"My name is Tanaka Fuego, my pronouns are he/they and I'm a poet, songwriter, musician... just a lover of language." Tanaka doesn't speak so much as unfurl verse. Each thought is measured, rhythmic, as if he's halfway between a conversation and a performance. "I've been a writer for the past eight years." He began writing at 15 after a suicide attempt and the unexpected discovery of a poetry course. "Poetry saved my life," he says. Since then, the page and music have been his compasses. "I make alternative hip hop, but in the expansive sense." In 2024, Fuego flew to Paris with his brother Eliad, an "incredible producer", and they recorded 22 demos in four days. "It was so urgent, just the need to share." He creates with emotional precision, wielding vulnerability like a sharpened tool. His art is diaristic but generous, drawing from personal fracture to create something communal, healing and defiantly beautiful. Fuego isn't just a performer, he's a conduit. You don't just listen to him, you feel him.
~ Emily Phillips - 10 magazine
