Tomorrow’s Five: Loe Shimmy, YFG Fatso, Mk.gee, Skylar Simone, and Magdalena Bay

Third Bridge Creative -

By Kemet High, Colin Joyce, Brandon Ousley, Jaelani Turner-Williams, and Vrinda Jagota of Third Bridge Creative

In this week’s installment of our column following the most exciting rising artists, we’re tracking Florida rap’s resident “zombie,” a larger-than-life voice in the next generation of Chicago drill, the alt-R&B savant from New Jersey with major co-signs, a singer from Tampa following the blueprint of contemporary soul, and a Miami psych-pop duo cooking up dystopian tunes.    

Loe Shimmy

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 6,347
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Country: U.S.

Thanks to Loe Shimmy, Florida’s emerging rap scene continues to thrive. Equipped with a gravelly voice and metallic melodies, Shimmy gained traction with tracks like “Fallin” and “scarz,” both released in 2022. Since then, he’s remained consistent, collaborating with local peers like Luh Tyler, Wizz Havin, C Stunna, and Bossman Dlow — the self-proclaimed Florida Avengers after this year’s posse cut “4AM at Coffee Zone.” With plenty of growing momentum, Shimmy released Zombieland 2, his sophomore project, which is led by the trending track “For Me.” Since its release this March, Loe Shimmy has seen a 550k increase in monthly listeners on Spotify and 3.5 million new streams on SoundCloud. Shimmy is steadily climbing as one of the most popular up-and-coming talents in the hotbed that is Florida’s rap scene. 

YFG Fatso

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 19,012
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Country: U.S.

In the last few years, Chicago rapper YFG Fatso has been anointed as one of his local drill scene’s coming kings. The teenage MC has offered up a string of intense, ecstatic tracks that show the electricity that fans of Chicago drill around the world have come to appreciate, and he’s caught one of the most important sets of ears in the scene — multi-Platinum star Lil Durk, who recently signed Fatso to his OTF label. YFG Fatso has already garnered nearly 250k monthly listeners on Spotify, and he’s showing up on a number of Spotify’s most tastemaking rap playlists, including Most Necessary, Out the Mud, Fresh Finds, and CST — all of which sets him up well to be Chicago’s latest breakout star. 

Mk.gee

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 9,149
Genre: Indie/Alternative
Country: U.S.

New Jersey-born, Los Angeles-based artist Michael Gordon — known by the moniker Mk.gee — pulls together limitless guitar lines, layered vocals, and woozy instrumentals in his eclectic alt-R&B sound. The 26-year-old indie first tapped into his web of jazz, soul, dream pop, funk, and hip-hop influences on two EPs before attracting wider buzz with his 2020 full-length mixtape, A Museum of Contradiction. He’s experienced a huge come-up this year with his official debut album, Two Star & The Dream Police. His taste for amorphous grooves and atmosphere deepens on his latest single, “Lonely Fight,” which has garnered 1.4 million Spotify streams since its August 23 release. Already co-signed by the likes of Eric Clapton and Frank Ocean, Mk.gee's genre-shifting prowess continues to grow in reach with 1.83 million Spotify monthly listeners and support on editorial playlists like sexy indie and Summer Indie.  

Skylar Simone

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 56,088
Genre: R&B/Soul
Country: U.S.

Formerly a teen vocalist, Tampa-born R&B artist Skylar Simone comes of age on her sultry new EP, SHIVER. Executive produced by D’Mile, known for his soulful instrumentation and songwriting for Silk Sonic, Victoria Monét, and Lucky Daye, the producer’s golden touch brings the best out of the 22-year-old. Previously known for her popular covers on YouTube, SHIVER is her reintroduction. Listeners have caught feelings of romance and enticement from her latest songs “Shut Up” (100k Spotify streams), “Permission” (61k streams), and the EP’s titular track (111k streams), which have also landed Skylar on the editorial playlist R&B Weekly. Skylar maintains her social media presence, actively entertaining her 458k followers on TikTok with acoustic selections from SHIVER and amusing insight into her lyrics.

Magdalena Bay

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 3,529
Genre: Pop
Country: U.S.

Magdalena Bay is an experimental psych-pop duo from Miami who released Imaginal Disk, a concept album, on August 23. The project is loosely tied together via a narrative that aliens put disks into apes’ foreheads, ultimately turning them into humans. The protagonist of the album rejects the disk and instead goes on a voyage to understand the essence of human nature. The album is getting widespread positive critical reception and is gaining traction on TikTok, where the duo has been making absurdist videos for years. Users are sharing the song “Image,” asserting that we’re transitioning from BRAT Summer to Imaginal Disk Fall. The release has led to a boost in the group’s profile: in the last month, their Spotify monthly listeners have nearly tripled to 3 million.

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 Sept. 18, 2024.