By Michelle Hyun Kim, Kemet High, Leah Mandel, and Brandon Ousley of Third Bridge Creative

This week’s column of rising artists are making their mark in experimental hip-hop, a Japanese-Chinese amalgamation of pop-leaning R&B, Atlanta rap’s next storyteller, indie-pop from Brooklyn’s latest duo, and the songstress leading Barbados’ sultry R&B.

FearDorian

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 34,049
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Country: U.S.

At 17, Atlanta-based producer/rapper FearDorian has already established himself as a tastemaker through crafting beats picked by young internet rap experimentalists like xaviersobased, Babyxsosa, and quinn. But now, he’s making a name for himself with his self-titled debut album released March 29, a genre-defying project of swirling cloud rap, alternative haze, and stream-of-consciousness lyrics. Garnering a feature in The FADER and highlighted in Spotify’s outliers playlist, the young artist has gotten a send-up, gaining 13.6K new Spotify monthly listeners (an overall 47.22% increase) in the past month.

MIKA 米卡

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 48,633
Genre: Pop
Country: China

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, multinational pop artist MIKA 米卡 has built his career performing in Japanese and Chinese, until finally breaking through with an English-speaking audience as a solo artist this year. After debuting in the Japanese boy group Intersection in 2018 and then getting placed in the Chinese boy group Into1 in 2021, he released his first solo EP, bleached, a collection of melancholy R&B songs mostly sung in English, in December 2023. Now, that project is finally bringing in an audience, as his live performance video for bleached track “so I don’t forget” has gained 2.3M YouTube views since its March 12 release, with many commenters remarking at how they surprised are at his talent after stumbling upon the clip from a sponsored ad—leading to a 37.2% increase in YouTube channel views in the past month.

Lil Tony

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 46,042
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Country: U.S.

After kicking off his rap career during the pandemic, Lil Tony Official already has two handfuls of  projects that establish him as a worthy Atlanta narrator. With a flow that oscillates between melodic to punchy, the rising voice of the South’s most recent projects Lil Tony Archive: Volume 1 (released April 12) and 2 (released May 3) are widening his profile. Since releasing Archives, Lil Tony has seen a 300K increase in TikTok Likes, 59.9K boost in YouTube views, and his Spotify Fan Conversion rate is up 22%. Atlanta rap is experiencing a changing of the guards: Young Thug is incarcerated, the uncertainty of the Migos’ future following Takeoff’s death, and Lil Baby is unusually quiet. Lil Tony is making a bid to take the top spot. 

Sex Week

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 25,677
Genre: Alternative / Indie
Country: U.S.

A new Brooklyn duo is making waves already with just a pair of singles out. Sex Week’s debut song “Toad Mode,” which dropped this past November, is a sweet-sounding indie rock duet between the band’s two principal members. Their latest, “Angel Blessings,” came with an announcement that they’ve signed to Grand Jury Music, a label that’s home to indie staples Samia and Native Sun, with Stereogum’s James Rettig calling it an “addictive homespun rock song that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on an Orchid Tapes compilation circa 2014.” The bio for Sex Week cites influences ranging from Ryuichi Sakamoto to Johnny Cash, and the band has been playlisted on Spotify’s All New Indie and Fresh Finds Indie. Currently ranking in the top 200 Indie Pop artists on Chartmetric, it’s not premature to suggest they’ll be ones to watch this year.

Amanda Reifer

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 8,378
Genre: R&B/Soul
Country: Barbados

Barbados-born singer-songwriter Amanda Reifer adroitly channels her emotions through a prism of R&B, pop, hip-hop, and Caribbean styles. After fronting breakout Barbadian band, Cover Drive, she built her sturdy solo career on a bevy of solo singles and a notable feature on Kendrick Lamar’s 2022 Grammy-nominated single, “Die Hard.” Now, she’s aiming for bolder artistic heights with her forthcoming project, The Reifer Files. A conceptual series of interludes, visuals, and full-length songs, she’s been teasing the ambitious project since late March by rolling out three of its “interludes.” The latest, “Devastating (Interlude)” dips into romantic longing, with Reife’s sultry vocals riding a soulful reggae-tinged groove. This slow jam has gained 18K Spotify plays, bringing the alt-R&B vanguard a total of 3M Spotify monthly listeners with playlist support from New Music Friday and R&B Weekly.   

Visualizations by Sarah Kloboves with contributions from Crasianne Tirado; data as of May 6, 2024.

Portions of this piece are included in Sound Signal, a bi-weekly newsletter from Third Bridge Creative. Sign up here.