Emiliano Rudolf Giambelli, best known as Emis Killa (born 14 November 1989), is an Italian

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 ...

Biography and career

Emis Killa was born in

Vimercate Vimercate (; lmo, label=Brianzöö, Vimercaa ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Monza and Brianza, Lombardy, northern Italy. It is from Milan and from Monza. Its name (whose first finding dates back to the year 745) derives from t ...

to a Sicilian mother from

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

who worked as a

metalworker Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale ...

and a Lombard father who also performed as a musician. Emis Killa’s father struggled with

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

and died due to cardiac arrest in 2010.

2007–2010: The beginnings

In 2007, at just 17 years old, he was the winner of an Italian freestyle competition called TecnichePerfette. Emis Killa cooperated with the independent company Blocco Recordz with which he published a mixtape, ''Keta Music'' (2009), followed by the album ''Champagne e Spine'' (2010).

2011–2012: ''The Flow Clocker Vol.1'' and ''L'erba cattiva''

In 2011 he published the mixtape ''The Flow Clocker vol. 1'', followed by the album '' L'erba cattiva'' (2012). The music video for his song " Parole di ghiaccio" (meaning Cold words), the third track from the album ''L'erba cattiva'', received 7.5 million views on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

in less than two weeks, reaching 20 million in three months, breaking the record for Italian music.

2013–2015: Mercurio

On 12 July 2013, Emis Killa published Vampiri, as an anticipation of the rapper's second studio album. The video clip of the song was successfully released on July 17.

2020: ''17'' with Jake La Furia

On 18 September 2020, Emis Killa released ''17'', an album in collaboration with

Jake La Furia Francesco Vigorelli (born 25 February 1979), better known by his stage name Jake La Furia, is an Italian rapper, record producer and radio host. He was formerly a member of the hip hop duo Club Dogo with rapper Gué Pequeno and producer Don J ...

Awards and nominations

On 5 May 2012, Emis Killa won "Best emerging artist of 2012" at the TRL awards. On 12 December 2012, during the Hip Hop Awards in the category of Best New Artist and Best Collaboration he won along with

Club Dogo Club Dogo was an Italian rap group from Milan ( Lombardy) that consists of Guè Pequeno and Jake La Furia, and beatmaker Don Joe. The group was born in 1999 from the friendship between rappers Gué Pequeno (whose stage name was Lucky Luciano) ...

J-Ax Alessandro Aleotti (; born 5 August 1972), known as J-Ax (), is an Italian rapper, formerly in the rap group Articolo 31 with his DJ Vito Luca Perrini (DJ Jad). He is the brother of Weedo (also known as Grido from boyband Gemelli DiVersi). On 6 ...

and

Marracash Fabio Bartolo Rizzo, better known by his stage name Marracash (), is an Italian rapper. Starting his career in the rap group Dogo Gang, he debuted as a solo artist rising in fame in the 2010s releasing six studio albums that reached the top ten ...

with his song "Se il mondo fosse". In January 2015, Mercurio received a nomination for

IMPALA The impala or rooibok (''Aepyceros melampus'') is a medium-sized antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The only extant member of the genus '' Aepyceros'' and tribe Aepycerotini, it was first described to European audiences by Germa ...

's European Independent Album of the Year Award.

Discography

Albums

* ''Il peggiore'' (2011) * '' L'erba cattiva'' (2012) * '' Mercurio'' (2013) * ''Terza stagione'' (2016) * '' Supereroe'' (2018)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Killa, Emis 1989 births Living people People from Vimercate Italian rappers People of Sicilian descent MTV Europe Music Award winners 21st-century Italian male musicians