Press kit

Kassmasse (ካሥማሠ, born Fikiru Sema) is a singer, rapper, producer and painter from Addis Ababa. He calls his sound Antsar, “perspective”: the Ethiopian Tizita and Ambassel modes carried into hip hop, reggae, R&B and jazz, with dense Amharic wordplay on top. His releases include Maleda (2020), Bahil | Weg (2022, featuring Julian Marley) and Sanqa Souq (2023). In 2022 AFRIMA named him Best Male Artist in East Africa.

Kassmasse is the stage name of Fikiru Sema, an artist from Addis Ababa who started out writing graffiti and drawing letters before he set them to music. After St. Joseph School and a marketing degree at Addis Ababa University’s School of Commerce, he spent about three years building his craft alongside working musicians.

His debut EP, Maleda (ማለዳ, “dawn”), came out on New Year’s Eve 2020. It opens on a sample of Ethiopian elders discussing the country’s future, and it gave his sound a name: Antsar (አንፃር), “perspective”. Antsar carries the Ethiopian Tizita and Ambassel modes and golden-age samples into hip hop, reggae, R&B and jazz, with Amharic wordplay and allegory on top.

The album Bahil | Weg followed in 2022, with Julian Marley on “Africa”, and that year AFRIMA named him Best Male Artist in East Africa. A remix of “Mela Mela” with Protoje and Uno came later that year, then Sanqa Souq in 2023, “Mentewab” in 2025 and “Ke 13 Werat” with Neba Tiqo in 2026.

He helped create Meedo Records and co-founded Qena Lib, an artist-led label, studio and creative agency in Addis Ababa. He also paints.