m just like okay, I’m going to finish this 30-track mixtape and see what happens.
What did you grow up listening to?
A lot of Billboard hits, like all the top 100 pop songs. Then I started listening to rap music, at some point: M.I.A., A.S.A.P. Rocky, Lil B—all the OGs.
Is there an artist you love that might surprise people?
One Direction.
Your first West Coast show was at a UCLA frat house. How did that happen?
I don’t know, my management booked it. But the crowd was cool, and the lineup was crazy: Deerpark, Lucy [Bedroque], Harto [Falión], Kuru. That’s all my homies.
How did it feel, playing a frat house?
Pretty American to me.
And you’re playing Elsewhere, right?
There’s like 700 people confirmed, my biggest show in New York so far. I’m playing with all my favorite people—Eli, Dragnutz, 7038634357.
People say you’re “redefining Chinese cloud rap.” What do you think?
I don’t know. Rap in China is still new, but it’s way better than it was two years ago.
How has the scene evolved—what people are calling “Nu Music”?
I think young people today are getting more creative. Everyone has their own ideas. And it’s not just cloud rap. Everyone just knows what they should do.
Any artists you really vibe with at the moment?
南部犯罪份子
What’s your favorite thing about New York?
That one Alicia Keys song.
Hip-hop started in an apartment not far from here.
That’s based. It’s an honor.
