MC Battle
AdonysX: A rap nomad makes his home on the battle stage
Days before competing at the Red Bull Batalla International Final in Madrid, the Venezuelan MC looks back on the winding road that led him to the top of U.S. freestyle.
Forward movement is essential to artistic growth, but in the case of Venezuelan rapper AdonysX, a nomadic lifestyle has quite literally led him to freestyle glory. The newly consecrated Red Bull Batalla USA 2024 Champion has been on a steady rise for a decade, first making a splash on his native Isla Margarita, and later bouncing between rap scenes in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Texas, and most significantly, Florida. AdonysX has soaked up flows and regional codes from a plethora of cultures throughout the Americas, nurtured further by forays into sports, acting, and songwriting. The result is an artist that recognizes “home” as a feeling that lives within himself, even when it's comforting to look back on the Caribbean shores that raised him.
“Obviously the island is beautiful, but what you see on television is for tourists,” chuckles the rapper born Adonys Francisco Mata Martínez. Growing up in a sector called La Capilla, he recalls a fun, active childhood occupied between school, soccer, and later freestyle. One day on the field he injured his knee, and following reconstructive surgery he was forced to quit soccer and devote himself to rap. His training grounds oscillated between the school yard, his friends’ living rooms, and El Faro, a lighthouse by which cyphers are commonly held and that over the years has become an essential space for the island's growing freestyle scene.
AdonysX competes during Red Bull Batalla Miami Qualifiers 2023 in Miami
© Ian Witlen / Red Bull Content Pool
“I once saw Akapellah rapping in a plaza on Margarita,” AdonysX remembers excitedly. “A giant circle had formed and there he was, exchanging bars with other rappers from the island. I was enamored with how they delivered punchlines and the crowd would scream. I didn't really know who he was but later I searched for videos on YouTube and that was my gateway into the bigger battle circuit in Venezuela. Now it's crazy that Akapellah was a judge at this year's Red Bull Batalla USA National Final, which I won. Everything came full circle.”
27 min
Red Bull Batalla Final Nacional EE.UU. – Semifinales y Batalla Final
¿Qué MC representará a Estados Unidos en la final mundial del Red Bull Batalla en Madrid?
AdonysX has straddled multiple worlds all his life. His Dominican grandmother was a cattle distributor who often visited Isla Margarita for work, eventually relocating there full-time. Flash forward to the mid-2010s and Venezuela's deepening economic and political crisis, causing AdonysX, along with his mother and sister, to migrate back to their ancestral homeland. The family settled in the central province of Santiago, a more laid back urban center than the bustling capital of Santo Domingo. And though the aspiring rapper dropped his artistic pursuits to focus on work and rebuilding his life, a visit to the city's Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración revealed the familiar energy and language of clandestine rap circles, reawakening his hunger for freestyle.
Freites and AdonysX during the 2024 Red Bull Batalla U.S. Finals in Miami
© Ian Witlen / Red Bull Content Pool
“Dominican Republic lit that fuse again,” he says. “It’s like dembow in that people are really tapped into the scene. So I showed up to battles every weekend and eventually one of my videos went viral. The video had this exaggerated title, something like 'EPIC BATTLE, VENEZUELA VS. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.' I uploaded it to my YouTube channel and like a month later I checked my notifications and saw it had over a 100k views. From there, I started getting invited to tournaments all the time, and in 2020 I even made it to the country's Red Bull Batalla National Final.”
As new doors opened, so did new territories. In 2021, AdonysX began traveling regularly to Puerto Rico, where he was swept up in an ebullient arts and culture movement. He starred in a film titled Todo Por Amor, from director Antonio Morales, and also attended events put on by local freestyle league La Guerrilla. There he met former Red Bull Batalla Champion Lil Wan and underground rap legend Wiso G. Next thing he knew, nearly a year had elapsed, and fortified by some of the Caribbean's top creative ecosystems he decided it was time to level up again, this time heading to Miami.
“Well, I fell in love with a girl and I went to Miami chasing after her,” he says, bashfully. “Actually, I followed her to Texas for like three months while she attended summer school, and during that time I connected with the crew at Alamo City Freestyle in San Antonio, and Liga Masacre in Houston. Towards the end of 2022, I came back to Miami and that's when I really got into the local freestyle scene and major events like Misión Hip Hop.”
AdonysX during Red Bull Batalla Miami Qualifiers 2023 at Miami, Florida
© Ian Witlen / Red Bull Content Pool
Considering his Pan-American pedigree and networking ease, AdonysX was practically fated to take over Miami freestyle. He thrived in the city's diverse melting pot, awed and nourished by MCs from all over the continent who converged at events from DEM Battles and the Miami Freestyle League. “No two battles are ever the same, and that keeps you on your toes,” he adds.
In 2023, he won a regional qualifier for Red Bull Batalla USA, which put him on the fast track to clinch the national title. However, he was held back from competing in the tournament since champions would have to represent their countries at the International Final in Colombia, and with AdonysX's legal resident status still processing at the time he'd be unable to fulfill his duties in the event he won. While the paperwork was sorted, Red Bull Batalla held a spot for him at the 2024 USA National Final, and in the following year AdonysX's ferociousness only grew.
“I was dying to hit the stage,” he says, looking back on his star turn. “That hunger had been eating away at me since last year. I would go to the park and my friends noticed I wasn't rapping with my usual fury. My mind was on Red Bull Batalla. So when the day finally came, there was a hurricane warning and I was nervous the event would be canceled and I'd miss my shot, again. But once it started, once I was in that first battle, everything clicked inside me. That beast, the desire to win, awoke all over again.”
AdonysX wins Red Bull Batalla National Final 2024 in Miami, FL
© Daniel Zuliani / Red Bull Content Pool
With his trophy in hand, AdonysX now heads to Madrid to take on the world’s finest MCs at the Red Bull Batalla International Final, on November 30. He also teases new music is on the way, with a voracious EP of rap, trap, drill, and reggaeton slated for release in 2025. And if you’re keen to support the project even further, he also has a merch line dropping soon. Regardless, AdonysX is a man about hustle, following the path of opportunity wherever it may lead.
“I wanted to meet my Red Bull Batalla goals before I set my sights on new ones,” he says. “But there’s no vacation. Not yet. Not until I’m the World Champion.”