This story is part of our Sondio Latino series for Hispanic Heritage Month.Read more here.
From the second he listened to it, he was mesmerized.
His rapping was exceptional, Akapellah remembers.
The percussion, the topic of his Blackness … it captivated me.
He decided he wanted to pursue rap himself and quickly began learning everything he could about hip hop.
Jazz rap, boom bap, gangsta rap, all of it drew him in.
That there was Northside and Southside, east coast and west coast.
I started to understand all the codes and styles, and I fell in love.
Somehow, she agreed and dropped him off at his first session.
The producer assured her that he was.
Akapellah had grown up playing lots of different instruments.
My mom and I always had really great communication, and she knows Ive always been an extremist.
When I started to get into rap, I never stopped doing it.
I showed her I was taking it seriously.
But in his twenties, economic and sociopolitical turmoil struck Venezuela.
He lived in Colombia for a few years before eventually settling down in Argentina, where hes based now.
Perhaps before that, the Venezuelan rap scene had been more local.
But we started going around and seeing how other parts of Latin America were doing things.
Hed been living in New York City when the world shut down.
He ended up tattooing the word directly on his face as a daily reminder.
The albums cover shows him in the middle of a panic attack, the word visible on his forehead.
Akapellah has kept experimenting freely.
But his latest album,Pedro Elias, released in April, was a journey back home.
I said, What if I go back and make an album that sounds like Venezuela?
The project reflects national pride.
You meet Venezuelan kids who grew up outside the country, and theyre like, Where are you from?
And theyre like, Thats awesome!
