Rebstar

The Drake and Trey Songz collaborator and minor Scandinavian hip-hop mogul discusses his ventures as he prepares to take his career across the Atlantic.

Rebin Shah, alias Rebstar, had only recently arrived in New York from his homeland Sweden when we sat down in a Financial District high-rise to discuss his transatlantic music career and diverse other projects. The rapper-cum-entrepreneur had watched the recent release Steve Jobs, in which Michael Fassbender stars as the titular Apple during the flight over: “Everyone was like … ‘He was pretty radical and harsh; he was crazy,’” Shah told me. “I was thinking to myself, he kind of reminds me of me — does that make me crazy?”

Since his 2008 single “Without You,” featuring Trey Songz, took off on local airwaves, Shah has worked with such names as Drake (who he contacted via Myspace before So Far Gone had been released), Boi-1da and T-Minus. He’s part of a burgeoning Swedish rap scene in Malmo — though he’s quick to dismiss the idea that Swedish rap is just the latest music trend. Swedish artists, several under the auspices of Shah’s boutique music label Today is Vintage, have prepared to make its transition to North America — in part by recruiting North American artists to Malmo. His labelmate Saint was recently featured on Vice’s Noisey vertical, while another Vintage artist, Kállay Saunders, has met success on the Hungarian charts. This past weekend, Rebstar announced he’ll play five sets at South by Southwest later this month, and his debut full-length album, Girls Like Nicole, is slated for a late-spring release date.

Though Shah now identifies as an artist, over the past decade he’s had a hand in a number of business-minded projects, which run the gamut from making cold-calls for a hedge fund to starting a B2B breakfast catering service in Malmo, the Swedish town where he grew up and currently resides. And even on the music side, Shah has taken an entrepreneurial route: He began a music label called 2Fresh in 2008 (“My intention was never to start a label. I just had a little collective of artists and other creative people,” he said. “We made it, like, a music hub in the city.”) and then another called Today is Vintage in 2012, with which he’s still affiliated.


Though Shah now identifies as an artist, over the past decade he’s had a hand in a number of business-minded projects, which run the gamut from making cold-calls for a hedge fund to starting a B2B breakfast catering service in Malmo, the Swedish town where he grew up and currently resides. And even on the music side, Shah has taken an entrepreneurial route: He began a music label called 2Fresh in 2008 (“My intention was never to start a label. I just had a little collective of artists and other creative people,” he said. “We made it, like, a music hub in the city.”) and then another called Today is Vintage in 2012, with which he’s still affiliated.

http://onforb.es/1LVZSwA - FORBES

A few months back, we premiered a track called "Fakka Me Mej" by a trap-punk Swede called Nomad. It was probably the meanest, most furious track and video we'd gotten our hands on in a long, long time—so it's kind of impressive that somebody managed to actually make a version even more lethal than the original. Enter Rebstar: Sweden's law-school-dropout-turned-rapper who just took "Fakka Me Mej", remixed it and spat out something hard-hitting and seriously heavy.

If you don't know Rebstar, you're about to get to know him pretty well in the next few months. He recently dropped his debut EP, You Know Nothing About Love, and collaborated with Trey Songz, Boi-1da T-Minus, Drake, Abel Tesfaye and Rich Boy; his debut track, "Reputation", kind of blew up online; and in the Spring, he'll be hitting the road for a tour in both Europe and North America. Despite the hype he's already gained, though, we personally think this remix is the most memorable introduction to him you could possibly get.

Rebstar's raps on "Fakka Me Mej" attack from all sides. He criticizes racism in Sweden with lines like 'I'm always reppin' overseas, as soon as I'm home, I ain't even considered a Swede' and 'I'll probably win a Grammy before they give me a Grammis; he aggressively asserts his swagger by telling us 'my lawyer, he know the President'; and he makes sure we know his raps are lethal by spitting at us that 'my words are infectious... I think I just gave this beat syphilis'. He even ends his shrill offense on pretty much everything by recommending, 'I got some advice: go kill yourself'—just in case anyone was still doubting Rebstar's bold and mean potential for greatness.

Basically, Rebstar took Nomad's fiery track and blew it up into an unapologetic, ball-busting explosion. Brace yourself and check it out below. - Noisey / VICE

Rebstar has been gaining attention steadily all across the world, which is pretty impressive considering the artist hails from Sweden, but while it’s not exactly the musical hub for hip hop, it is an artistic mine for great electronic and pop, and Rebstar manages to find a delicate balance that highlights his musical range.

He’s cited everyone from Outkast to Woody Allen as major influences, and his emotional touch and comedic timing is perfect in this piece. He’s got a mad ex-girlfriend, and he’s got some punishments to be had. It’s not the run-of-the-mill hip hop track, but the fun times and understandable rap makes this one easy to fall in like with. - EARMILK

27-year-old rapper Rebstar, born Rebin Shah, is arguably Sweden’s leading hip hop export right now, soaking up well-deserved international spotlight through his collaborations with Trey Songz, Drake and The Weeknd. Now he’s dropping this brand new song “Good Time” on his own label Today is Vintage (which you’ll know if you’ve ever gotten funky to Swedish-based Gambian rapper Saint) and it's a fucking treat. - Noisey