Kitana

As the daughter of Bosnian war refugees, Kitana learnt one thing about life at an early age: it isn’t fair. Some are blessed with everything, others have to battle. Like the eponymous character from Mortal Kombat, Kitana has not only learnt to fight, but also to assert herself. The 29-year-old Vienna-based artist earned her spurs as a rapper the hard way. She wrote her first lyrics as a teenager, homed in on Nas and Mobb Deep, poetic and socially critical East Coast hip-hop and learned to freestyle at rap battles. Her own style, just as free and unconventional, then came naturally. Kitana spits out dirty lines before soothing your ears in the next moment via autotune, sounding rough and authentic, but never impulsive or rash. On the contrary. Her debut ‘Lorbeeren’ (2022) came out at the height of the pandemic and shows an artist who can rap and sing, bite and rhyme - all of it across a wide range of topics and with a great feel for the right key. This year's second album ‘Fatality’ (2025) shows how she’s drilling her sound into the pitted German rap landscape and establishing herself as an MC with no direct equal.