Spotify picks Kenyan rappers Burukulyn Boyz for prestigious RADAR programme

Highest paying music streaming platform in the world, Spotify has named Kenyan hip-hop crew Burukulyn Boyz amongst six other African up and coming stars joining its prestigious RADAR Africa programme.

Buruklyn Boyz, fronted by Mr. Right and Ajay pride themselves in rapping what they live and in being the flag bearers of Kenya’s Drill music movement.

The hip-hop duo have more than 45,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and have been consistent since Spotify launched last year in Kenya.

Despite being relatively new in the Kenyan music scene, Buruklyn Boyz placed seventh in the top 10 most streamed Kenyan artists list on Spotify in 2021.

They will now join the prestigious programme as part of the second cohort of RADAR Africa where they stand to gain more exposure with Spotify’s resources under their disposal.

In a statement, Spotify stated that the programme is dedicated to the spotlight and discovery of emerging artists across the world.

RADAR Africa programme

 “It gives me so much joy to bring back our RADAR Africa programme, and to do so within a deservingly bigger and better format. It is so important that we continue to identify and find ways to offer developing artists a fair chance at success on and off platform. We have six outstanding ones from the region to begin with, and look forward to sharing in their journey while we provide the resources to elevate them to the next level of their respective careers, and hopefully make thousands more Spotify fans around the world,” stated Phiona Okumu, Head of Music, Spotify Africa.

Burukulyn Boyz join the programme alongside three Nigerians Ayra Starr famous for her hit song Blood Samaritan and BNXN known for his club banger Outside,  Victony, Black Sherif from Ghana and South African DJ, musician and music promoter DBN Gogo.

19-year-old Star, who was born in Benin but raised in Lagos has amassed a hugely impressive base of more than 1.2 million listeners a month on Spotify which also launched last year in Nigeria.

On the part of Daniel Benson (BNXN) also known as Buju, whose show in Kenya slated for this month was postponed, he has cultivated a royal monthly listenership of more than three million on Spotify.

Victony alias Anthony Ebuka Victor, a trap, Afropop and RnB singer also boasts of impressive numbers on Spotify  with more than 752,000 monthly listeners while multilingual DJ DBN Gogo has more than 335,000 monthly listeners on Spotify to brag about.

For Ghanian Black Sherif, his unique sound in which he blends Ghanaian highlife with Reggae, Hip Hop and other sounds, has enabled him to create an authentic sound that has had an instant effect even to the older folk something very unusual for a 20-year old artist. For that he has been able to attract more than 1.3 million listeners monthly on the Swedish platform.

This batch of artists follows in the footsteps of other African talents like Elaine, Willy Cardiac, Tems and Focalistic who all joined the programme in 2020 and were exposed to new global fan communities on the platform as a result.

Since its launch, RADAR has driven an increase in listening and furthered fan-artist connections and, as part of the programme, these artists will receive editorial, on-platform and off-platform support from Spotify to help broaden their respective fanbases.

Moreover, as part of its Global Hub launch, Spotify will prioritise the promotion of RADAR playlists, RADAR podcasts, Spotify Singles, and priority releases from RADAR artists across all regions.

Since its launch in 2008 Spotify has gone on to become the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with 420 million users, including 182 million subscribers, across 184 markets.