Faberyayo (NL)

About

Faberyayo, the stage name of Pepijn Lanen, is one third of De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, the Dutch hip hop group whose debut single Watskeburt?! shot straight to number one in the Single Top 100 back in 2005. The group went on to make eight studio albums together, and Lanen has kept himself busy on plenty of other fronts too, including the synth pop duo Le Le with Piet Parra and Rimer London, whose cult club hit Skinny Jeans built a loyal following across Europe. Outside of group projects, Lanen released his solo album Coco in 2012 and has collaborated with rapper Sef under the name Yous en Yay, blending jazz influences into their EPs. He also runs a podcast with Sef called Yous en Yay New Emotions. What makes Lanen genuinely unusual in Dutch hip hop is his parallel career as a published author: his short story collection Sjeumig sold over 12,500 copies, his debut novel Naamloos followed in 2016, and he later wrote and directed the audio drama Gothrecht for public broadcaster VPRO. In 2020 he won the Lennaert Nijgh Prize.