By Colin Joyce, Brandon Ousley, Kemet High, Leah Mandel, and Vrinda Jagota of Third Bridge Creative
In this week’s installment of our column showcasing emerging artists, we’re featuring Washington’s homegrown country star, a pioneer of “pastel rap,” the next iteration of Chicago and Atlanta drill, the Charlottesville native making cosmic folk, and a purveyor of pluggnb.
Zach Top
Chartmetric Artist Rank: 7,155
Genre: Country
Country: U.S.
Country music often has nostalgia at its core, but few artists in recent memory have captured the beer-swilling joy of the ‘80s and ‘90s era of the genre as Zach Top has. The Washington-born singer-songwriter moved to Nashville in 2021 and in the years since he’s established himself as one of the city’s premier exporters of bleary-eyed good times. His breakout song “Sounds Like the Radio” was a hit, appropriately, on country radio, impacting the Billboard country airplay chart soon after its January 2024 release. Since then, he’s had more short-form video hits like the lonely love song “I Never Lie,” which hit #20 on Spotify’s US Viral 50. Elsewhere, he’s making an impact on editorial playlists like New Boots and Breakout Country, proving he’s one of the genre’s quickest-rising stars.
Amindi
Chartmetric Artist Rank: 44,105
Genre: R&B/Soul
Country: U.S.
Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Amindi’s self-described “pastel rap” sound brings forth a cross between dancehall, indie pop, hip-hop, and alternative R&B. After emerging as a SoundCloud sensation in 2017, she collected top-flight collaborations with the likes of Isaiah Rashad, MAVI, and Jordan Ward. Highlighting her artistry through a handful of singles and two solo offerings (her 2021 debut EP nice and 2023’s debut mixtape Take What You Need), she’s reached new heights with her emotionally-charged new EP, Luvr. Helmed by Grammy-nominated producer Rogét Chahayed, the six-track EP is a peek into Amindi’s love experiences, boasting the hazy, trip-hop favorite, “Kisses” (105k Spotify streams). Amindi’s genre-melding prowess has secured her 90k new Spotify monthly listeners since Luvr’s July 17 release, bringing her total monthly listenership to 467k.
Raq baby
Chartmetric Artist Rank: 11,874
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Country: U.S.
Raq baby’s ability to blend drill and trap music stems from being raised in Chicago and Atlanta. He recorded his first song around the age of 6 and as a teenager, his melodies on “AUTOMATIC” and “Soldier Love” caught fire. He used that momentum to propel his breakthrough projects Maniac Baby in 2023 with Abstruse following a year later. In July, he released the highly-anticipated chronicle “Day By Day.” The track was also peaked at no. 4 on the Apple Music charts in Atlanta. On Spotify, it’s already been streamed over 1.15 million times, contributing to 107k new monthly listeners on the platform in the past month. “Day By Day” is on pace to become his most-streamed song and is helping Raq baby make his case as a growing force in hip-hop’s subgenre of pain music, popularized by artists like Polo G.
Kate Bollinger
Chartmetric Artist Rank: 14,366
Genre: Indie Pop
Country: U.S.
Charlottesville native Kate Bollinger started out releasing her fresh-sounding folk-pop when she was still in high school. Those self-released tunes have made her a critic’s darling ever since her official debut in 2018, but it was 2022’s Look at it in the Light that truly broke through. “Yards / Gardens,” the record’s big hit, is breathy and fun, bouncy but substantial. It’s a playlist favorite, placed on 8k on Spotify alone, where it has 22.2 million streams. Her new album, Songs From A Thousand Frames of Mind, is due at the end of September, and with songs like recent single “What’s This About (La La La La)” continuing her vibey cosmic folk sound, it seems likely her already reliable fanbase will grow.
Baby Osamaa
Chartmetric Artist Rank: 198,731
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Country: U.S.
Bronx rapper Baby Osamaa makes spacey, meditative pluggnb that addresses everything from heartache to complex friendships to wanting to buy some land. The 21-year-old has been making music since she was in high school, but her career started picking up momentum last year when she released her debut mixtape Tank Girl. Since then, she’s been featured on popular hip-hop freestyle YouTube channel On The Radar and has performed on bills with rap mainstays like Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE, and Cash Cobain. Last month, she released another mixtape, SEXC SUMMER, further boosting her profile. Her Spotify monthly listeners have increased by 14k in the last month, and she’s seem significant growth on other platforms too.
Portions of this piece are included in Sound Signal, a bi-weekly newsletter from Third Bridge Creative. Sign up here.
Visualizations by Nicki Camberg and cover image by Crasianne Tirado; data as of August 19, 2024.
