Jakob Kasimir Hellrigl (born July 27, 1992), known as Candy Ken, is an Austrian

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

, model,

TikToker TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

, and artist. He started his career as a rapper in 2014. He combines a masculine appearance with feminine pop culture. He has become famous, and infamous, for his TikTok videos where he shows his wealth and lifestyle throughout the videos that he creates.

Early life and education

Born in

Bregenz Bregenz (; gsw, label= Vorarlbergian, Breagaz ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switze ...

, Austria, Hellrigl studied photography and film design at the

Lette-Verein Lette-Verein (Lette Association or Lette Society) is a German educational organization for applied arts. Founded in 1866 in Berlin, the idea of Dr. Wilhelm Adolf Lette, it was initially a technical school for girls. Its motto was "Dienen lerne be ...

college in Berlin, but dropped out of his studies in 2014. He attended Wenatchee High School at

Wenatchee, Washington Wenatchee ( ) is the county seat and largest city of Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population within the city limits in 2010 was 31,925, and was estimated to have increased to 34,360 as of 2019. Located in the north-central part ...

for a year where he played football. During his high school years, he met his two best female friends, whose whereabouts are unknown, Isabella and Payton, who he has said inspired him to pursue his music career. While studying at college, he invented the

gender-bending A gender bender is a person who dresses up and acts like the opposite sex. Bending expected gender roles may also be called a genderfuck. Gender bending may be political, stemming from the early identity politics movements of the 1960s and 19 ...

persona of Candy Ken, incorporating imagery from

Hello Kitty , also known by her full name , is a fictional Character (arts), character created by Yuko Shimizu, currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi, and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphi ...

, Japanese

Kawaii ''Kawaii'' is the culture of cuteness in Japan. It can refer to items, humans and non-humans that are charming, vulnerable, shy and childlike.Kerr, Hui-Ying (23 November 2016)"What is kawaii – and why did the world fall for the ‘cult of cu ...

culture,

Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. ...

dolls and pink clothing in his dress style and visual appearance. ''Welcome to Candy Land'' in 2014 as a self-directed video series on YouTube. The music is produced by Lets Go Radio, and distributed by

Spinnup Spinnup was a digital music distribution service owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 2013 in Sweden. Spinnup is a signed distribution platform that offers an aggregator service to musicians and artist who are not signed to major labe ...

. The video series was re-made as a short film ''Welcome to Candy Land'', which won an award at the Austrian short film festival Alpinale in 2015. In September 2015 he released the second EP ''Candy Ken Paradise'' produced by DJ Smokera and distributed by Spinnup. In November 2015 he released a third EP, ''Daddy 69'', containing five songs and five videos. Four videos are directed by him, and the video for the song "69" is directed by London-based underground director Kassandra Powell. In June 2016 he released his first album ''Real Talk'' containing twelve songs, ten of which were made in collaboration with the rapper Gigi Tays. The release of the album was promoted with a club party at Visions Video Bar in London. The album was also produced by Smokera and the video for the song "What I Like" directed by Powell. He mentions the American rapper

Riff Raff Riff Raff, Riffraff, or Riff-Raff, a term for the common people but with negative connotations, may refer to: In music * Riff Raff (rapper), from Texas * Riff Raff (band), a UK progressive rock band * Riff Raff, a band formed by Billy Bragg * ...

as his main musical and artistic influence for the album. Candy Ken appeared on

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...

in April 2018, on a segment of Guess Who's High.

Modeling

His modeling career started when he was noticed on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

in 2015 by stylist and

Diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

brand creative designer

Nicola Formichetti Nicola Formichetti (; born 31 May 1977) is a fashion director and fashion editor. Born in Japan, he is most widely known as the artistic director of the Italian fashion label Diesel and for being a frequent collaborator with singer-songwriter Lad ...

, who invited him to do a

photo shoot A photo shoot is the process taken by creatives and models that results in a visual objective being obtained. An example is a Model (person), model posing for a photographer at a studio or an outdoor location. A photo shoot is a series of images ...

for a photo session in Formichetti's Japanese magazine ''FREE''. Formichetti introduced him to the photographer

Terry Richardson Terrence Richardson (born August 14, 1965) is an American fashion and portrait photographer. He has shot advertising campaigns for Marc Jacobs, Aldo, Supreme, Sisley, Tom Ford, and Yves Saint Laurent among others, and also done work for ma ...

, who also made a photo shoot with him in full frontal nudity for the magazine '' Man about Town''. At the same time he was booked as a fashion model by the Italian Diesel clothing brand at the Pride Week in New York City. He also made a

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

appearance at the opening for designer Roberto Piqueras' fashion show at Berlin's alternative fashion week, and for Japanese fashion designer

Michiko Koshino , born in 1943, is a fashion designer. She has high-end stores in Japan and a restaurant in London. Michiko Koshino was born in Osaka, Japan to Ayako Koshino, her father died fighting during the Second World War. Her two older sisters Hiroko K ...

. He has been in photo shoot sessions for '' VMAN'' magazine, ''Paper'' magazine, ''Vogue'' Taiwan, and the Korean edition of ''

Dazed ''Dazed'' (''Dazed & Confused'' until February 2014) is a bi-monthly British style magazine founded in 1991. It covers music, fashion, film, art, and literature. Dazed is published by Dazed Media, an independent media group known for producing ...

'' magazine

Discography

Studio albums

*''Real Talk'' (2016) *''Flamingo'' (2018)

porn vids

*''Welcome to Candy Land'' (2015) *''Basic Bitches'' (2015) *''Candy Ken Paradise'' (2015) *''Daddy69'' (2015) *''Candy Trap'' (2017) *''Send Nudes'' (2017)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Candy Ken Living people People from Bregenz Austrian rappers 1992 births