By Michelle Hyun Kim, Vrinda Jagota, Kristin Corry, Andrew Marcogliese, and Colin Joyce of Third Bridge Creative.
This bi-weekly column highlights emerging artists using a combination of Charmetric data and the knowledge of our contributors. In each installment, we’ll identify five artists drawn from a wide range of artists and genres that you’ll be hearing from in the future, and we’ll conclude with a breakdown of how we use Chartmetric to discover and analyze breaking artists.
Hannah Jadagu
Chartmetric Rank: 4,311
Genre: Bedroom Pop
Country: United States
Blurring indie rock, pop, and folk with a dreamy intimacy, Hannah Jadagu is bedroom pop’s next breakout star. Inspired by the DIY attitude of Clairo and Steve Lacy, the New York-based, Texas-raised singer-songwriter started uploading demos on SoundCloud as a teen. After signing with Sub Pop, she released her 2021 debut EP, What Is Going On?, a collection of hazy tracks that Jadagu self-produced on her iPhone. Now she’s preparing to release her debut LP, Aperture, on May 19, a reflection of her coming-of-age. Its emotionally-excavating singles have appeared at the top of playlists like POLLEN, Lorem, and Modern Psychedelia, catapulting her total Spotify playlist reach to almost 7M listeners.
Kanii
Chartmetric Rank: 804
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Country: United States
While most high school seniors are currently focused on graduation, Kanii is still riding the excitement of his major-label debut single. At just 17 years old, Kanii has become a rising rapper on TikTok with his catchy tracks like "Companion" and "Affection," which quickly gained popularity last summer. His latest offering, "I Know," a relatable song about a failed love that has all the right components for virality: a memorable hook, a catchy tune, and the popular Jersey Club bed squeak. When YouTuber Penguinz0 used "I Know" in a video a week after its release, it became the go-to sound for gaming and anime content. As a student at Washington, D.C.'s Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Kanii represents the intersection of traditional musicality and internet culture. With nearly 7M monthly listeners on Spotify, and placement on highly visible editorial playlists like Mint and Big on the Internet he's already making a name for himself.
Sam Barber
Chartmetric Rank: 6,580
Genre: Country
Country: United States
It’s hard not to be moved by Sam Barber’s fierce, sorrowful singing and delicate finger-picked guitar. After years of singing covers (a video of him singing Dani and Lizzy’s “Dancing in the Sky” received 146K likes on TikTok), the Missouri-born musician’s original songs are getting just as much buzz. Earlier this month, a snippet of “Straight and Narrow,” a contemplative country ballad, garnered 3.4M views on TikTok, with 40.6K users flocking to the sound since April 6. Barber’s earnest lyricism and rock influences have even translated to the Billboard charts: “Straight and Narrow” debuted at No. 24 on the Hot Rock Songs chart and No. 38 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. At just 18 years old, Barber is heralded as country’s next great storyteller.
BAMBII
Chartmetric Rank: 6,212
Genre: Electronic
Country: Canada
DJ/producer BAMBII has been a fixture in Toronto’s rave scene since the early 2010s, when she launched JERK, the cult queer party centering Caribbean music. After acting as a touring DJ with Mykki Blanco, she gained confidence to be a solo artist: She’s been issuing a steady stream of club-ready heaters since 2019—always an electrifying mix of dancehall, jungle, and garage. In February, she gained recognition for co-producing nine tracks on Kelela’s new album, Raven, and shared her rowdy new single “One Touch,” which earned Best New Music from Pitchfork. Since its release on April 3, her Spotify monthly listenership jumped from 31.5K to 124.3K, signaling a breakthrough.
BLP Kosher
Chartmetric Rank: 10,897
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Country: United States
BLP Kosher spits with a dizzy drawl that feels self-consciously influenced by fellow Sunshine State artists like Kodak Black and SpotemGottem. Still, the Broward County native, ripe with on-the-nose wordplay, stands out from his local contemporaries thanks to some inherent contrasts in his presentation. He wears his hair in wicks—a Florida-born hairstyle brought to the mainstream by Kodak—while centering his Jewish background in his public image. A snippet of his single “The Nac 2” generated nearly 2M plays on TikTok since January, and he’s already garnered over 178K followers on the platform. On March 31, the provocative rapper released “Mazel Tron,” a punchy track featuring mumbly Michigan rapper BabyTron. Although he’s yet to acquire attention from legacy media publications, he’s received the ultimate co-sign from Lyrical Lemonade: a video directed by Cole Bennett. In the weeks since “Mazel Tron’s” premiere, the video has garnered nearly 2M views.
The Method: Editorial Playlists
When we’re searching for emerging artists on the cusp of something bigger, the staff at Third Bridge spends a lot of time listening and looking at data, including, as discussed in recent pieces, Artist Rank, and Career Stage/Artist Growth. By cross-referencing what sounds fresh with numbers that show changes in velocity and engagement, we’re able to understand what new artists are catching on, and why.
We also look hard at Editorial Playlisting, the categorization of which Chartmetric updated this past fall. When a track or artist lands on a new-music editorial playlist such as Spotify’s Pollen, Internet People, and big on the internet or Apple Music’s Viral Hits, it affirms support from the platform itself, and puts the track in question in front of potential fans. While this is a very different kind of signal compared to, say, growth on TikTok, which is generally fan-driven, appearance on a major DSP’s editorial playlists suggests that support for the artist has reached a certain level of stickiness. Used in conjunction with other signals, editorial playlisting functions essential as an additional marker of Artist Growth, and can be useful to monitor as artists move from completely unknown to—in rare cases—becoming household names.
Portions of this are included in Sound Signal, a bi-weekly newsletter from Third Bridge Creative. Sign up here.
