Music

MARVIN x Alemeda: The Phoenix firestarter is taking hip-hop label TDE into guitar rock, one Paramore-inspired scream at a time.

From day one, rebellion and betting on herself have been the name of the game for Alemeda. With those defining traits, it’s no surprise that the Ethiopia-born and Phoenix-raised 25-year-old is paving the way for rock music on the hip-hop-leaning roster of Top Dawg Entertainment, home of heavyweights like Kendrick Lamar and SZA. “I’m definitely intentional,” she says. “I’m the captain of the ship, and everyone around me knows that I have to be part of the writing, production, and promotion.”

It’s been a breakthrough year for Alemeda, who followed a 2024 tour with Rachel Chinouriri with a performance at her dream festival Camp Flog Gnaw, and the fiery, Doechii-featuring single “Beat a B!tch Up” this fall. The song revived a four-year-old shelved concept of Alemeda’s after Doechii advised via voice memo to add a “Hayley Williams-ass yell” to the end of the track, resulting in one of her most memorable moments to date. 

Ears first began turning to Alemeda thanks to the covers she was posting online, which gained recognition and reposts from idols like Alessia Cara. Back then, she went by her full name Rahema Alameda, but switched to a re-worded mononym to avoid confusion with Rihanna — and an Oakland suburb — in web searches. “I love [my name], it’s a representation of my culture,” she says. “I didn’t want to do a whole alter ego name, because my music is very me, it’s my story, and everything that I write about is what I go through.”