Taco Hemingway

Taco Hemingway
Taco Hemingway performing in Warsaw in 2018.
Taco Hemingway performing in Warsaw in 2018.
Background information
Birth nameFilip Tadeusz Szcześniak
Also known asTaco, FoodVillain, Fifi, Pan Śmierć
Born (1990-07-29) July 29, 1990 (age 34)
Cairo, Egypt
OriginWarsaw, Poland
Genres
Occupations
  • Rapper
  • songwriter
Years active2011–present
Labels
Websitetacohemingway.com

Filip Tadeusz Szcześniak (born July 29, 1990), better known by the stage name Taco Hemingway (earlier FV), is a Polish rapper, songwriter, and musician.

He began recording in 2011, at which time he released - under the pseudonym Foodvillain - an English-language mixtape entitled Who Killed JFK.[1] A year later, he adopted the pseudonym Taco Hemingway, under which he released the English-language EP Young Hems.[2] In 2014, he released a second EP, this time recorded in Polish, titled Trójkąt warszawski.[3] The album brought the musician publicity, thanks to which he joined the label Asfalt Records, under which he released a re-release of Trójkąt warszawski and a new EP entitled Umowa o dzieło.[4] These, as well as subsequent albums released on the label, made the rapper famous, and he quickly became one of the most popular musicians in Poland.[5][6]

He has sold over 400,000 albums in Poland, making him one of the best-selling rappers in Poland. Almost every rapper's album can be downloaded for free from his website. The most successful was the joint album with Quebonafide, titled Soma 0.5 mg, which was sold in over 150 thousand copies. Also successful were the albums Szprycer, Marmur and Pocztówka z WWA, lato '19. For the sale of albums he repeatedly received the certificate of platinum, gold and diamond records. He created hits such as "6 zer", "Następna stacja", "Deszcz na betonie", "Polskie Tango", "Tamagotchi" or "Nostalgia", which all went trending on YouTube with millions of views shortly after release.

He has been nominated for the Fryderyk Awards thirteen times between 2016 and 2020, including four times as a winner in the hip-hop Album of the Year category (for the albums Umowa o dzieło, Szprycer, Soma 0,5 mg, Pocztówka z WWA), including being the only artist to win the award three times in a row and being the only rapper nominated and awarded in the Song of the Year category.[7] He was also nominated for the MTV Europe Music Awards in the Best Polish Artist category and Empik's Bestsellers in the Polish Music, Hip-Hop Music and Streaming categories.[8][9] However, the musician does not pay much attention to the awards, and he did not collect any of them.[10]

He was ranked 10th on the list of Most Influential Poles 2019 by Wprost.[11] He is the first Polish artist whose songs have been played over a billion times on the streaming platform Spotify.[12] Despite his immense popularity, the rapper does not spend much time in the media, rarely giving interviews and not appearing in advertisements.

  1. ^ "fvkilledjfk - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  2. ^ "YOUNG HEMS, by Taco Hemingway". Taco Hemingway. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  3. ^ "HiPHOPedia :: e-Ncyklopedia polskiego hip-hopu". 24 September 2015. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  4. ^ "Taco Hemingway - "Umowa o dzieło" - EP-ka już do odsłuchu". 23 September 2015. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  5. ^ "Quebonafide i Taco Hemingway nagrali płytę - CGM.pl". CGM (in Polish). 12 March 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  6. ^ "Oficjalna lista sprzedaży :: OLIS - Official Retail Sales Chart". olis.onyx.pl. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  7. ^ "FRYDERYK 2020" (in Polish). Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  8. ^ "MTV EMA 2018: Camila Cabello faworytką. Kto powalczy z Polski?". muzyka.interia.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  9. ^ "ZPAV :: Bestsellery i wyróżnienia - Aktualności". bestsellery.zpav.pl. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  10. ^ "Fryderyki 2018: znamy zwycięzców [WYNIKI]". Onet Kultura (in Polish). 24 April 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  11. ^ "Dawid Podsiadło i Taco Hemingway w czołówce zestawienia najbardziej wpływowych Polaków 2019 - CGM.pl". CGM (in Polish). 31 October 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  12. ^ "Pierwszy polski artysta z ponad miliardem odtworzeń w Spotify". TVN24 (in Polish). 7 April 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2022.