From Maracay in north-central Venezuela, Akapellah began rapping when he was in high school, taking inspiration from Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. to fuel his first mixtape and crack the underground. It’s Akapellah’s freestyle skills that help him stand out from the Latin hip-hop crowd, confidently displayed in a series of LPs since 2014 that range from conscious rap to commercial appeal. His tracks focus on serious topics like racism, or can strike a tongue-in-cheek note with video-game references and—as on his collab single “Los Gordos” with Fat Joe and DJ Khaled—a wry sense of humour.