Symba

Rapidly ascending to stardom in the late 2010s with a growing catalog of ultra-modern, German-language trap songs, Berlin-based rapper Sylvain “Symba” Mabe has made his fortune by anchoring his lyrics around nostalgic Gen Z cultural references. One need only look to his song artwork – Mabe superimposing his face onto a Kinder Surprise chocolate wrapper; standing next to a bouncy castle with an armful of multicoloured balloons; posing for a slav squat in a meme-worthy photo overlaid with multiple emojis – to get a feel for the burgeoning youngster’s character. First rising to prominence in the SoundCloud rap scene circa 2017 as the founder of the crew Playboysmafia, he soon inked a distribution deal with Columbia Records, who saw something in his arsenal of sparsely arranged, light-hearted hip-hop numbers. By 2020, in the midst of undertaking a university degree in film directing, Mabe had secured his first charting single, the swaggering, minimal “Angels Sippen”, which peaked at #13 in his home country and also registered in Austria and Switzerland. Capitalising on his big moment, he swiftly followed this up with two singles inspired by video games – the melodic, guitar-laden “Mario Run” and the sparkling, slow-mo “Battlefield Freestyle”, both of which proved similarly successful among German-speaking audiences.