Why Lord Conrad’s ‘Rising Empire’ Sounds Like a Midnight Drive Through Vice City

Plenty of EDM producers flirt with rap. Few go as far as Italian producer Lord Conrad, born Corrado Garibaldi, who opened a new chapter in 2026 with a sound that pulls trap and hip hop into the middle of his electronic roots. His new single “Rising Empire” is one of the defining releases of that new era.

The track pairs the European electronic production that built his name with American trap. Heavy 808s and deep bass hold down the low end while synths straight out of the 1980s hover above them. Distorted guitars and modern hip hop production push it into harder territory, which suits a song built around ambition, power and the climb to the top.

That theme carries into the official music video, which leans hard into neon nightlife and luxury cars on midnight drives. The visuals draw on the anticipated world of Grand Theft Auto VI and its Vice City setting, though Lord Conrad is clear that it’s an independent fan-inspired project with no affiliation to Rockstar Games. The clip also folds in imagery of financial markets, which the video’s own disclaimer labels as fictional and purely artistic.

His music already had a foothold in gaming and digital culture. “I Minute” generated thousands of user-created videos on TikTok, and “VIDEOGAMES,” his collaboration with YouTuber PEPO3393, whose channel has more than 500,000 subscribers, has been widely used across gameplay content. Dancers found him too. “Only You” caught on in the global shuffle-dance community and was featured by ELEMENTS, and the video for “Touch The Sky” has passed 1.5 million views on YouTube.

What’s different now is the target. A big part of Lord Conrad’s strategy has been bringing a distinctly European electronic identity to American digital communities shaped by hip hop and urban culture. “Rising Empire” meets those listeners closer to their own turf. He’s also been open about wanting to work with big U.S. producers, and a record like this is a pretty direct way of saying so.

More of this is on the way. He’s working on a modern hip hop remix of “Push It to the Limit” from Scarface, plus another project that blends 80s synthwave and hip hop around the subject of trading.

For an artist whose biggest moments so far have come from dancers and gamers online, chasing American hip hop through those same digital channels makes plenty of sense. Watch the official music video, stream “Rising Empire” on all platforms, and find more at lordconrad.com.