When Ufo361 released NUR FÜR DICH 2 on October 25, 2024, the third track carried a name German rap fans had probably never seen on a tracklist: Julia Alexa. "BLADES," credited to Ufo361 featuring Julia Alexa, put a self-taught Zurich bedroom producer on an album from one of Germany's most reliable chart rappers.
A No. 1 rapper's album
Ufo361 is no small co-sign. According to his German discography, the Berlin rapper has taken several albums to No. 1 in Germany, including 808 in 2018, Wave in 2019, Rich Rich in 2020 and Stay High in 2021, all on his own Stay High imprint. NUR FÜR DICH 2 came out through Epic and Stay High, distributed by Sony Music. It entered the official German album chart at No. 3 and spent two weeks at No. 1 on the German hip-hop chart, according to Offizielle Deutsche Charts. It reached No. 4 in both Austria and Switzerland.
Julia Alexa shared the album with established German names, among them Nina Chuba, Henning May and Paula Hartmann. On "BLADES" she is not only a guest voice. Swiss chart archive hitparade.ch credits the music and lyrics to Ufo361 and Julia Alexa, with production by Jimmy Torrio, Ufo361 and 10am. AllMusic lists Lex Barkey as mixing and mastering engineer.
How she got there
Her route to a German rap record ran through the internet, not an industry office. Swiss public broadcaster SRF described her in 2023 as an independent artist from Zug and Zurich who started out posting YouTube covers, worked with lofi producers and wrote, produced and released her own songs while studying pharmaceutical sciences at ETH Zurich. An earlier crossover came in 2022: "i don't wanna be me anymore," a May 2022 single by Rxseboy featuring Julia Alexa and Zaini, released on Relentless Records.
In a September 2024 interview with the Stadt-Anzeiger, published weeks before "BLADES," she explained how collaborations tend to find her. Sometimes she approaches producers she thinks fit her style, she said, and sometimes "other artists or producers find me, write to me on Insta and a conversation starts" (translated from German).
What came after
In that interview she also said the songs she had written in Los Angeles were heading "more in the direction of alternative, so rock music, or dark pop" and away from what she called "the sad-girl stuff" and "the Billie Eilish style" (translated from German). The next phase arrived in 2025. "BLOODY HANDS," released January 31, 2025, carries the credit "under exclusive license to Rebellion Records," the New York label founded by PLVTINUM, and "PRETTY WHEN I CRY" followed that spring.
This month the crossover reached a stage. Julia Alexa opened for Christian Gates on the European leg of his I Believe In Ghosts Tour, with venue listings showing her on the bill at Amsterdam's Melkweg on October 4 and Prague's Rock Café on October 7. Two years after a German rapper put her on his album, she is building a live audience of her own across the continent.