Awich is a hip hop artist from Okinawa, Japan.
Awich has been ruling the Japanese Hip-Hop scene for years but is starting to make headways into the international market. Consequence has claimed she’s “ready to break through to America” and AllHipHop called her the “queen of Japanese Hip-Hop here to put a flag, marking her place in the culture.”
Awich, short for “Asian Wish Child,” taken from her birth name “Akiko,” is a name she created to reflect her roots. A child growing up on her home island of Okinawa, Awich would stay up through the night writing poetry about varieties of things such as love, life, the universe, and more. Her first encounter with hip-hop was listening to Tupac’s All Eyes on Me when she was 13.
She relocated to Atlanta to attend college and during her times tateside, she married and gave birth to her daughter. She soon returned to Japan and started to become a “badass female rapper” (Flaunt Magazine).
Most recently, Awich performed her first arena show at the K-Arena in Japan to over 18,000 fans. Billboard noted that Awich “gave off an aura of authority with a down-to-earth, personal feel, in a way that no other Japanese artist has” and that “she elevated not only the hip-hop scene but Japanese culture as a whole.”
In 2024, Awich will be releasing an English album with US touring to follow.
Featured on Episode 20 of Discover Her Music Podcast
Song: Pendulum
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