Rouge

Deko Barbara-Jessica Wedi professionally known as Rouge (which mean red in French) is a new school rapper, author and hip-hop artist from Pretoria, South Africa. Rouge who is born and bred in South Africa, is from Congolese heritage. She has been involved in music and arts from a young age, writing songs since she was 12 and rapping since she was 19. She has a degree in Drama and Film from the University of Pretoria. 

Her debut single ‘ Party’ (2014) was well received in the local hip-hop community and reached the #1 stop on the hip-hop show of a popular local radio show, The Stir Up on 5 FM. From then, she released more singles such as ‘mi corazon’ (2015) ‘output’ (20150 and ‘BUA’ (2015) featuring rapper Reason. This single received high rotation on various local radio and hip hop shows in South Africa and neighboring countries. 

In 2015, Rouge was featured alongside prominent South Africans female rappers, Fifi Cooper, Moozlie and Gigi Lamayne in AKA’s hit remix ‘Baddest’. Last year Rouge took the hip-hop world by storm by releasing two successful singles ‘Mbongo-Zaka’ and ‘Sheba Ngwan O’. She has worked with successful South Africans artists such as the pop-rock group Locnville and DJ Mark Kent. Rouge was the opening acts at Cassper Nyovest most talk about concert #FillUpOrlandoStadium in October 2016. 

Rouge is praised for her powerful flow, punchlines and vocal abilities. Her songs often incorporate French lyrics with some Lingala words (a language widely spoken in DR Congo) and South African local slang words.