Elias (rapper)

Elias (born April 20, 1996 in Kinshasa , Democratic Republic of the Congo ; real name Ali Bayila Bolonga ) is a German rapper of Congolese origin from Düsseldorf . He used to be active under the names Elias Sweez and Young Sweezy .

Musical career

Elias was born in 1996 in the Congolese capital Kinshasa and came to Germany with his family when he was 4 years old. They first lived in Duisburg and then moved to Düsseldorf, where Elias grew up. At the age of 15 he started rapping, then under the stage name Young Sweezy. In July 2013 he was signed by the Bonn label Out4Fame and changed his stage name to Elias Sweez. Just a month later, his debut EP NRWs Freshster appeared as a free download. In 2014 he performed for the first time at the Out4Fame Festival , which was organized by his label. In February 2015 his second EP Meine Welt was released , also for free download.

After that, there were no more publications for a while until he finally appeared in 2017 under his new stage name Elias as a feature guest on the song Erdbeerwoche by KC Rebell and Summer Cem . The song reached number 65 in the German charts and Elias' participation secured him a place as support on the Maximum Tour of KC Rebell and Summer Cem, which made him known to a larger audience. At the end of 2017 Elias ended his collaboration with Out4Fame. His first independent release without a label was the song Upgrade , which was released on December 8, 2017. Since then, Elias has been working closely with the Duisburg-based producers Juh-Dee and Young Mesh . His first mixtape Flyest Alive was released on June 21, 2019 .

In January 2020 Elias signed a deal with the Epic Records label , which is owned by Sony Music Entertainment . His first release under the new label is the song Benzo , which was released on January 10, 2020 and reached number 16 in the charts in Germany.

Discography

Albums

• 2013: NRW's Freshster ( EP )
• 2015: My World (EP)
• 2019: Flyest Alive (Mixtape)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
2020	Benzo	DE16 (5 weeks) DE	AT32 (3 weeks) AT	CH34 (3 weeks) CH	First published: January 10, 2020
	Revenge	DE34 (2 weeks) DE	AT52 (1 week) AT	CH70 (1 week) CH	First published: February 28, 2020
	Underdog	DE32 (2 weeks) DE	AT41 (1 week) AT	CH50 (1 week) CH	First published: April 23, 2020
	Jacob & Co	DE30 (2 weeks) DE	AT41 (1 week) AT	CH70 (1 week) CH	First published: June 12, 2020

More singles

• 2017: upgrade
• 2018: Alpo Martínez
• 2018: Hello Kitty
• 2018: Fendi
• 2018: Remember the Name
• 2019: Shot Clock
• 2019: Aquafina

Guest Posts

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
2017	Strawberry week	DE65 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	First published: November 10, 2017 KC Rebell & Summer Cem feat. Elias
2019	Bayram Just nice	DE23 (3 weeks) DE	AT37 (2 weeks) AT	CH70 (1 week) CH	First published: July 26th, 2019 Summer Cem feat. Elias

Further guest contributions

• 2018: NMM - Summer Cem feat. Elias
• 2018: 200 nozzles (Remix) - Summer Cem feat. Elias
• 2018: Push! T - Summer Cem feat. Elias
• 2019: Uncle Sam - KC Rebell feat. Elias
• 2019: Baller - KC Rebell feat. Elias

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Elias - biography on laut.de, accessed on January 22, 2020.
2. ↑ Artist profile on tidal.com, accessed on 19 January 2020th
3. ↑ Elias Interview: "Came From Nothing", Summer Cem, Musical Influences and Career - 16Bars on YouTube, accessed on July 6, 2020.
4. ↑ Out4Fame signs Elias Sweez on rap.de, accessed on January 19, 2020.
5. ↑ Hiphop in the heart, the future in view: Elias' takeover is running on hiphop.de, accessed on January 19, 2020.
6. ↑ "Alpo Martinez": Newcomer Elias convinces with fresh, modern German rap sound on bigfm.de, accessed on January 20, 2020.
7. ↑ Epic engages Elias on musikwoche.de, accessed on January 20, 2020.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE AT CH