About Zander
Zander, an American just wants us to be free.
His raps take on capitalism, racism, adulthood, and his inner child. Zander began making his own beats during COVID-19 quarantine at the ripe young age of 25 and hasn't looked back, with sounds ranging from pointed chaos to dreamy minimalism.
Origin
Born to Tigrayan parents on either side of the Eritrea-Ethiopia border, Zander lived his first eight years of life in Sioux Falls, South Dakota before moving with his family to Saint Paul, Minnesota. As the city he’s lived in the longest and spent his formative years in, Zander claims the Minnesota capital as his hometown. It is in Saint Paul where Zander’s exposure to myriad ethnic, racial, and neighborhood groups evoked a deep curiosity that drove him toward hip-hop music, internet communities, and sociology. Embracing his cultural identity as belonging everywhere and nowhere, Zander found power in the general self-authorship of hip-hop artists. He began to take rap seriously his sophomore year of high school (2010), writing verses but not recording or performing music until college.
Zander attended the University of St. Thomas, majoring in sociology with minors in philosophy and the fledgling American Culture & Difference program. Concurrently, he increased his musical output, writing songs to beats made by friends and instrumental remakes of songs by Travis Scott, Earl Sweatshirt, and other notable hip-hop artists of the early 2010s. He recorded tracks in friends’ homes or after hours at the Institute of Production and Recording (IPR) and performed both spoken word and original music at on-campus events.
Zander’s first publicly-available musical work was a feature verse on rapper Camden Marz’s August 2017 Soundcloud single “Feed Em.” His first solo releases were also Soundcloud exclusives — “Coolazo” and “Coming of Age” — nearly a year later on May 12, 2018. In 2019, Zander adopted the stage name “Zander, The American” having gone by “Zander” prior. He later revised his stage name to the current “Zander, an American” in 2020 in alignment with his view that a shared US national identity does not exist. 2020 was also the year Zander began making his own instrumentals using Logic Pro X. Nearly all of Zander’s work since then has been self-produced.
Musical Influences
Zander’s discography from 2020 through 2025 is most closely related to the work of Mos Def, Odd Future, Kanye West, and Kendrick Lamar. Artists that inspire Zander who did not influence his pre-2026 output include Lil B, Yeat, Jane Remover, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix. Zander’s earliest musical exposure was to Top-40 hip-hop via FM radio, Tigrinya music via cassette tapes, and various rock bands. His earliest hip-hop memory is listening to Nelly’s “Country Grammar” in his parents’ car at the age of five. The first rap artists Zander considered himself a dedicated supporter of were Mos Def and Talib Kweli as the duo Blackstar. Zander enjoys nearly all forms of hip-hop and looks to incorporate as many different styles of the genre in his own music as possible.
Discography
As of April 26, 2026, Zander, an American’s solo output includes 45 total tracks, 22 standalone singles, 10 lead singles, and five EPs. Essential projects and singles in Zander’s discography are listed below:
EPs
- Songs Not on Karen’s Playlist
- InternationAlexander
- Walking Mosaics in the Twin Cities
- No Drip in a Desert
- PROJECT 2025
Notable Singles (Lead and Standalone)
- Company Time/Wage Slave
- Rice St. Boy (RIP Bones)
- Mad Enough
- Safe?
- My Fellow Americans…
- Done Clocking In
Across The Culture
Outside of his musical work, Zander, an American is Zander Tsadwa, founder of cultural media brand Across The Culture (ATC). Under the ATC umbrella is flagship editorial ATC, indie music platform ATC Sound, and local editorial ATC Minneapolis-Saint Paul (ATC MSP). Zander serves as manager of all three websites.