YONAS

Yonas Mellesse, known under the mononym, YONAS, is an independent hip-hop artist hailing from New York City. Yonas often claims that with his music, he hopes to "bring content back to popular music."
Hailing from New York City, Yonas fuses thought-provoking content and infectious melodies with crossover music production. In just the past three years he has independently sold 100,000+ songs, 15,000+ albums and has accumulated over 70 million streams digitally. Yonas has released a total of 8 projects, including multiple albums, mixtapes and EPs. His albums have consistently reached top 5 on the iTunes Hip-Hop charts, top 25 on the overall iTunes album charts and top 50 on the Billboard Hip-Hop charts.
YONAS was born in New York City. He began his music career at the early age of 5 when he was enrolled in violin classes in East Harlem by his parents as an attempt to focus some of his otherwise wild energy. He went on to study classical violin at the legendary Juilliard school of music. In Middle School, Yonas began to take his passion for sports more seriously, and eventually had to choose between violin and being an athlete, choosing to focus on the latter. Fast forward a few years after putting the violin down, Yonas became entrenched in the house party and club culture of New York City, leading him to become one of New York's notorious freestyle rappers, and eventually birthing his passion to create Hip Hop Music.
In 2009 he released his first EP The New Golden Era independently, winning a Billboard Songwriting Award for his single "Banga."
In 2010 he followed with his first mixtape produced by Sean Ross entitled I Am Us to the tune of 30,000 downloads. A little over a year later in 2011, he released his first album on iTunes, "The Proven Theory." The music video for his hit single "Shy Kidz" was featured on MTVu and Fuse TV on Demand as the fan-selected winner of an independent artist contest.
The Transition, which is considered Yonas's breakout mixtape, was released in 2012 to the tune of 70,000 downloads in the first 2 months. Yonas was also featured as a Breakout artist in XXL magazine in June 2012. Thanks to The Transition's success, Yonas was able to land a 50 city nationwide tour in the Fall of 2012, opening for former musical group AER. Yonas has performed with many notable musicians including Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Wale, Juicy J, Timeflies, Gorilla Zoe, The White Panda, and Logic. Fuse TV caught up with Yonas for a special 1 on 1 interview while on his nationwide tour.
Yonas gained major momentum when his hit remix of "Pumped Up Kicks" also produced by Sean Ross went viral on YouTube with 6+ million views, which continues to climb daily. Another major music video which grabbed music viewers attention was "Fall Back" which found its way into the 2013 major motion picture, "The Place Beyond The Pines" starring Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper
He then released his EP The Black Canvas on February 4, 2013 which went #4 on iTunes Hip-Hop/ Rap charts and #25 on the iTunes overall album chart.
After the Transition Deluxe, Yonas released a series of free remixes to popular songs titled "Freemix Tuesdays". He released music videos for each of these songs on his Youtube channel, most ranging between 200,000 to 1.5 million views on his Youtube channel.
On May 26, 2015 he released his EP, Going Places, a 5 track album available on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Play. It reached #22 on Top Hip-Hop/Rap Album Charts on iTunes.
On November 30, 2016, YONAS released another EP entitled Everyday Like It's Friday. This EP featured many popular hip-hop acts, including Roscoe Dash, Sammy Adams, Witt Lowry, and XV.