Guitar Reinventions, Bedroom Ballads, and Underground Breakouts

This week, we look at Andrew Aged’s transition from in-demand collaborator to solo artist, alongside THOT SQUAD’s fiercely independent viral momentum, girlsweetvoiced’s understated bedroom-pop rise, and SINN6R’s prolific run through the London underground.

Even if you don’t know Andrew Aged by name, if you’re a listener of any left of center R&B or pop music, you know his guitar playing. After breaking out in the early 2010s as half of the duo inc. with his brother Daniel, he’s become a go-to guitarist for any musician looking for melodies that are out of this world and intimate at the same time. He’s played on stage with Raphael Saadiq and FKA Twigs; he’s been a session hand with Blood Orange and Lorde; he appeared on a Hunger Games soundtrack. Last year, he stepped out into the spotlight again as a member of the trio touring Mk.Gee’s acclaimed album Two Star & the Dream Police, a gig that established him as one of the most boundary-pushing guitarists working. Guitar World was downright hyperbolic about this gig, claiming he is “on a mission to reinvent the guitar.” His new solo EP crown, which features an appearance from Mk.Gee, shows that he can bring that same kind of textured, emotional, and unpredictable playing to his own music. With 121K monthly listeners on Spotify—as well as placements on playlists like New Music Friday and All New Indie—people are clearly starting to take notice. He’s a veteran in some senses, but this feels like a new beginning—claiming his place in a musical landscape that’s finally caught up to his visionary playing.

THOT SQUAD, the alter-ego of the Flint, Michigan rapper and singer BLVCK BUNNIE, is growing a fanbase who know for her risqué lyrics and audacious persona—in the tradition of Missy Elliott, Megan Thee Stallion, and Cupcakke. Hailing from the Nutty North side of Flint, she first started dropping singles in 2022 as THOT SQUAD, with the bawdy “SUPER SOAKER.” Recently, last summer’s “HOES DEPRESSED” landed on the viral charts, and racked up over 11M Spotify streams. Her colorful videos are homemade, she’s been voicing a character in the episodic video game Dispatch (which also featured her hit song), and she calls herself “The MOST independent artist.” She’s just one person, but, she says, “if you want to be in the squad you can.”

Hailing from Ottawa, Canada, vocalist and producer girlsweetvoiced offers a uniquely sugary and sensitive take on bedroom pop. In the last year, the mysterious singer broke ground on TikTok and Tumblr with teasers of soothing ballads, and in January, girlsweetvoiced released dreamy tracks “my most saddest song” (103K Spotify streams) and “u & me,” (106K Spotify streams), the latter of which clocks in at less than one minute. girlsweetvoiced appears to be following the early PinkPantheress formula, that is, releasing limited material to maintain intrigue and dropping bits of her sonic identity on social media. While fans don’t even know the singer’s full name yet, her mainstream presence is slowly building, and in November, she dropped acoustic singles “spearmint” (106K Spotify streams) and “slowbird” (31K Spotify streams). As girlsweetvoiced is a mentee of famed songwriter and producer Michael Uzowuru, a frequent collaborator of Frank Ocean and SZA, the Canadian artist is poised to expand her uniquely minimalist style.

SINN6R is a southeast London rapper who’s riding the rising tide of the London underground wave recently created by his collaborator EsDeeKid. When asked about his influences, he won’t cite the common artists you hear from the underground, but he credits his circle around him, who help him craft rough-edged, bass-heavy beats and hyper, amp-up anthems. He recently released his second album in 5 months, evidence of his dedication to the grind of prolificacy. On the record, which marries elements of rage and trap with UK drill, he shares his experiences in the streets of London. Over the course of his singles dating back to 2020, he’s demonstrated an ability as a deft genre-hopper, tapping into cloud rap and jerk in addition to the more boisterous sounds he’s become known for. There’s a lot of ways into his world, which has clearly helped him connect with the over 1M monthly listeners he has on Spotify.

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This is a selection from our bi-weekly column on trending artists in the Chartmetric blog. For more analysis, visit here.

Special thanks to TBC contributors and staff Andrew Marcogliese, Brandon Ousley, Leah Mandel, Austin Cox, Jaelani Turner-Williams, Colin Joyce, Hannah Elliott, and Sydney Salk.