Bronx rapper Axel Leon releases a new music video for his single “Jungle” today via LOUD Records/RED MUSIC. The Jay Rodriguez-directed video follows the rapper through his hometown of the Bronx in the jungle he was born and bred in. Click here to watch.
“I had fun shooting the ‘Jungle’ video. We went back to the roots of it all, the South Bronx, where I am from. We filmed in the actual neighborhood of Bronx legend Boy George as well as my block. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to approach the ‘Jungle’ video than actually going in it,” says Axel Leon on the video.
“Jungle,” which features booming production with raw and gritty verses, is the first single off of the rapper’s critically acclaimed EP Rich Port 3. On the EP, XXL states that Axel Leon “seamlessly takes a modern approach on classic New York hip-hop.” The 11-track EP is available today on all digital service providers. Click here to listen.
LOUD Records/RED MUSIC rapper Axel Leon was born in Puerto Rico before his family moved to the Bronx a year later. Axel didn’t learn English until the first grade-but three years later, he got his first taste of the music he’d come to make a career on through 1990s hip-hop luminaries like Wu-Tang Clan, 2Pac, and the Notorious B.I.G. He honed his talent for lyricism through writing poetry in middle school and fell even more deeply in love with rap after hearing someone laying bars over an instrumental outside his school. At the age of 21, Axel started running with Shady Records’ Riggs Morales, eventually diving deep into the NYC battle rap scene through the Fight Klub scene. Axel rubbed elbows with hip-hop scene fixtures ranging from Fat Joe and Gym Class Heroes to Shady’s roster-but at the top of the next decade, his career hit a brief lull and rap took a backseat for a brief spell. Before all seemed lost, NYC-based producer Navi serendipitously hit him up on Instagram. The two of them bunkered up in Fight Klub Studios and struck musical inspiration with an impressive run of releases beginning with 2015’s inaugural installment in the Rich Port series. Despite the title-which, in a callback to Axel’s heritage, is the English translation of “Puerto Rico”-Axel was focused on more than money. In 2016, Axel released The Black Holemixtape, the second Rich Port installment and the Jugo tape, which landed him in The Source’s“Unsigned Hype” column. A headlining gig at legendary NYC venue SOB’s followed, as well as a cypher he did at the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards that resulted in a key meet-up with Steve Rifkind that led to Axel’s LOUD signing. The rapper is back with the third installment in his bombastic Rich Port mixtape series (which is the first release under LOUD Records/RED MUSIC), and this time he’s packing extra fire. At once thoroughly modern and reminiscent of the golden age of New York City hip-hop that Axel was raised on, Rich Port 3 is equal parts thought-provoking and rabble-rousing, arriving just in time for summer.