Akapellah presents his new album in New York: “Rappers are stigmatized, I was never a criminal”

He The rap of Venezuelan Pedro Elías Aquino, better known as Akapellah, has been heard in neighborhoods across Latin America and even in the United States and Europe for over a decade, with such notable success that he has been nominated up to six times for the Latin Grammys.

Now, at 32 years old and following releasing his latest album entitled ‘Pedro Elías’, he presents this work at the Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) in New York.

“With my music, I prefer to tell my story. I rap regarding who I am, without selling a political ideology or the typical image of a gangster. Rappers are stigmatized, I was never a thug or had weapons,” the artist told EFE hours before his performance in the Big Apple.

Akapellah (Maracay, 1991) is a creative whirlwind who captivates fans wherever he goes with a very varied style capable of pulling from classic rap, more melodic rhythms or more social lyrics.

Behind his tattoos and his aesthetic in the purest American rapper style is an affable guy who, in his new album, has managed to bring together “friends” and references from different styles under what he calls “a roller coaster of emotions.”

“It’s my most honest version of Akapellah in the last fifteen years. It doesn’t have any kind of embellishment, I just flowed and that’s why so many sounds come out. The name even occurred to me at the end, I thought: ‘What better than ‘Pedro Elías’?'” he revealed to EFE.

Collaborations

He tells it naturally, but within that work of 13 songs there are collaborations with names as reputable in the circuit as the Cuban AL2 El Aldeano, the Chilean group Movimiento Original, the Mexican urban figure Gera MX, the Spanish of different generations Nach and FERNANDOCOSTA, the Colombian Ryan Castro or the producer Afromak.

Another of his great contributions, and with which he says he has fulfilled “the dream of any rapper”, is ‘La Sabia Escuela’; a collaboration that features Lil Supa – another of the hip-hop references in his country – and a posthumous and unpublished recording by his compatriot and legend Canserbero.

“It’s very difficult to know, but I think that if Canserbero were alive, he would retain his essence and might be as viral or ‘mainstream’ as Bad Bunny (…) He would surely have understood the power he had and would take his message to Pluto,” says Akapellah regarding the man who many consider to be the best Spanish-speaking rapper in history.

And in that amalgam there is also a song, entitled ‘PODCAST’, which unexpectedly became one of his “hymns”. In part, he admits, because of the video clip, in which he ironically acts as an interviewee and as a journalist for “some tabloid media”.

Akapellah defends “transparency”

With a background in Communication, Akapellah scathingly criticises part of the press for allegedly manipulating and distorting information: “There are objective and professional journalists, but there are other sensationalists,” the singer said.

“Transparency” and “originality,” he says, are some of the values ​​that the artist most defends, stating that – “like everyone” – he has changed his mind over the years and also in the way he understands what it means to be ‘underground’ (making music for the love of art and on a low budget).

“I stay ‘underground’ with my lifestyle and how I live rap, but not with my way of working. I would be lying to you if I said otherwise because I distribute my music with a multinational or I do advertising campaigns,” concluded the artist who originally founded OBG Nation, his own record label.

Akapellah will perform today in a joint show – in which the Mexican Bellakath will also play, among others – held in the mythical Central Park (New York) and sponsored by Warner Music.

New York / EFE