MCNZI, who was born Julian McCarthy and goes by JJ to his friends, has an incredible amount of self-determination for a 25-year-old. “I used to say, before I have anybody work and produce stuff for me, I want to do it by myself. I want to say that I got my first million listens by my damn self. It was ego, but eventually what is real will always prosper and this is what I try to live by.” Last month, his track “The Funk” reached a million listens.

The artist, who is a part of the Berlin-based collective and record label Live from Earth, has been coming up in the city’s scene for several years, regularly playing at cult venues including Berghain and Griessmuehle. Unlike the aspiring DJs and artists that flock to the city from abroad in hope of breaking through, MCNZI was born in Zehlendorf, an affluent neighborhood on the outskirts of Berlin.As a half- American, half - German person of color with an anti- establishment mindset, MCNZI felt alienated in the conservative neighborhood bordered by lakes and forests.

“Every artist goes through their little trials and tribulations of becoming someone, I was that kid that didn't really fit into no niche. Also, being a person of color I always felt like I was never really there anywhere. I wasn't welcome or part of anything. I was lone wolfing.”

Lone wolfing never bothered MCNZI. He always had friends at high school that he’d play football with or recite lyrics to over the lunch hall table, but he didn’t feel like he belonged. Rather than get him down, this sense of alienation is what helped him harbor the defiant spirit that got him to where he is today. “I never wanted to fuck with something just because everyone was fucking with it,” he explains.

For MCNZI, being a lone wolf wasn’t about rejecting any particular group or ideal, but having the chance to dip into as many groups or ideals as he liked. He still goes by this today, “I don't have a gang, I had crews that co-exist with each other,” he says. He’ll flit between his skate crew, his circle of music peers, and still makes an effort to meet people with opposite views to his own to “diversify his thoughts”. His approach to fashion is similar. One day he’ll dress in a two-piece suit, shirtless underneath and in brogues, while the next, he’ll be skating in cons, cargo pants, and a tee.

Even his music can’t be pinned down to one genre. He records, plays, and performs under two alter egos: MCNZI and MCR-T. MCNZI, a derogatory nickname riffing off his surname that was given to him by his high school classmates for his ambitious attitude and miniature mustache reminiscent of you know whose, is the alibi he goes by when he raps in German and English to trap-heavy drumbeats, minimal ‘80s baselines, and pretty much everything in-between. MCR-T, his DJ persona, is, on the whole, for everything electronic-, techno- or house-infused.

What keeps him grounded throughout is his other lifelong passion besides music: skateboarding. He was drawn to the sport in his rebellious teen years and, although he wasn’t a natural (it took him four years to learn how to kickflip), he kept at it. Through skateboarding, he made some of his closest friends including Paul Herrmann and Stephan Grap who worked on the video and images on this page, and it also taught him the importance of failure. “Skateboarding has taught me that it [failure] is human. That it's part of victory. That every story of success is paved by many failures. The more you fail the more you become immune to criticism, to laughs, or to judgment.”