Mex Cortez

BIO

Who is Mex Cortez?

Mex Cortez alias Manimendra is a Sri Lankan/Tanzanian hip hop artist who is quickly cementing himself as one of the new torch bearers of the Hip Hop genre this Eastern part of Sahara.
Mex Cortez grew up in Tanzania’s commercial hub Dar es Salaam, and is a student of the game with an uncanny ability to seamlessly switch gears from his native Swahili language to English to his Sri Lankan dialect Sinhala. His music explores themes of self-motivation, racism and depression and his unique style is an explosive arsenal packed with an incredible flow, hard punch lines, an intricate wordplay, and witty double entendres.

Mex Cortez was inspired early on by the legendary hip hop artist Eminem to rap while the local sensation, One the incredible inspired him to rap in Swahili. As a teenager he was so obsessed with rhyming that by the time he was in high school he recorded tracks on FL studio on his laptop and shared the tracks with his schoolmates. After high school, Mex Cortez and his friends formed the rap group Brimeg and released their first mixtape that they named Brimeg Reloaded.

In 2016 while performing at the lyricist Lounge in Dar’s party area Masaki, he was discovered by Lufu, his mentor and one of the founding members of the notorious hip hop crew Kikosi cha mizinga who provided him with access to a recording studio. And so by 2017, Mex Cortez was officially introduced into the music industry with the release of his first solo mixtape named Badnews which in spite of its novice status, featured Tanzanian legends such as Fid Q and Wakazi.

He finally released his first studio album, Monsoon winds in 2021 that was well received by the fans and which aside from featuring prominent Tanzanian artists like his childhood hero One the incredible, AY Masta, Fid Q, Nikki Mbishi, G Nako, Hashim Dogo, and Zimbabwe’s own Gemma Griffith, it was the first of its kind to be sold and distributed through USB drives.

With almost 10 years in the music industry now, Mex Cortez has already graced the big stages by performing at the TRACE music awards and even collaborating with some of the hottest African artists such as Gemma Griffith from Zimbabwe and Khaligraph Jones from Kenya.

Mex Cortez is currently working on his much anticipated album IGWE that is set to drop by August of 2025. The album will feature talented artists such as his often collaborator and Kenyan neighbor Khaligraph Jones, Mad Ice, Billnas and Nviiri the storyteller.

Mex Cortez is a rising star and the sky is just a view for him as he not only believes that his music will take Tanzania to new global heights but he also plans to bring back to Tanzania the Hip Hop music awards and the rap battle awards. Most of all, he dreams of starting his own Hip Hop label that will house high caliber artists so that together they can wave the Tanzanian flag internationally.