Polo G
The Melodic Prince of American Hip-Hop
Age: 22
Hometown: Chicago
Key Track: “Rapstar”
With his latest project, Hall of Fame, the 22-year-old Chicago-born rapper Polo G announced himself as a generational talent.
Blazer and pants by Givenchy. Shirt by Theory. Shoes by Prada.This summer, as heavyweight rappers like J. Cole and Migos returned from hiatus, they found a new name dominating the charts. A shy 22-year-old named Taurus Tremani Bartlett, he calls himself Polo G, after his favorite fashion label and a friend named Gucci, who died at 16. “I’ve had a passion for rapping since I was 19,” he says, “and it’s been fun. But I only recently found a deeper passion for it.” He’s sitting in the lobby of the Dream Downtown, in Manhattan, reflecting on his new project, Hall of Fame, which topped the Billboard 200 and is starting to feel like one of those pivotal third albums that announce a generational talent (think Kanye’s Graduation or J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive). On Fame, Polo has transformed himself from melodic street rapper to megastar, proving he can hang with his idols (Lil Wayne), make big pop songs (“For the Love of New York”), and notch a chart-topping hit while retaining his core sound (“Rapstar”). The title, he says, is a road map. It’s about “knowing what type of legacy I want to leave five years from now,” he explains. But first, he’s taking a rest—at least for a minute. “I’m treating it as an off-season, just trying to get better.” Championships await. —Frazier Tharpe
Photographed by Aaron Sinclair in Granada Hills, Los Angeles.
Styled by Jake Sammis. Grooming by Hee Soo Kwon using Dior Beauty. Tailoring by Yelena Travkina. Produced by Danielle Gruberger.
Israel Fernández
The Man Sparking Flamenco’s New Energy
Age: 29
Hometown: Toledo
Key Track: “La Inocencia”
You notice that Israel Fernández is pure flamenco from the moment he walks through the door. He embodies the art, twisting the rich lyrics in his throat and unleashing them as a wholly fresh sound. “It’s a gift God gave me,” he says, “and it also comes from my family. I have Roma origins. We grew up singing and dancing from a very young age. This is my way of life.”
Fernández’s talent has already caught the attention of the new wave of Spanish artists, like Rosalía, C. Tangana, and El Guincho, who produced Fernández’s recent single “La Inocencia.”
“For this song I didn’t want percussion, clapping, or an acoustic finish,” he says. “I was looking for something more electronic, and he was the one to do it.”
Thanks to his authentic approach to traditional flamenco—and his ability to link up with collaborators—Fernández is already considered the most important cantaor of his era. And he’s regularly likened to the master, Camarón de la Isla.
“I’m not going to say that I don’t like that comparison, but Camarón is unrepeatable,” he says. “My only goal in life is to bring flamenco to the younger generations without the need to deceive them with something else.” —F. Javier Girela
Photographed by Jor Martinez on Gran Vía, Madrid.
Styled by Juan Luis Ascanio. Grooming by Sandra Garcia Heras for the Artist Management. Produced by Natalia Torres.
Gloria Groove
The Chameleonic Queen of São Paulo
Age: 26
Hometown: São Paulo
Key Track: “Bonekinha”
In Brazil, a new generation of pop stars is on the rise: artists like drag singer Pabllo Vittar, trans rapper Urias, and Gloria Groove, a drag performer whose music blurs the lines between funk, rap, and soul. “We are leading a major revolution in Brazilian pop music,” Groove says emphatically.
Born in São Paulo as Daniel Garcia, the 26-year-old singer undergoes a Superman-like transformation inside the glam wardrobe of Gloria Groove. Her drag queen choreography—brash and powerful—is in total opposition to Garcia’s shy demeanor. And really, these are more than dance steps. For Gloria Groove, they’re a call to war.
“The dolly doesn’t fool around,” goes the refrain in “Bonekinha,” a thumping track off Groove’s recent project Lady Leste. She plans to continue teasing songs throughout the year, all via a kaleidoscopic set of sounds that swerve from rap to pop to funk carioca. “I am the descendant of an era in pop music where the artist is in a constant process of reinvention,” she says. And no kryptonite’s stopping that. —GQ Brazil staff
Photographed by Hick Duarte in Jardins, São Paulo.
Styled by Bianca Jahara. Hair by Perukelly. Makeup by Gloria Groove. Special thanks to The Hotel Renaissance and Teatro Unimed.
Focalistic
The Pied Piper of Pretoria’s Amapiano Movement
Age: 25
Hometown: Ga-Rankuwa
Key Track: “Ke Star (Remix)”
“In 2016, before my career took off, I wrote on Twitter that I would have a No. 1 hit in 2020,” says Lethabo Sebetso, a.k.a. Pitori Maradona, a.k.a. Focalistic. “That happened.” Post-manifesting, Focalistic broke out on the South African Amapiano scene with a string of tracks that blend deep house, rap, and jazz. But he struck a nerve on the continent by holding up a mirror to the youth. “My music is about what’s happening in South Africa and Africa right now,” he says. “It showcases the growth in our culture and how dope African music continues to be. That’s why the people who listen to my music and love it can relate to it—it represents them.” Right now, Focalistic has hit a stride that’s quickly becoming a victory lap. In February, he linked up with Nigerian-American Afrobeat overlord Davido to drop a remix of “Ke Star,” which clocked millions of streams and got co-signs from Diddy and Alicia Keys. Amidst all this, he’s doubling down on manifesting his future: “I am definitely on my way to being one of the greatest African artists in the world.” —GQ South Africa staff
Photographed by Obakeng Molepe in Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria.
Styled by Mira Leibowitz. Grooming by Baby Choma.
Fujii Kaze
A Genre-Melding Force in J-Pop
Age: 24
Hometown: Okayama
Key Track: “Nan-Nan”
“The music comes first,” says Fujii Kaze, one of Japan’s new breed of YouTube-native pop stars. “Let me share my favorite Michelangelo quote: ‘I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.’ This is the way I like to follow.” In the noisy J-pop space, Kaze has distinguished himself by his ability to find marble worth carving. Early on, he won fans and subscribers through a smorgasbord of uploaded covers—everything from the Carpenters to Ariana Grande to 19th-century romanticist Frédéric Chopin.
That borderless curiosity paid dividends on Kaze’s 2020 debut, Help Ever Hurt Never, a kind of stylized disarray of genres that felt thrilling and fresh. The album changes seasons from verse to chorus and track to track, whirring from jazz to classical to R&B in a way that’s neither jarring nor forced. Reflecting on his brand of chaotic harmony, Kaze is serene. “I don’t want to lie to myself or others,” he says. “I just want to be myself—but a better version, always.” —GQ Japan Staff
Photographed by TAKAY in Tokyo Bay.
Styled by Shohei Kashima for W. Hair by Asashi for Ota Office.
Griff
The Fearless Reboot of Bedroom Pop
Age: 20
Hometown: Kings Langley
Key Track: “Black Hole”
When GQ meets Griff, clad in a pearly Richard Quinn dress worthy of a Tudor queen, she’s overjoyed: It’s the drizzly June morning her debut mixtape, One Foot in Front of the Other, drops, and Taylor Swift, no less, has just recommended the project to her 166 million Instagram followers.
“It’s really, really surreal,” admits Griff, born Sarah Griffiths in Hertfordshire, just north of London, and of Chinese-Jamaican heritage. Yet it’s easy to see why Swift would be impressed. Totally authentic on social media and fearless when layering vocals to produce her unique, confessional synth pop, Griff is the consummate modern “bedroom pop” star gone boom.
Growing up, she felt that “pop was always associated with a lot of fake, music-industry, churned-out stuff.” Griff, on the other hand, taught herself to use Apple’s Logic Pro software on her brother’s laptop via YouTube tutorials.
That DIY ethic even extended to the dress she wore to perform at the Brit Awards in May: She stayed up the night before to hand-stitch the fabric into an asymmetric gown. “There’s a lot of kids now taking things into their own hands,” she explains. “There’s a credibility attached to pop again.” —Thomas Barrie
Photographed by Nick Thompson in Shoreditch, London.
Styled by Luke Day. Hair by Tomi Roppongi. Makeup by Michelle Dacillo.
Emir Taha
R&B’s Link From East to West
Age: 24
Hometown: Antalya
Key Track: “Kendine Gel”
One of the best nights Emir Taha had during the turbulent past year was spent cooped up in an Airbnb, putting the finishing touches on a track he’d titled “Kendine Gel.” The song—an R&B number layered with synths and Eastern melismas—reckoned with a universal challenge: getting ahold of yourself in difficult times. It dropped last year as one of the standouts of Taha’s EP Hoppa pt. 1. “Just like everyone else,” he says, “I’ve accumulated a lot in my head, which shows through the way I think, live, and create music.”
Taha’s Hoppa project continued this year with a second installment, this one an even moodier take on R&B. The pair of EPs epitomize the borderless nature of Taha’s sound: You can hear shades of Kid Cudi, Noah “40” Shebib’s collaborations with Drake and Majid Jordan, and Turkish pop crooners from decades past. Born in Antalya, on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, and now based in London, Taha has spent his career accumulating disparate influences that he stitches together in the studio. The resulting songs don’t show any seams, just a deft combination of tradition and modernity that brings to mind the work of an artist like Rosalía. “From Ahmet Kaya to Kid Cudi, Duman to Slowthai, everything I listen to is a collection,” says Taha. “You never know where inspiration will come from.” —Alara Kap
Photographed by Burçin Ergün in Shoreditch, London.
Styled by Lewis Munro.
Ziggy Ramo
An Urgent Voice for Indigenous Australia
Age: 26
Hometown: Sydney
Key Track: “Black Thoughts”
“My dad talks about the feather and the sledgehammer,” says Ziggy Ramo. “You need to know when to hit someone over the head, but also when to be as gentle as possible. And for me, my art is my sledgehammer.”
Born in Bellingen to a Wik and Solomon Islander father and a mother of Scottish descent, Ramo began making music in his teens. But when his first album, Black Thoughts, arrived last year at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, it hit the Australian music scene not just like a sledgehammer but like a meteor. “Black Lives Matter, that’s the subject matter,” he raps on the album’s title track. “Tell you to climb, then they burn down your ladder.”
The album is both a passionate attack on the systemic racism faced by generations of Indigenous Australians and a celebration of the oldest civilization on earth. It won an International Indigenous Hip Hop award and found fresh acclaim when he performed it at the Sydney Opera House. But Ramo knows this is just the start. “One single performance is not going to change the world,” says the artist, whose next album will drop this year. “But it can be a catalyst for something bigger.” —Jake Millar
Photographed by James J Robinson in Little Bay, Sydney.
Styled by Harriet Crawford. Grooming by Gillian Campbell.
Natalia Lafourcade
Mexico’s Bridge From Past to Future
Age: 37
Hometown: Coatepec
Key Track: “Mi Tierra Veracruzana”
In addition to her career as a singer, Natalia Lafourcade takes another job very seriously: recovering Mexican folk’s bygone traditions. The winner of two Grammys, she’s worked to revive elements of historical genres like nueva canción and ranchera, prying their old codes out of obscurity and running them through her signature hazy folk soundscapes.
“The path I have walked led me to get closer to the past and reinterpret it with the help of many musicians who walk the same path,” she says. “It has been a passionate journey to discover so many types of Mexicans that exist—their different ways of loving and suffering throughout our musical history.”
Though Lafourcade has orbited the Mexican pop scene for over two decades, this phase of her career has been a pivot. Now she’s a bridge between past and present for a country that seems to have left many of its roots—and its songs—behind. In May, Lafourcade dropped the second volume of her album Un Canto Por México, recorded to support the Son Jarocho Documentation Center, which was destroyed in the 2017 Puebla earthquake.
“I’m on a journey to understand where I come from,” she says. “And how we sing here.” —GQ Mexico staff
Photographed by Karla Lisker in Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico City.
Styled by Fernando Carrillo. Hair by Gerardo Maldonado. Makeup by Gustavo Bortolotti.
Divine
The Rapper Who Bridged Mumbai and Crown Heights
Age: 29
Hometown: Mumbai
Key Track: “Mere Gully Mein”
Just behind Mumbai’s glittering international airport terminal stretches a teeming borough called Andheri East. A patchwork of tin, tarpaulin, and glass, it’s a blend of shantytowns and working-class neighborhoods—and home to millions who have arrived, over decades, in India’s city of dreams. It’s also where a young boy named Vivian Fernandes discovered hip-hop.
He first encountered the culture on a friend’s T-shirt emblazoned with 50 Cent’s face and on a borrowed CD stuffed with dozens of songs by Tupac, Biggie, and Wu-Tang Clan. In 2015, “Mere Gully Mein”—a track he built online with Naezy, another young rapper on the rise—went viral on YouTube, spawning the gully rap subgenre. Divine’s seminal verse, delivered in his local Bambaiya Hindi dialect, was brash and rebellious yet honest and clean.
In 2019, Nas signed him to the label he co-owns, Mass Appeal, giving Divine international distribution. In December, his face flickered on a mammoth Spotify billboard in Times Square. And earlier this year, he scored features from Pusha T and Vince Staples. “When sounds merge,” he says, “magic is created.”
But Divine remains tied to the streets, launching a venture called Gully Gang Entertainment that helps elevate talent from underrepresented groups. “The people made me. I can never forget that,” he says from his home studio in ’59, still his zip code. “I’m just a guy with a mic. To stay grounded, be rooted in your culture. That’s the only way to go.” —Nidhi Gupta
Photographed by Mohit Mukhi / Gltch at Ballard Estate, Mumbai.
Styled by Neha Bajaj.
Ozuna
The Island’s Heir to the Reggaeton Throne
Age: 29
Hometown: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Key Track: “No Se Da Cuenta”
What place will Puerto Rico occupy in music history 20 years from now? Reggaeton singer Juan Carlos Ozuna Rosado, winner of two Latin Grammys, considers the question and smiles, Boricua pride between his teeth. “This is an island that sets the pace for many feet in the world,” he says, “but I think several years from now we will see the legacy more clearly.”
It’s a legacy Ozuna wants to be a part of. Last year he released his fourth album, ENOC, which saw him return to the roots of old-school reggaeton. It also continued the Ozuna tradition of high-wattage collabs, with Sia and Doja Cat dropping in for features.
“I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with many talents from the island and abroad,” he says, “and the truth is there is an artist that I have pending who would love to do something new: Rihanna.”
If he’s setting a high bar, it’s only because he wants the island to have its own chapter in music history. “Decades ago, a seed was sown with [reggaeton pioneers] Daddy Yankee and Wisin & Yandel, from which many of us are reaping the fruits,” he says. “And many of us want to sow other seeds.” —GQ Latin America staff
Photographed by Manuel Velez in Aguadilla, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Styled by Omar Rivera. Grooming by Omar Rivera. Produced by Brandon Vega. Special thanks to Edgard Andino.
Eddy de Pretto
France’s Flyest Chanteur Is a Weirdo for All
Age: 27
Hometown: Créteil
Key Track: “Kid”
Three years ago, Eddy de Pretto became a national pop idol within a few weeks. He grew up in a housing project a few miles outside Paris, listening to a steady diet of hip-hop and Jacques Brel; his sound is somewhere between chanson, rap, and spoken word. “I was considered a weirdo at school, and now I put this weirdo and his feelings at the center of my songs, of my interviews,” says de Pretto. “I turned him into a sun.”
Coming up, he caught eyes in industry circles with his striking stage presence, and when he released his debut album, Cure, in 2018, the people concurred: A week after it dropped, Cure hit the top of the French charts.
Openly gay, de Pretto ruminates on toxic masculinity (he cites Frank Ocean as a role model) but has no desire to be a poster boy for the French LGBTQ+ movement. Instead, he’s singing “for every freak, every weirdo, and every bastard.” And that’s the very title of his sophomore album, released last spring: À Tous Les Bâtards. “It’s cool to be in love with one’s own imperfections, with one’s differences,” he says. “That’s the only way to find strength in them.” —GQ France staff
Photographed by Romain Laprade in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris.
Styled by Vanessa Pinto. Grooming by Cidji Humbert.
Akini Jing
A Cyborg Making Pop Human Again
Age: 33
Hometown: Yunnan Province
Key track: “Shadow”
Years after breaking into the Chinese music scene, Akini Jing has rebooted her image—though she calls it a “firmware update.”
Her newly revealed cyborg persona is replete with fits worthy of a Y2K renaissance, lonely pop tracks heavy on cyberpunk synths, and an earnest exploration of humanity through the eyes of an outsider.
But that futuristic makeover perhaps masks a more timeless sensibility. “The truth is,” she says, “I’m just dearly in love with what I’m doing and get quite a kick out of it.” —GQ China staff
Photographed by Jinlong Yang in Chaoyang District, Beijing.
Styled by Ting Young.
Zoe Wees
An Honest Voice Out of Lockdown
Age: 19
Hometown: Hamburg
Key Track: “Control”
Zoe Wees is eyeing the stage of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and asking questions about her future: “When will I start? When will I stand there?”
Opened in 2017, the concert hall on the Elbe River is becoming one of the most important performance spaces in the world; shows have just resumed as GQ photographs Wees on the rooftop. Playing at such a major venue will be a new experience for the teenager, whose rapid rise has been contoured by the pandemic. It was during lockdown that “Control,” her debut single—a gutsy pop hit marked by her raspy tones—broke out to millions of listeners outside of Germany. Appearances on Corden and Kimmel followed, and Wees was crowned a legit force in pop, all without having ever played a concert.
In May she released Golden Wings, an EP drenched in power ballads—songs about inclusion, visibility, anxiety, and self-love. That ethos is especially apparent on “Control,” a track rooted in her experience with benign rolandic epilepsy. “I’ve always been writing about my story,” she says, “and I’m happy when I can help people by sharing it.”
What’s most remarkable about Wees’s light speed ascension is that her songs don’t wear themselves out. She doesn’t feel like hype, but a new classic. The stage is calling. —Ulf Pape
Photographed by Theresa Kaindl in HafenCity, Hamburg.
Styled by Saskia Jung. Hair by Awa Kaloga. Makeup by Bastian Springer. Produced by Verena Aichinger. Special thanks to the Elbphilharmonie and the Westin Hotel Hamburg.
Fedez
The Social Conscience of the Italian Glitterati
Age: 31
Hometown: Milan
Key Track: “Vorrei ma non posto”
It took all of five minutes for Fedez to ignite a national debate on discrimination, inclusivity, and the future of Italian society. In a speech at a concert in May, he accused a cabal of far-right politicians of stalling an anti-homophobia bill in the Italian parliament. And he did it live on national television. That the comments came from one of Italy’s most glittering rappers—and the husband of über-influencer Chiara Ferragni—triggered both shock waves and praise, including a shout-out from Donatella Versace. “I think young people are ahead of the sensibilities of our politicians,” Fedez says. “I get very angry when people who are supposed to represent everyone say serious things against certain types of people living in our society.”
For Fedez, the speech was an exclamation point on his transition from tastemaker to change agent. And a pair of platinum-certified No. 1 tracks in 2021 prove that, whether he’s rapping or speaking out, the people are listening. —GQ Italy staff
Photographed by Daniel Riera in Prehistoric Park, Cremona.
Styled by Nik Piras. Hair by Brian Cantarosso for Encadrer Studio. Makeup by Anna Maria Negri for Julian Watson Agency.
E.SO
A Stalwart of Mandarin Rap Breaking New Ground
Age: 33
Hometown: Taipei
Key Track: “Change”
E.SO—one of Taiwan’s reigning rap monoliths—has been lying low during lockdown: staying home, playing video games, even banking a little coin from crypto. He’s also working on the follow-up to his first solo album, Outta Body, which saw him zigzag away from the hip-hop sound associated with his Taiwanese rap group, MJ116.
But E.SO is in no hurry to wrap an LP—he takes the long view on inspiration. “You need to accumulate enough feelings in your everyday life,” he says. “Those thoughts might not trigger anything in the moment. But after a while, they’ll suddenly come back again—that’s inspiration.”
His methods are proving effective: Outta Body—a melding of hip-hop, neo-soul, and Afrobeat—was a huge hit. Now, over a decade after entering the public eye, he’s got another mission: “Taking Mandarin music to new places is a mindset as well as a social responsibility.” —GQ Taiwan staff
Photographed by Mr. Triangle in the Xizhi District, Taipei.
Styled by Kevin Wang. Hair by Johnson for Motivate Hair Salon. Makeup by Lyra for So Easy Studio.
Milli
From Student Council President to Daring Rap Sensation
Age: 18
Hometown: Bangkok
Key Track: “Pakkorn”
It was a Friday evening last August when Milli dropped “Sudpang!”—a raucous march of a trap tune that capped a wild year for the recent high school graduate otherwise known as Danupha Kanateerakul.
She had jumped from student council president to a national star known for vibey beats with a swirl of local slang—and hits that get the whole club singing along and re-creating the dances from her videos.
It was soon clear that we were witnessing the birth of a new generation of Thai hip-hop. With “Pakkorn,” her viral debut, Milli signaled a fresh kind of ambition: Laced through the lyrics were different Thai dialects, including Lu, an encrypted set of words used by the LGBTQ+ community in the early ’90s.
“Someone told me, the sooner you get attention, the more you have to improve,” she says. “When all eyes are on Milli, people want to know who she is. I have to jump as high as I can. Otherwise, it was just this Milli they saw. There’s more for me to offer.”—Ak Suttiya
Photographed by Koon Phattchakhun on the bank of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok.
Styled by Anakwee Eiam-Ong. Hair by Thanupol Phoothepamornkul. Makeup by Sukhon Srimarattanakul.
Slava Marlow
Russia’s Very Online Prince of Rap
Age: 21
Hometown: Novosibirsk
Key Track: “I’m Getting Drunk Again”
“Production is 50 percent knowledge about how to make music, 50 percent the moment and mood,” explains Slava Marlow, the 21-year-old wunderkind from Siberia. “There is a lot of magic in making music.” His own process involves a bit of magic too. Combining old-school music education—he took piano and sax lessons—with a childhood love for EDM, Marlow has crafted his own strain of rap that’s become a new soundtrack for millions of Russians.
After finding his voice as a YouTube creator, Marlow shot to fame via a 2019 collaboration with Morgenshtern, a fellow vlogger turned rapper. In his ensuing solo career, he’s dropped a string of releases, including the deeply autobiographical EP APTËM. He’s also released the very meta track “Tik Tok Challenge,” which predictably exploded on the platform. (It’s on some 800,000 videos and counting.) Despite his soaring profile, Marlow retains a sense of humility. “I appreciate that I have the opportunity to earn more than most people in Russia,” he says. “I understand that my work is incomparable with the work of a teacher or a miner. I am very lucky that I do my own thing and get paid for it.” —GQ Russia staff
Photographed by Vanya Berezkin in Chertanovo Severnoye, Moscow.
Styled by Elena Dudina. Grooming by Ksenia Yarmak. Produced by Julia Zauzolkova.
Cláudia Pascoal
Porto’s Sunny Pop Multi-Hyphenate
Age: 27
Hometown: Gondomar
Key Track: “Quase Dança”
By the time Eurovision introduced her to the world stage, Portugal had already fallen for Cláudia Pascoal’s whimsical take on pop. But her talent doesn’t end with breezy ballads and charming wordplay. To paraphrase José Saramago, Pascoal is an artistic tsunami: She’s experimented with painting, stand-up, directing video clips, and tattooing. Of these side hustles, she says nobody should “confuse diversified tastes with the inability to dedicate themselves to just one thing.” But Pascoal acknowledges that her artistry has evolved with her. “If, at the beginning, music was just something funny, and a way I had of communicating with people, along the years it became something way more serious,” she says. “It became like taking something out of my chest, having an almost therapeutic effect.”
Last year she shored up her place in the Portuguese pop sphere with ! (she sometimes calls it blah), a playful, sunny debut album. Now almost 28, Pascoal says that her teenage self couldn’t dream of the spot she’s landed in. “I want to show myself to the world as an artist in a way that no one knows me—not even myself.” —GQ Portugal staff
Photographed by Gonçalo F. Santos in Avenida da Liberdade, Lisbon.
Styled by Maria Falé. Hair by Edgar Venâncio. Makeup by Elodie Fiúza. Special thanks to the Hotel Tivoli Avenida da Liberdade.
Wegz
Egyptian EDM Meets Trap
Age: 23
Hometown: Alexandria, Egypt
Key Track: “Bel Salama (Lorry Pt. 2 Remix)”
Born and raised in Alexandria, Wegz blends trap and mahraganat—Egypt’s answer to EDM—as an ode to his home turf. “Life in Egypt can be chaotic at times and moves at an insane pace,” he says. “There’s always something happening. It’s full of stories, and that makes for some serious inspiration.”
He grew up no stranger to the party, and it only made sense to mix global influences with local tradition to create something new. “Life is life, Egypt or anywhere else,” he says. “It has its ups and downs, the good days and the bad. I write music about all of it.”
Four years into his career, the young musician is challenging Egypt’s old guard and the gatekeepers of the music industry. Last year he was Egypt’s most streamed artist on Spotify. “I didn’t plan for any of this,” he says with a shrug. “I write music that means something to me, and I never think about it beyond that. However, it is very fulfilling to realize that people can relate and that they want to listen. It serves as motivation to push my culture forward and take it to the global stage.” —Rusty Beukes
Photographed by Prod Antzoulis in Al Wardiyan, Alexandria.
Styled by Ahmed Serour. Hair by Abboud for Al Sagheer Salon. Makeup by Kareem Fawzy. Produced by Amira Elraghy.
Colde
K-Pop’s Very Mellow Counterpoint
Age: 27
Hometown: Seoul
Key Track: “When Dawn Comes Again”
“My music reminds listeners of the dawn,” Colde proclaims. “I think they are right.” Through his R&B-infused solo act and his work in the indie duo Offonoff, the singer has introduced a surprising new element to the wild and hyperactive scene dominated by K-pop: chill.
Earlier this year, he dropped his third EP, idealism, completing a trifecta of richly serene releases. After an energetic opener, the album is warm, wire-to-wire mellowness. Even Colde’s reflections on his own tracks feel more like rumination than hype. Take, for example, “Light,” which was released in April: “It’s a song that has energy that gives a lot of strength to me,” he says. “I wrote it the moment when I took my first step towards my dream in the dark.”
Colde’s next act: turning this mood into an empire. He runs his own record label, the aptly titled WAVY, and has flirted with the worlds of fashion, art, and design.
“It’s creative to steadily expand the movement into various fields,” says Colde, who increasingly sees the moniker as a brand. “I always want to try new things—just keep moving forward.” —Kim Young Jae
Photographed by Yoon Ji Yong in Yongsan, Seoul.
Styled by Shin Hye Jee. Grooming by Koo Hyun Mi.
A version of this story originally appeared in the September 2021 issue with the title “Voices of the Future.”