It’s been a few years since Rich Brian hit the scene with Dat $tick…
With bops like Who That Be, Glow Like Dat, Chaos and recently 100 Degrees, Rich Brian born Brian Imanuel Soewarno, proves that artists outside the U.S. can find huge success in the hip hop genre.
So who could be the next Indonesian hip hop artist to break through to the larger world of hip hop? A quick look at Spotify’s “The Sound of Indonesian Hip Hop” shows us there’s plenty of talent to cross over to the states.
Here are 5 Indonesian Hip Hop artists you should know.
Dipha Barus
Like Indonesia’s own Hitmaka, Dipha Barus is a DJ and producer who brings talented and popular Indonesian Hip hop artists together to make hits.
Decide currently has 485,786 views and features artists from this list including A.Nakaya and Ramengvrl. Barus is also skilled at dipping into and mixing genres like R&B with hip hop, for example, his release featuring Nadin “All Good.”
With 70.2k YouTube Subscribers and over 400k monthly listeners on Spotify, Dipha Barus shows no signs of slowing down.
Ramengvrl
Resident successful female Indonesian hip hop artist Ramengvrl has replays for some of her songs on Spotify in the millions.
With very colorful, over the top performances in her music videos, Ramengvrl is very much hype-boss type sounds. Almost every song sounds like a bad bitch anthem.
Her music videos are highly stylized and engaging with I AM ME and bad minah featuring Hullera, using bold colors and streetwear fashion and what ur problem taking on a videogame type editing style. With this kind of creativity, there’s certainly more to come from Ramengvrl.
A. Nayaka
With nearly 50k listeners on Spotify, A. Nayaka has put in work for the last few years. Releasing new songs and featuring on fellow Indonesian artists’ tracks constantly.
Recently released All Alone fits in easily with contemporary popular hip hop in the US. Gimme the Keys is a very Future-esque, or “Going Bad” type track.
A. Nayaka slows things down with PLACES showing versatility in his music.
GBRAND
With nearly 24.7K subscribers on YouTube and nearly 10k listeners on Spotify, GBRAND is a rapper and produce and the leader of the BLVCKMINDS collective.
His sound is very in tune with the emo-rap era we’ve seen grow from hip hop artists like Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Peep and XXXTentacion.
Some of GBRANDS most popular songs are Trap Fade, Trap Sad and Love Ties.
Emir Hermono
Hermano’s style is lof-fi and R&B influenced, to the exact vibe of chillwave hip-hop.
The artist has been on the scene for at least 4 years dropping songs like FADE, and 3 AM in Jakarta ft A. Nayaka.
Emir has over 1k subscribers on his own YouTube account but gathers views via INDONATION hitting nearly 350k views on 021 ft. Nayaka & Rayi Putra.
Takeaway
The value of collaboration is high amongst the hip hop community in Indonesia. A strategy that groups like Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, A$AP Mob and 88 Rising have used to achieve collective success.