Rare Akuma wins Chase Award at Red Bull Elektropedia Awards 2019
For the second year in a row, the best upcoming Belgian urban artist was awarded a Chase Award at the Red Bull Elektropedia Awards 2019. This year's first place went to Rare Akuma. We also want to congratulate Roedel, who ended up second, and Lyna who became third!
Text by Ashley Okwuego, pictures by Timo Vergauwen
For the past five years, the best urban artist got awarded the Chase Award at the Red Bull Elektropedia Awards. But since last year, we decided to do what Chase does best: shining a light on upcoming urban artists. Blu Samu was 2018's winner.
This year's winner, Rare Akuma, describes his music as brutal, hype and catchy. At the age of 14, he started out as dubstep and drum 'n' bass artist. Around 2015, he switched into producing heavier, metal-influenced hip-hop. That's when Rare Akuma was born and it's been going great so far. After his performance at Dour Festival this year, we're already curious about what the future holds next for him.
For our new upcoming urban artist award, our team collected a long-list of more than 100 names of up-and-coming artists in hip hop, soul and/or R&B. We focused on artists that started their career in the past years, aren't all over national radio and aren't headlining the big festivals yet. The final 10 nominees were decided on by an external jury of 20 urban music experts, DJ's, festival programmers and artists:
Absolem
Frenetik
Lil Skid
Lyna
Mitxelena
MVNSI
Rare Akuma
Roedel
Saudade
YG Pablo
REMARKABLE WINS AT THE RED BULL ELEKTROPEDIA AWARDS NEXT TO THE CHASE AWARD
This year's Fresh On The Scene top three winners were all hip-hop and r&b artists with Miss Angel becoming third, Lous and the Yakuza second and Martha Da'ro first. Another remarkable win is Willem Ardui (blackwave.) for Best Producer, more specifically for Martha Da'ro's 'Sugerman'.
The biggest winner of the night was Zwangere Guy. He won four out of five nominations: he received gold for Best Album (Wie Is Guy?), Best Song (Gorik Pt. 1) and Best Live Act. The Brussels-based rapper was also elected Artist of the Year. He did not win Best Video as he had to make way for Angèle in this category.
POLITICALLY TINTED
Politics was also included in this year's award show. Hakim and his brother Faisal lashed out at Jan Jambon, Flemish Minister of Culture, who announced earlier this week that he will make substantial cuts on budgets for small and medium-sized cultural organizations. NVA and Vlaams Belang were not spared either. Zwangere Guy made his anger - with the necessary swearing words - very clear.
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