Tiny Jackal

Tiny Jackal is the stage name of Greek rapper, songwriter, producer and tattoo artist Thanasis Perrakis. Born in Sparta in 1983 and raised in Piraeus, principally in Korydallos, he began listening seriously to rap in 1995 and became actively involved in hip-hop culture in 1998. Over the following decades, he developed into one of the most recognisable and enduring figures of Greece’s independent rap community. His formative years were spent moving through crews and collaborative projects including E13, Antarta, Scripta Manent, M.O.V., Rhymeshot, Ntopaz 18120 and Fullface. This long period of collective work placed him inside the developing Piraeus and western Athens hip-hop network before his solo catalogue had fully taken shape, giving his music the community-based character it has retained throughout his career. Tiny Jackal released his first complete solo album, Apo Tin Akri Tou Mialou Mou, through 18120 Production in 2009. The record introduced an introspective but socially alert writer, concerned with everyday pressure, internal conflict, friendship and life outside the polished image of mainstream popular culture. During the same period, he formed Fullface with rapper and producer Iratus. The duo released Ligo Prin in 2010 and Kapou Edo in 2011, combining personal writing, punchline-driven rap and direct observations drawn from life around Korydallos and Piraeus. These albums became an important chapter in both artists’ development and remain among the strongest documents of their early creative partnership. Tiny Jackal returned to solo work with Paranomi Diakinisi Fotos in 2013. Its title, meaning “Illegal Trafficking of Light,” captures a recurring conflict within his writing: anger and social darkness confronted through creativity, solidarity and the persistent search for something humane. Songs including the title track and Taxidevo helped establish him beyond the narrower underground audience while preserving the directness of his earlier work. The wider 18120 circle resurfaced through O Kodikas in 2014, while Tiny Jackal continued releasing singles and collaborating across the Greek hip-hop scene. His extensive list of collaborators includes Anser, Dimitris Mentzelos, DJ ALX, Megas, Thanasimos and Pavlos Fyssas, known artistically as Killah P. He has also worked outside conventional rap boundaries with musicians including Spyros Grammenos, Stelios Salvador, Stavros Dantous and Los Tigainos. His connection with Pavlos Fyssas was personal as well as musical. Fyssas’s murder in 2013 became part of the emotional and political history surrounding Tiny Jackal’s later work. His sustained anti-fascist position, community involvement and participation in socially focused initiatives are not separate from his music: they belong to the same belief that art should preserve experiences and truths that institutions may attempt to obscure or rewrite. Atmosfaira, released in 2019, marked one of the defining moments of his solo career. Across nine tracks, Tiny Jackal brought together social anger, family, loss, personal responsibility and the search for emotional clarity. Rather than treating political writing as a collection of slogans, the album moved repeatedly between public reality and private experience, presenting solidarity and human connection as sources of strength within an increasingly hostile environment. During this period, his long-running partnership with rapper, producer and sound engineer Thanasimos developed into No Hard Feelings. Their album Avrio, released in 2021, expanded Tiny Jackal’s catalogue through thirteen tracks built around the chemistry between two artists closely connected to Piraeus and its independent hip-hop culture. The project combined raw rap performances with more melodic, atmospheric and song-oriented arrangements. Tiny Jackal opened another creative chapter in 2023 with Anchor Disorder EP.1, recorded with the band Yellow Mary. The five-track release reconstructed earlier songs through live instrumentation and influences from nu metal, stoner rock and jazz. Instead of appearing solely as an MC over a backing band, he assumed the role of a frontman, reshaping his stage presence and demonstrating that his writing could survive substantial changes in genre, rhythm and arrangement. His recent work has pushed this cross-genre approach further. Together with producer and multi-instrumentalist Thomas Konstantinou, he created the project Ana Pnoi, conceived as a meeting between rap and musical traditions from outside hip-hop. Its first releases include Ta Paidia with George Dalaras and Mia Lorida Ourano with Miltos Pashalidis, followed by further collaborations such as Mavra Matia with Thygateres. These recordings connect his spoken and rapped writing with folk instrumentation, Greek songwriting and wider Mediterranean influences. Throughout his career, Tiny Jackal has organised and participated in hundreds of concerts around Greece and has appeared alongside international hip-hop artists including M.O.P., Onyx, members of Wu-Tang Clan, Swollen Members and Masta Ace. His performances are known for their physical intensity, but his work has increasingly demonstrated that force does not have to mean emotional distance. Outside music, he is also active as a tattoo artist and has helped develop Jackals Tattoo in Piraeus as a broader creative and community space. His relationship with visual art, poetry and tattooing reflects the same independent philosophy that shapes his records: creating places, images and works that carry a recognisable personal mark rather than waiting for an established institution to provide permission. Tiny Jackal’s significance within Greek hip-hop comes from more than longevity. His career connects the crew-centred underground of the late 1990s and 2000s with a contemporary scene capable of filling major venues and communicating across musical boundaries. Through solo albums, collective projects, live-band reinterpretations and socially engaged collaborations, he has remained recognisably himself while continuing to search for new forms in which to express anger, tenderness, memory and hope.