Ezhel (born Ömer Sercan İpekçioğlu; 1 July 1990) is a Turkish rapper from Ankara whose music blends trap, hip-hop and reggae. His song Geceler has been streamed more than 35 million times on Spotify and he has been given the title 'Freestyle King' by Hip Hop Life. 　　Ezhel came from a musical family. His mother was an Anatolian folk dancer, and his uncle was a musician and sound and light engineer. He received a scholarship to TED school, and began listening to US rap like Eminem, 50 Cent and Tupac Shakur. 　　At 18, he began performing with a reggae band called Afra Tafra. After this group split, he formed his own reggae band, Kökler Filizleniyor, along with some of his friends from Ankara. He performed under the name Ais Ezhel until 2017. 　　Ezhel can also play the bağlama and guitar, and sings reggae with the band Kökler Filizleniyor. His debut album Müptezhel came out in 2017. 　　Ezhel was arrested on May 24, 2018 and sent to pretrial detention accused of "inciting drug use" in his songs. On June 19, Ezhel was acquitted within 9 minutes of the opening of his first trial hearing. Ezhel's lawyer, Fuat Ekin, stated that, "We got an acquittal. We can say that justice has been done," according to the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA).