Medhane

Emerging as a central presence in New York’s lo-fi hip-hop community across the 2010s and 2020s, the rapper and producer Medhane weaves dense introspection and vivid personal stories into his lyrics. He maintains ongoing partnerships with fellow participants in that circle, issuing his first full-length album, Own Pace, during November 2019.

Raised in Brooklyn as Medhane-Alam Olusuola, he displayed strong aptitude in both creative and scholarly domains while still young. He advanced two grades early, attended the selective NEST+m academy, and regularly took part in programs at the Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy, an organization dedicated to children of African descent. After beginning studies at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 2014, he entered music by collaborating with Slauson Malone under the name Medslaus, first on the charged 2015 EP Greys in Yellow and then on the 2017 album Poor Boy.

His own debut EP, DO FOR SELF, followed in September 2017 and included appearances by MIKE and Sixpress that spotlighted the lo-fi New York network. Building from that point, he delivered the well-received Ba Suba, Ak Jamm EP in 2018 along with extensive guest contributions before unveiling Own Pace in November 2019. Joined on the project by Slauson Malone, Caleb Giles, Navy Blue, and others, the album sustained his place in the forward-thinking New York milieu through reflective everyday observations set against wide-ranging beats.

The compact FULL CIRCLE arrived in February 2020, foregrounding Medhane’s production work while signaling a subsequent full-length effort. Cold Water reached listeners in May of the same year; its atmospheric textures, candid storytelling, and contributions from Maxo, Chuck Strangers, and Navy Blue further solidified his emotionally charged approach.