Candy Ken

Jakob Kasimir Hellrigl (born July 27, 1992), known as Candy Ken, is an Austrian rapper, model, TikToker and artist. He started his career as a rapper in 2014. He used to combine a masculine appearance with feminine pop culture, but now exclusively takes on a more patriotic ultra masculine persona as of 2022. He has become famous, and infamous, for his TikTok videos where he shows his wealth and lifestyle throughout the videos that he creates.

Early life and education

Hellrigl was born in Bregenz, Austria, on July 27, 1992. He has Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry on his mother’s side but identifies as Catholic. He studied photography and film design at the Lette-Verein college in Berlin, but dropped out of his studies in 2014. He attended Wenatchee High School at Wenatchee, Washington for a year where he played football. During his high school years, he met his two best female friends, whose whereabouts are unknown, Isabella and Payton, who he has said inspired him to pursue his music career. While studying at college, he invented the gender-bending persona of Candy Ken, incorporating imagery from Hello Kitty, Japanese Kawaii culture, Barbie dolls and pink clothing in his dress style and visual appearance. Welcome to Candy Land in 2014 as a self-directed video series on YouTube. The music is produced by Lets Go Radio, and distributed by Spinnup.

The video series was re-made as a short film Welcome to Candy Land, which won an award at the Austrian short film festival Alpinale in 2015. In September 2015 he released the second EP Candy Ken Paradise produced by DJ Smokera and distributed by Spinnup. In November 2015 he released a third EP, Daddy 69, containing five songs and five videos. Four videos are directed by him, and the video for the song "69" is directed by London-based underground director Kassandra Powell.