By Colin Joyce, Austin Cox, Jaelani Turner-Williams, Brandon Ousley, and Leah Mandel of Third Bridge Creative
THOT SQUAD
Chartmetric Artist Rank: 18,628
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Country: U.S.
THOT SQUAD, the alter-ego of the Flint, Michigan rapper and singer BLVCK BUNNIE, is growing a fanbase who know for her risqué lyrics and audacious persona—in the tradition of Missy Elliott, Megan Thee Stallion, and Cupcakke. Hailing from the Nutty North side of Flint, she first started dropping singles in 2022 as THOT SQUAD, with the bawdy “SUPER SOAKER.” Recently, last summer’s “HOES DEPRESSED” landed on the viral charts, and racked up over 15M Spotify streams. Her colorful videos are homemade, she’s been voicing a character in the episodic video game Dispatch (which also featured her hit song), and she calls herself “The MOST independent artist.” She’s just one person, but, she says, “if you want to be in the squad you can.”
SINN6R
Chartmetric Artist Rank: 30,971
Genre: Trap
Country: U.K.
SINN6R is a southeast London rapper who’s riding the rising tide of the London underground wave recently created by his collaborator EsDeeKid. When asked about his influences, he won’t cite the common artists you hear from the underground, but he credits his circle around him, who help him craft rough-edged, bass-heavy beats and hyper, amp-up anthems. He recently released his second album in 5 months, evidence of his dedication to the grind of prolificacy. On the record, which marries elements of rage and trap with UK drill, he shares his experiences in the streets of London. Over the course of his singles dating back to 2020, he’s demonstrated an ability as a deft genre-hopper, tapping into cloud rap and jerk in addition to the more boisterous sounds he’s become known for. There’s a lot of ways into his world, which has clearly helped him connect with the over 1M monthly listeners he has on Spotify.
MAVI
Chartmetric Artist Rank: 11,038
Genre: Alternative Hip-Hop
Country: U.S.
Indie rap music often has realism at its core, but few of the scene’s artists in recent memory have leveled the culture and concerns of Black America with their own personal struggles as MAVI. Since 2017, the North Carolina rhymer has garnered tremendous buzz, thanks to his abstract takes on race, class, and identity as well as his unique amorphous flow propelling his breakout debut album, Let the Sun Talk and its 2022 follow-up, Laughing so Hard, it Hurts. Last year, fans got a glimpse into his inner soul with his third album, shadowbox, a dark, personal meditation on grief and substance addiction that boasted moody, thought-provoking singles as “i’m so tired” (1.8M Spotify plays) and “drunk prayer” (3.9M Spotify plays). In light of his year-long sobriety journey, he’s now tapping into a new era of artistic clarity with his new mixtape, The Pilot. Released on November 25, the ten-song offering finds him swapping the heady political raps of his past work for an eclectic, confessional approach, as highlighted in the swirling, old-school soul of the Earl Sweatshirt-assisted single, “Landgrab” (2.8M Spotify plays) and the jazzy Smino-featured single, “Potluck.” Clocking at 1.1M Spotify monthly listeners with several spots on editorial playlists ‘POLLEN,’ ‘Mellow Bars,’ and ‘No Cap,’ MAVI’s reinvention continues to break big.
BAYLI
Chartmetric Artist Rank: 87,902
Genre: Hyperpop
Country: U.S.
Pop music is packed with bad girl energy, and Brooklyn-based singer BAYLI (323K Spotify monthly followers) shows why she’s a contender in taking over the genre on her solo debut, NO RE-ENTRY. Formerly a lead singer of 2010s rock outfit The Skins, the queer artist made her reintroduction during the pandemic with her EP stories from new york, which featured viral 2020 single “sushi for breakfast.” While purely pop, the song has an experimental flavor that BAYLI continues on the ballroom sound of NO RE-ENTRY. She turns up the tempo with electronic production on the catwalk-ready “Passenger Princess” (597K Spotify plays), where she raps sensually about her nightclubbing routine. “all of that” (595K Spotify plays) makes for another carefree anthem, while BAYLI also irresistibly schools listeners on the art of “fem-onomics” (158K Spotify plays). Although BAYLI’s music has heated up as 2025 winds down, the singer is sure to continue making waves with her main pop girl presence in the new year.
Flipperacahi
Chartmetric Artist Rank: 778
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Country: Bahrain
Flipperacahi, real name Hussam Aseem, is a Bahraini rapper who released “FA9LA” on May 30th of 2024 as an Arabic rap song using tried and true Indian tabla percussion. The song had modest success with its initial release but exploded with the song’s usage in Dhurandhar, a 3 and a half hour long epic spy thriller that used this previously modestly successful song to introduce one of its main characters. The song’s producer, DJ Outlaw, said he has used many different countries' styles of music to produce Arabic rap songs, but he could not have expected how big this Indian influence song could get. India’s place as a truly global cultural juggernaut is not well understood by many in the West, but the region’s successes continue to grow and grow, in music and in movies, powering Flipperachi to #1 on Spotify’s Global Viral 50 with a sharp increase to 36M track streams.
