Konstancy’s Debut Album 'City of Angels' is a Love Letter to Palestine

Cyprus-based Palestinian rapper Yousef Qareen, better known as Konstancy, has stepped into 2026 with City of Angels, a debut album that’s been quietly incubating for far longer than its release date suggests.

“I’ve been working on this album for the past year. But the truth is this debut has been in the making since I picked up the mic at 13, back in my bedroom in Jerusalem, only knowing I had something to say.” Konstancy took to Instagram to announce the release of the album.

Written entirely in English, the ten-track record features contributions from BLTNM-affiliated producer Smokaholic, Palestinian-American pop artist Lana Lubany, and rapper HAKVM. Sonically rooted in classic West Coast hip-hop, City of Angels sidesteps the genre’s typical bravado in favor of introspection, memory, and political clarity. Konstancy’s writing moves through themes of displacement, identity, self-belief, and survival, framing personal history against the ongoing violence and erasure facing Palestine.

The album opens with ‘Intro (Wake Up)’, a haunting collage of family voice notes from Palestine layered over a delicate piano arrangement and soft harmonies. It immediately establishes the record’s emotional stakes of longing, distance, and the weight of familial ties.

On ‘Welcome to the City’, Konstancy and HAKVM trade verses over a funky, soul-laced beat that nods to Nas-era New York boom bap. The track captures the tension of existing between worlds, recounting Konstancy’s life as a Palestinian rapper in Los Angeles while looking back toward Jerusalem, a city that remains both home and memory.

‘Spin the Block’, produced by Smokaholic, sharpens the album’s edge. Built around a piano-driven instrumental, the track explores perseverance and resistance with biting wit. Konstancy flips Arab stereotypes through clever wordplay and cultural references, Aaliyah and Otis among them, asserting confidence without slipping into empty flexing.

The narrative softens on ‘Watermelon Sweetheart’, an acoustic-led turn that shifts the focus toward intimacy and relationships. Slow-burning guitar lines set the stage for Lana Lubany’s understated vocals, offering a moment of tenderness that broadens the album’s emotional range without diluting its core.

Konstancy lets the album exist as a document in motion, unfinished, searching, and deliberately human. It’s a debut that resists spectacle, choosing instead to sit with contradiction: exile and belonging, ambition and grief, memory and reinvention.