Ade

Ade (born Mandela) is a rapper, spoken word artist, activist and poet from Juba, South Sudan. He is a former member of rap duo Ghetto Soldiers and now in Innocent Kriminals.

Born in Lakes, South Sudan, Ade moved to Uganda with his family as a child. While growing up, he listened to music from Tupac, Eminem and Jay Z classics. He also explored collections of band albums by Duke Ellington, Count Basie and others. He also began reading Shakespeare, Robert Frost and Maya Angelou’s works among others. During his teens, he started to get to grips with the complexities of modern rap when he discovered J Cole, Andre 3000, Kendrick Lamar, Immortal Technique and Hopsin.

Ade's recording career began with his first project, The Revolution Mixtape in 2012.

Ade moved back to Juba, South Sudan where he began community out reach projects through his music and poetry in 2015. He then released his debut album Deep Elevation which was inspired by the 2013 civil conflict in South Sudan. He then got crowned the pioneer of political rap in South Sudan.

In 2018, Ade released a poetry collection book called “Lemonade Love” a short love poetry collection which gave him more publicity in that he was featured on Aljazeera’s documentary about the copyright laws in South Sudan. He also got signed to the House of Talents, a new music management and promotion company.

Over the past three years, Ade has traveled extensively, performing music and poetry in countries like Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda and a lot of shows within South Sudan.