Blending Hip-Hop and Neo-Soul, Rimon Is the New Face of Dutch Music

A version of this article originally appeared on Noisey Netherlands.

You may feel a pang of silent jealousy while watching Rimon. Given the ease with which the 21-year-old Dutch singer moves through life, it’s understandable: in the new music video for “Realize,” everything seems to happen gracefully, as it would in a nostalgia-tinged daydream. But “seem” is the operative word: Rimon’s background wasn’t nearly as smooth. When she was just a toddler, Rimon and her mother fled Eritrea—a country in northeast Africa with a long history of human rights violations—for the Netherlands, where she lived in a few different places before ultimately winding up in Amsterdam.

These days, recording in a bedroom studio in Amsterdam East, Rimon is working with her producer Samuel Kareem on her world debut. Listening to “Realize,” it’s obvious that’s destined for stardom. The track is only her third official release, but it has all the class and confidence of a seasoned artist. Rimon’s first EP will drop before the end of the year, so treat yourself to the above video, shot by Yavez Anthonio, in the meantime.