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“‘Austin’ was written out of a lot of rage,” Dasha tells Billboard in late April. At a Los Angeles session in early 2023, the singer-songwriter began working on a different song with Adam Wendler, Cheyenne Rose Arnspiger and Kenneth Heidelman, which proved unfruitful. After Dasha suggested taking a quick break, she poured out a story of a tumultuous relationship; when the break ended, the group turned her heartbreak into her breakout smash.
With its irresistible groove and defiant storytelling, the single arrived as an independent release last November, and appeared on her sophomore album, What Happens Now?, released in February. “Austin” details the country artist hightailing to L.A. and leaving her no-good lover a drunken mess in Texas. Though she’d never actually been to Austin, at the time, Dasha says that “all the emotions that drove the story were real to me.”
They’ve resonated with listeners too: the song became Dasha’s first Billboard Hot 100 entry in March, since reaching a No. 28 high. It has also peaked at No. 3 on Hot Country Songs and registered 86.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams through May 2, according to Luminate.
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Mark Gong top and pants, Petit Moments necklace.
Ashley Osborn
Born Dasha Novotny, the 24-year-old has been writing songs and performing for over a decade. The San Luis Obispo, Calif., native started performing at local coffee shops at 10, and three years later, her father gifted her a professional studio session for her birthday to record one of her songs. “That experience at such a young age was pivotal,” she says. “I feel like I got an internship to my artistry. I was ready for this spotlight.”
After finishing high school, Dasha attended Belmont University in Nashville, though she dropped out in 2020 amid the pandemic to focus on her music career. She independently released pop-R&B singles “Don’t Mean a Thing” and “None of My Business” that year before releasing a project of remixes and her first EP, $hiny Things, in 2021. Her pop-oriented debut album Dirty Blonde followed in 2023, but it wasn’t until “Austin” 10 months later that listeners flocked en masse, prompting Dasha to further explore the blend of catchy pop-country fusion as an artistic sweet spot.
Before its official release, “Austin” drew the attention of Type A Management’s Alex Lunt, who had been looking for an act just like Dasha. “I had been working in the urban space and in rock, but I wanted to work in country and everyone knew it,” he says. He has been managing her brother’s band, Beauty School Dropout, for several years already, and after her brother sent Lunt a few of Dasha’s demos — including “Austin” — he soon became her manager as well.
Versace tank top, jacket and jeans.
Ashley Osborn
Alex Lunt and Dasha photographed April 25, 2024 at The Comedy Chateau in Los Angeles. Dasha wears a Prada top, jacket, skirt and belt.
Ashley Osborn
Prior to the track’s release, Lunt connected her with the indie label Version III, as well as PR company King Publicity, in anticipation of broadening the song’s reach. Dasha created a line dance timed to the song’s chorus and worked with a handful of influencers, including Zoey Aune, to create shortform videos to showcase it. “The goal was to target very specific demographics upfront: the female country audience,” Lunt says.
Clips began to roll out in early 2023, with one such video on Aune’s TikTok account featuring the influencer dancing with Dasha that went viral (with 29.4 million views on the platform to date). “That was the video that started the massive tidal wave,” Lunt recalls. A week later, Dasha posted herself line dancing in a corral solo; that video has since garnered 68.5 million TikTok views.
“I remember feeling really nervous that it would be cringey,” Dasha recalls. “I think the reason it worked so well is because it came from such a fun place and I feel like there’s this gap in community on TikTok right now, so people are down to connect any way they can. When you go to the club and you know the dance, you can participate in the community.”
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The song’s surge on social media sparked a label frenzy, with Dasha signing to Warner Records in March. (At the time of the announcement, she told Billboard, “Warner felt like they had the most heart. They were so passionate about my songwriting, which is my priority.”) The next month, she inked a deal with WME for booking. Media appearances followed, including Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a performance at the CMT Music Awards (notably held in Austin), and a set at the country music festival Stagecoach in Indio, California.
As the single continues to build, the team is now putting its efforts toward stabilizing it stateside — recently promoting it to country radio — and across the globe. “Austin” reached a No. 23 high on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart on April 27, with Lunt revealing they have since targeted Scandinavian, German and Australian creators.
“I think the magic of this new country sound is that I can incorporate those big pop hooks,” says Dasha. “The first time you listen to it, you can sing it back. I think that’s why it’s working so well overseas. But then also it has a super vivid lyric, so it’s like a movie in your head.”
While Dasha works on a deluxe version of What Happens Now?, she believes the biggest opportunity to grow the song is performing it live: “Now that I finally have an audience listening, we can spend the time and energy and make this into something really, really magical.”
Mark Gong top and pants, Petit Moments necklace.
Ashley Osborn
A version of this story will appear in the May 11, 2024, issue of Billboard.
As a former executive at music companies in Singapore, Hong Kong, New York and Los Angeles, Wendy Ong certainly has the globe-trotting credentials to help a roster of music artists including Lana Del Rey, Ellie Goulding and Noah Cyrus navigate an increasingly global business. But Ong charted the flight path she took to her current role as global co-president/chief marketing officer of the artist management and publishing company TaP Music largely on her own because, she says, mentors for an Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) music executive were virtually nonexistent then.
As a result, Ong — who was raised in Malaysia and Singapore and worked at BMG, Arista, RCA, the Metropolitan Opera, EMI, Capitol, Interscope and Roc Nation — says she makes it a priority to be one herself, particularly for Asians and Asian Americans. Her mentorship has been aided by her participation in Gold House — a community of Asian Pacific entrepreneurs, creatives and other leaders — after, she says, she was invited to one of the organization’s dinners “by accident.” She adds that when opportunity presents itself, “it depends on what you do with it.”
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Ong sat down with Billboard to discuss the continued importance of music festivals, the work of Gold House and the promise of artificial intelligence (AI), among other topics.
Lana Del Rey returned to Coachella this year as a headliner. Do festival bookings still move the needle?
When you’re strategic about it, it allows you to make getting into smaller markets cost-effective. It’s hard to do proper global touring these days, and even in the U.S., festivals allow an artist to complement their overall touring strategy. From the TaP perspective, it’s still a very key component, especially for developing artists. It’s the same reason that collaborations work because it’s crossing over to other artists’ audiences. And not just for young people. I’m supposed to be the jaded music executive, but I’m not. The Justice set [at Coachella] blew me away. I actually went and checked immediately [to see if they’re touring] because I wanted to see it again.
Prior to Coachella, what other major wins has TaP scored in the past 12 months?
Ellie [Goulding] is one of the most multifaceted artists anywhere. She had a No. 1 single and album last year [with “Miracle” featuring Calvin Harris and fifth full-length Higher Than Heaven] in the same week in the U.K. That was stunning. And Caroline Polachek’s album [Desire, I Want To Turn Into You, which debuted at No. 9 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart]. I love that Caroline and Mookie Singerman, who manages her, have been together since the beginning of [Polachek’s former band] Chairlift. There’s something to be said for loyalty. Sometimes when an artist gets bigger, they feel they need to switch up their teams. They are the CEO of their own company, so they need to make tough calls sometimes. But it’s nice to see those that remain loyal.
After Ong spearheaded a Fifty Shades of Grey classical compilation at EMI, she says author E L James’ lawyer sent her a cease-and-desist notice. “I flew to London,” she says, and successfully proposed releasing Fifty Shades of Grey: The Classical Album, which put her on the radar of radio departments at Capitol when programmers called to say, “ ‘We heard you released a BDSM classical album.’ ”
Yasara Gunawardena
How are label layoffs affecting management?
Significantly. I always look to partner with our major labels in the best possible way, and when things are up in the air, it makes it very challenging to understand how much support we’re going to have. The company that [TaP co-CEOs] Ben [Mawson] and Ed [Millett] have built is very much on the ethos of self-sufficiency. Going back to Lana, at the beginning of her career, they had a lot of pushback. She signed to Universal Germany because nobody believed in her. And that was and still is today a big takeaway for how we function as a company. We try to do as much for our artists as we can without overly relying on third parties, whether it’s a label, a brand, a social [platform] or a [digital service provider]. We need that agency to be able to make a difference.
What does that entail today?
All anybody wants to talk about right now is superfans. And it’s such a wake-up call. Fans want that close, direct relationship with the artist, and we were all slow in realizing that we need to take control of this relationship. We, as a management company, have made big strides in CRM [customer relationship management]. We have someone employed specifically at our company to do CRM. We’re platform agnostic, whether that’s OpenStage or Community or Laylo. What is important for us is to be able to take back the data. I say “data,” but that’s the fans. Artists need to be able to talk to their fans directly, and I think we’re leading the charge on the management side. It’s a testament to how [much] we value our artists’ fans.
Ong’s great-grandmother, with whom she lived in Malaysia while attending preschool, gave her this pendant.
Yasara Gunawardena
You’ve talked about not having a mentor in the industry. When you switched to management, was it even more apparent?
It was glaring. I wish that wasn’t my answer, by the way. I wish I could say that, “Oh, yeah. So-and-so really lifted me up and helped me out so much.” Younger people, whether it’s on social media or in real life, often reach out to me, and I do my best to play whatever small part I can because I think that my path may have been a little less rocky if I had more guidance early in my career. And the very reason I had no mentors is because there weren’t enough people that looked like me when I was coming up in the industry. Now there’s K-pop, so that has changed things in the best possible way.
How does Gold House encourage more mentorship and visibility of the AAPI community in music?
With Gold House, I think it’s the first time that I became a part of something greater for the AAPI community. It makes it easier to give back and to spotlight minority communities like ours. I’m also very proud to be part of the Gold House Music Accelerator program. The spotlight K-pop has put on the AAPI community is wonderful, but being a judge on the Gold House Music Accelerator program helps to shine a light on other types of artists, whether it’s indie-rock or R&B.
Why has K-pop become an umbrella term in the United States for all Asian music right now?
Because we’re dealing with the greater media that is not Asian, it eclipses all these other interesting artists and music that’s coming out from countries like Indonesia and the Philippines and Taiwan. Nowhere else in the world would you put South Asians, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Filipinos, Indonesians all under one umbrella. It makes no sense outside of America. We have to do it in this country because we’re all minorities and we can have a bigger voice if we band together. It’s a challenge, though, because K-pop has changed so much of what we think pop music looks like. So now that we have a sliver of an opening, I hope that we get to demonstrate through Gold House efforts, for example, other types of music made by Asians.
A sweatshirt embroidered with the face of Ong’s recently deceased dog, Patches, whom she rescued 16 years ago on the island of Tobago and “was my rock through and through.”
Yasara Gunawardena
What genre would you like to see gain prominence?
I’m so excited about South Asian Desi music. It is so much fun and joy and rhythm and bass. That joyousness is similar to how I view a lot of Latin music. It’s inevitable that a Desi artist is going to break through, and I’m excited for that to find its way into America.
TaP has its publishing, philanthropic, fashion and sports divisions, but is there another sector you would love to see the company tackle in the future?
I am very excited and a huge advocate for all the positive changes that AI can bring. But I also have that personality of an early adopter. I think that in two years’ time the music industry is going to look extremely different — maybe more so on the publishing side because that’s where it’s the most scary. When things are challenging, that is when opportunity comes. It’s whether we can find a way to leverage it.
Outside of new music, what are you looking forward to this year?
The Gold Music Alliance. It was really encouraging when [the organization] had the chance to do the event around the Grammys this year. It was the first experience for me as a member of the Recording Academy to realize that there was interest in growing the AAPI membership base. Because I don’t think we’re very represented.
Yasara Gunawardena
Do you think that will change with this year’s nominations?
In 2023, two AAPI trustees were elected to the academy’s national board of trustees. I think that is a sign that we are getting more representation. And I want to use my platform to encourage more AAPIs to become members of the Recording Academy. I know K-pop dominates in terms of consumption, but recognition is what I’m speaking about. I would be really excited to see a non-fan-voted award with K-pop. We should be represented not just in Billboard sales charts, but also in critical acclaim. Once again, I hope that K-pop forges the path for other types of Asian music.
The academy added a best African music performance category this year. Would you like to see a similar addition for K-pop?
How amazing would that be, but it’s a double-edged sword. Like, why isn’t K-pop just part of pop? It’s [like asking] why is there a best actor and a best actress at the Oscars? Sometimes I think it’s necessary because we can’t [bestow] the right amount of acclaim and recognition by putting everyone in the same bucket. We’ll see more changes due to AI than we’ll see anything else. I wish technological advances could help advance this type of conversation — maybe that’s the challenge.
This article originally appeared in the April 27, 2024 issue of Billboard.
Diana Montes was working in sales and sponsorships at the Latin Recording Academy in 2013 when Turner Media Group contacted her with an ambitious proposal: Could she create a Latin music awards show outside the United States to air on HTV, the Latin music channel then owned by TBS? It was a challenging idea because at the time, all major Latin music awards shows were produced stateside.
“We decided to make a Latin music award for Latins, made in Latin America,” Montes says. She pitched the concept to multiple cities and countries and finally partnered with the Dominican Republic’s burgeoning tourist destination of Cap Cana.
Today, 10 years after its first broadcast by the seashore, the event has grown from a homey show to a major ceremony with a massive online following and a cadre of devoted artists — including Karol G and Feid — who have been feted by Premios Heat throughout their careers.
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Montes plans to honor many of them during the anniversary edition of the awards show on July 11, set once again for the beaches of Cap Cana.
How has Premios Heat evolved?
We have only existed for 10 years but have grown in a huge way. When we started, HTV was only seen in Latin America, and there was no great impact in Mexico or the U.S. Now we’ve expanded. Since 2020, 2021, our biggest audiences are in the United States, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, in that order.
What makes this awards show different?
The staging. We’re a beach awards show where the beach is a protagonist. Our slogan is “The only awards show with the Caribbean Sea as the stage.” We’re unique because it’s very complicated to stage an awards show on a beach. And yet, in 10 years, we’ve never had a weather disaster. And obviously, having an awards show on the beach is very different than in an arena. Artists come with a different vibe, and all our concepts are tropical chic.
Did you initially have skeptics?
When I first started, people used to say this wasn’t an awards show but a beach festival that happened to hand out awards. Now they say I created a unique format and we’ve connected with a younger audience.
Diana Montes
Andrea Ramirez PR
How are the finalists and winners decided?
Nominations are based on video rotation on HTV, and we also have a committee of radio programmers throughout Latin America who tell us what’s playing in different countries. Once nominations are out, they’re public, and people vote for the winners. Anyone can vote. We also give out two editorial awards: social commitment, to an artist who has effected change through their foundation, and a golden award, which is the big award of the night that we give for career trajectory.
What’s different this year?
It’s a very special year because it’s our 10-year anniversary. We’ve expanded our categories, and this year, we’ll name winners in 29 categories, including a video-game streaming song. We’re also going to give out song of the year for the first time, and we’re launching a salsa category. We’re also excited about our app, Heat.TV. We launched it in 2021, and we have 647,000 unique monthly users. Last year, we had 5.2 million people watch the show in its entirety on the app.
This story originally appeared in the April 27, 2024, issue of Billboard.
When singer Manuel Turizo released his single “La Bachata” in May 2022, it was a risky move. The Colombian singer was venturing into Dominican territory not only by singing bachata — a very regional Dominican music genre — but by cheekily titling his foray “La Bachata” (The Bachata).
The risk paid off. By August, Turizo’s pop- and tropical-laced take on bachata landed at No. 1 on Billboard’s Tropical Airplay chart, where it ruled for 14 weeks, and it rose to No. 1 on the Latin Airplay chart in October. The track also reached No. 6 on the Billboard Global 200 (becoming the first bachata song to enter the top 10 since the chart’s inception in 2020) and No. 3 on the Global Excl. U.S. chart. It peaked at No. 67 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 in October.
“Music is universal,” Turizo told Billboard following the song’s success. “These are the influences Dominican music left in me.”
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Turizo is far from the only Latin star influenced by Dominican music. In the past few years, a number of non-Dominican superstars — including Rosalía (with The Weeknd on “La Fama”), Shakira (with Ozuna on “Monotonía”), Karol G (“El Barco”) and, most recently, Chayanne (with 2023 hit “Bailando Bachata”) — has topped the charts by capitalizing on the broad appeal of bachata, known for its signature percussion and plucked guitars.
Bachata’s popularity, along with a rising interest in dembow and the strength of other traditional Dominican genres like merengue, have refocused attention on the music coming from the small Caribbean country that shares its island territory with Haiti but has distinct idiosyncrasies and a booming economy fueled by tourism. Despite its size, the Dominican Republic is second only to Mexico in Latin America in the number of tourists who visit every year, according to statistics site Statista.
When it comes to music, the DR — as it is affectionately known — is teeming with it. As beloved global star Juan Luis Guerra once famously said, “Even the avocados sing.” The DR’s vast roster of international stars includes the more global Guerra, as well as Romeo Santos, Aventura and Prince Royce (who, although all born in the Bronx, identify with their Dominican music and roots). In Latin America, the list includes merengue stars Milly Quezada, Los Hermanos Rosario and Sergio Vargas, who are all active today.
Juan Luis Guerra
Ricardo Rubio/Europa Press/Getty Images
Romeo Santos
Paras Griffin/Getty Images
While music from the DR has been less ubiquitous than music from Puerto Rico, for example, in the past five years, the country has significantly upped its musical exports, thanks in part to a new generation of stars including Natti Natasha, El Alfa, Tokischa, J Noa and Amenazzy. Major labels have taken notice, with Natasha, Tokischa and J Noa all now signed to or distributed through Sony Latin. This is in no small part due to the explosion of Dominican dembow — an exciting, vibrant fusion that’s filling arenas thanks to artists like El Alfa, who, in turn, has helped globalize the style by working with genre-bending acts such as Camilo, Fuerza Régida, Rauw Alejandro and Peso Pluma. Tokischa has recorded with Rosalía and traded an onstage kiss with Madonna during the legend’s Celebration tour stop in New York, while Natasha has emerged as the country’s most prominent pop star.
The DR is poised to assume an even bigger role on the global music stage. This year, in addition to its local Premios Soberano, Premios Heat — which has traditionally taken place on the beaches of DR — celebrates its 10th anniversary on July 11 as a Latin American-produced live music awards show that’s viewed regionwide. For the first time, in addition to broadcasting on HTV, the awards will also stream on YouTube.
Industrywise, the newly minted Dominican Music Week returned April 16-18 for a second year of panels and new-artist showcases. “The music industry in the Dominican Republic is clearly growing,” Premios Heat president Diana Montes says. “Although the big companies and streamers have long been in the territory, we see more artists working hand in hand with them, and the growth impact is palpable.”
Billboard spoke with industry leaders about the present and the future of a country that lives and breathes music.
Greeicy (left) and Mike Bahía at Premios Heat in 2023.
Premios Heat
A Fusion Of Rhythms
Although the Dominican Republic has always been rich with a wealth of Latin genres — bachata, merengue, merengue típico — Montes is particularly excited about the surge of dembow, “which has taken over the global charts,” and the new mix of rhythms that has come with it. “There’s an amazing fusion of genres going on,” she says, citing Peso Pluma’s collaboration with dembow pioneer El Alfa and Chimbala’s many collaborations with reggaetón acts. New talent is proliferating, and, she says, “Tropical music is coming back. That fills me with enthusiasm.”
On the radar: Montes mentions J Noa, a rapper recently signed by Sony Music, as an “incredible” talent, as well as proponents of new tropical music like Chimbala.
Dominicans Take On The World
Never, perhaps, have Dominican music and its artists enjoyed as much global recognition as they do today. “The increasing value placed on Dominican music and its music-makers in the global market is exciting to watch,” attorney Rosa Mayra Tejada says. That recognition, she adds, goes hand in hand with the growth of the market itself and the increased participation of Dominican artists on international hits, as well as composers and producers. “I’m excited about a musical market that’s growing and where all our creators have more and better opportunities to prepare for this changing market,” Tejada says.
A place to learn: “Dominican Music Week is the best place to acquire or refresh knowledge and interact with music executives,” Tejada says.
Music That’s A Cultural Heritage Of Humanity
The DR birthed two genres of great significance: “merengue and bachata, which have also been declared by the UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity,” a designation of cultural heritage including traditions or living expressions inherited from ancestors such as the performing arts, says Valerio de León Severino, president of the country’s general society of authors, composers and editors, Sgacedom. “2024 is shaping up to be a year of growth for Dominican music genres, given the fact that important international artists have placed their eyes on the music and market,” Severino continues. “Likewise, Dominican talent is more aware than ever of the importance of digital platforms to internationalize their music.”
On the radar: “Established acts Juan Luis Guerra, Eddy Herrera, Milly Quezada, Sergio Vargas, El Prodigio, Elvis Martinez, Sacarías Ferreiras and El Chaval,” Severino says.
Sergio Vargas
Johnny Louis/Getty Images
Educating For Growth
As CEO of indie music company and distributor Aparataje, Jairo Bautista has focused on educating his artists and creators since 2015. “Topics like royalty splits, publishing rights and neighboring rights are common topics of discussion in recording sessions,” he says. “This has also led to a surge in a new generation of Dominican executives with deep knowledge of the business.” The versatility of Dominican artists and musicians has allowed them to adapt and interact with other genres, “thanks to the rich mix of cultures and genres, including orchestral merengue, typical merengue and, particularly, urban music.” The lattermost is where Bautista sees the most growth, with urban artists selling out shows throughout the country and with labels willing to invest “up to $10 million” in signing advances.
On the radar: “Without a doubt, dembow is the main mass-consumption genre right now,” Bautista says. “TikTok has become the main platform to viralize the music. And merengue típico is living a resurgence thanks to new artists who are bringing a fresh take to this legendary Dominican genre.” Artists to watch include Chimbala, Bulova and Don Miguelo.
Local Expertise That Translates To Global Recognition
International superstars may have globalized bachata and merengue, but their foundation lies in the expertise and musicianship of local composers and musicians. The DR “has been able to position genres like bachata, merengue and dembow on an international stage, and this means that locally you can find an industry of musicians, producers, composers and arrangers who are experts in those genres,” says Emiliano Vásquez, an A&R manager at Sony Music Latin. “It thrills me to say that tropical genres have increasing presence in international markets and that it’s increasingly common to see Dominican musicians being tapped for their expertise.”
Hidden talents: Composers like Brasa have credits on tracks with Bad Bunny, Prince Royce and Diego Torres, while writer-producer Cromo X has credits on a merengue song with Kali Uchis that was made in the DR.
An ‘Inexhaustible Source Of Talent And Grace’
Amarilys German, longtime manager for Guerra, describes her country as an “inexhaustible source of talent and grace. Here, even the trees sing and dance.” But German has also seen a tangible change in live music since the end of the pandemic. “The growth in massive shows has been huge,” she says, noting fans’ behavior has changed dramatically. “Prior to the pandemic, you went on sale, and truly, until the last week, you had no idea what was going to happen, and there was no presale.” Now tickets sell from the first day, “which allows managers, artists and promoters to have clarity and work with added precision.”
On the radar: J Noa, SNENiE and Damn Goldo.
Rap, Dembow And DIY
Vulcano Music Entertainment CEO Juan Carlos Restituyo has seen a dramatic shift in the urban side of the Dominican music industry, with up-and-coming artists either launching their own imprints or partnering with established labels like his. The move underscores the growing viability of Dominican urban sounds, which Restituyo splits into two front-runners: Dominican rap and dembow, represented by Rochy RD and El Alfa, respectively. Rochy RD’s “Ella No Es Tuya” (with Myke Towers and Nicki Nicole) made President Barack Obama’s summer 2023 playlist, and El Alfa’s most recent collaboration, “La Botella,” features Enrique Iglesias. “The Dominican Republic has become a popular destination for both music and tourism,” Restituyo says. “Those foreigners are the main distributors of Dominican happiness at a global scale, and they’re our major music exporters.”
On the radar: “We’re doing very well with our roster of El Alfa, Bulin 47, Rochy RD, Kiry Curu, Lapiz Conciente, Ceky Viciny, El Mayor Clásico and Paramba,” Restituyo says, “and also excited about emerging acts like Rosaly Rubio and El Chuky de Lewa, among others.”
A Vibrant Live Music Scene
According to SD Concerts president Saymon Díaz, “Music is the entertainment industry that generates the most income and audience in the country.” Post-pandemic, he says, Dominicans have changed their live-music consumption habits. Where before fans waited until the last minute to buy tickets, today, “shows sell out online in 24 hours and websites collapse.” Fandom now extends beyond shows themselves, with fans buying merchandise and some restaurants even offering themed menus on show days. Most importantly, Dominicans’ musical taste is vast and goes beyond tropical and local genres. “K-pop and fusion are consumed in a big way,” he says.
On the radar: The new Capitalia festival premiered April 20 with shows by four icons: Guerra, Sting, Juanes and Residente. “We want to make Capitalia an annual trademark that we eventually export,” Díaz says. His artists on the rise include J Noa and urban singer-songwriter Chris Lebrón.
Tokischa
Medios y Media/Getty Images
An Explosion Of Dembow
While long associated with merengue and bachata, the DR has produced music of many genres, including pop, ballads, boleros, jazz and, most recently, dembow. Now music festivals worldwide are booking dembow artists like El Alfa, Tokischa and Chimbala and composers such as Brasa, Cromo X and Maffio, who are collaborating with stars like Bad Bunny and Karol G — marking a “major change,” says Porfirio Pina, president of indie La Oreja Media Group and founder of Dominican Music Week. “It’s exciting to see the development of our music industry at a local level and the presence of [digital service providers] and multinationals in the country.”
On the radar J Noa, Solo Fernández, Techy Fatule, Yendry and Letón Pé.
This story originally appeared in the April 27, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Billboard Pro members have selected Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) president of Latin America and U.S. Latin Alexandra Lioutikoff as the first recipient of the International Power Players’ Choice Award. The peer-voted award honors the global executive who Billboard Pro members believe had the most impact across the business in the past year. Being the first to […]
Watch Latin American Music Awards Joe LaPorta understands the fast-paced nature of rap music. “[When I left New York University], the industry was completely different,” says the 44-year-old mastering engineer who has worked with everyone from Imagine Dragons to Miley Cyrus to, most recently, Future and Metro Boomin. “It was still a physical medium. There […]
Watch Latin American Music Awards
Even before the release of Beyoncé’s Billboard 200-topping album Cowboy Carter, Ryan Beatty was having a banner 2024. His name is in the liner notes to Bleachers’ self-titled fourth album as a co-writer, and he’ll open for Noah Kahan this summer and Maggie Rogers in the fall — all in support of his own acclaimed 2023 third album, Calico, which earned praise from Elton John, who hosted Beatty on his Apple Music Radio show Rocket Hour last year, saying his songwriting is “beautiful, intense and meaningful.”
But his contributions to Cowboy Carter have been quietly in the works throughout his wins, extending across the past four years. Beatty, a California native and teen pop prodigy turned tender singer-songwriter, is credited with co-writing four songs on the blockbuster, including standouts “Bodyguard” and “II Hands II Heaven.” A closely guarded secret he has kept since 2020 (Beatty, 28, says he “worked on this pretty much from beginning to end”), his collaboration proved to be an inspirational boost. “It gave me this silent confidence for years,” he says. “I think when you’re patient through the process, you almost feel ready for all the things that happen.”
Below, he explains how he scored such major co-writes and what’s up next for his solo career.
Ryan Beatty
Ashlan Grey
Even though Calico came out a year ago, do the past couple months feel like a milestone for you?
I think when you’re patient through the process, you feel ready for all the things that happen. I don’t mean to sound jaded, because it’s unreal all of the things that I’ve done and am getting to do. When I put my record out, I knew what I made and I knew how special it was to me. I’d hoped that it’d feel just as special to the people listening to it. I also know what I was willing to do and not willing to do. And I’m very adamant about staying authentic in every single decision I make when it comes to my music. And I think because I’ve been so protective of it, it’s been such a nice slow burn that the discovery of the record has been happening so naturally and effortlessly.
I didn’t realize how much this record affected people until I started touring it. Seeing people really show up and really be there with me was really special. It’s nice to know that staying true to yourself pays off, because it’s so easy for you to bite the apple and try things that don’t feel right for you and you think, “Oh, this worked for somebody else so maybe it will work for me.” But I think every artist has that feeling in their gut when they know something is right for them or not, you just have to listen closely.
You were working on Cowboy Carter and Calico simultaneously. What was it like deciding which ideas and lyrics should be for which albums?
There was never a moment where I thought, “Should this go here or there?” Anytime I went in to work on music, it was very intentional to focus on where things existed. At the end of the day, my writing is going to be my writing. But it never blended too much; it was always “I’m making this song for Calico,” or “I’m making this song for Cowboy Carter.” I felt really propelled in my artistry and could feel myself growing as an artist, so working on something of such magnitude at that time also helped hone in on my album. I always call Calico a small record because it’s so close to the chest, and it’s really interesting being in both those worlds. Knowing that [Cowboy Carter] will be heard by every person on Earth, whereas on my record I’m whispering into the mic, I kind of enjoyed that.
How did you keep Cowboy Carter a secret for so long?
It was hard, but I also sort of enjoyed it. There were people in my life who didn’t know until the day it came out. I got phone calls and texts all day, like, “What are you talking about?” The entire time I wanted to honor what was being made, and I really believe in letting the work speak for itself. Not having expectations is the best move.
Your work is usually autobiographical. How does that affect your writing for other artists?
I put my own perspective into these songs. Even on a song like “Just for Fun,” [Beyoncé] sings about Clovis, which is the town I grew up in [in California]. So if you really look into the details of it, you can hear my perspective in there, I think.
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How easy was it deciding whether or not to reflect your own queerness in your work?
It was instant for me. What excites me about making music is talking about my own life. So it wasn’t about should I or shouldn’t I. It was like, this is what excites me, let me be very forward about it.
What did you learn from working with Beyoncé and her team?
She makes things with so much intention, and I’ve always tried to do the same thing. Just seeing the work that goes into it definitely reminded me, “Oh, this is how you make greatness.” That was incredible to be around, and I felt highly respected through the entire process.
What can you share about “BODYGUARD,” which seems to be a fan favorite?
The line “Sometimes I hold you closer just to know you’re real” is one of my favorite lines I wrote for the whole record. Melody and lyric together can make something feel so much more beautiful. I think that melody, the way she sings it, and the line itself feels cute and intimate. I love that part of the song.
What can you reveal about collaborating on the Bleachers album? You are credited as a co-writer on “Call Me After Midnight.”
For that record, it’s one we started working on in 2017. It’s a song I wrote a long time ago. Jack [Antonoff, Bleachers frontman] was working on Kevin Abstract’s record, and I think they pulled that one up to revisit and Jack loved it and asked us if he could rework it and we were like, “Yeah, go for it.” To my surprise, it was on the latest Bleachers record and I’m really happy it went on there. It’s such a fun, beautiful record and I’ve been a fan of Jack’s for a really long time since way before I knew him, so that was a full circle moment at the same time, too.
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It was just announced that you’ll be opening up for Maggie Rogers on her upcoming tour. Do you ever spitball ideas with her?
Maggie is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. She’s just fun to talk to and she wears her heart on her sleeve. I think that I do the same, so I enjoy our conversations.
Are your recent experiences influencing how you’ll write your next album?
Probably, but I wouldn’t know yet. I’d say, I’m grateful to know that the best way for me to write a record is for me to just live life. That sounds really simple, but I try not to go in “record-making mode” and to be honest, I don’t even know what that means. Calico was made over a time where I was like, “Okay, ‘I’m ready to write” and then I’d stop for six weeks. Then I’d go back and work on it a little more. I just want to live a beautiful life, make beautiful things and what comes of it, comes from it. That sounds really simple, but I think if you grip it too hard it ends up being over thought. There has to be ease and intention at the same time.
This story will appear in the April 27, 2024, issue of Billboard.
“I had my own vision for what I wanted to hear in K-pop,” says Paul Thompson, an Italian American who 11 years ago moved to South Korea from California to teach English, but has since become better known as chart-topping K-pop producer MCMZ and founder of MCMZ Inc., an entertainment group based in Seoul. “I knew no other company was 100% going to let me do the vision I had. It was time for me to try to evolve K-pop.”
Enter VVS, Thompson’s newly formed group eyeing October for its official debut, and with four albums already mapped out. Embodying his love for The Neptunes, Timbaland co-producer Danja and singer-songwriter-producer Ryan Leslie, Thompson created a streamlined sound for the new act, which is named after the diamond category of the same name. “I would say we’re mashing up Ariana [Grande’s] ‘POV’ and Nicki Minaj,” says Thompson, who calls the members of VVS “the right five to push K-pop forward.”
With one Japanese and four Korean members, VVS comprises Brittney (20, the group’s leader and English speaker), Ilee (19, a rapper inspired by Blackpink’s Jennie), Rana (18, the main dancer who is musically influenced by Lauryn Hill), Jiu (15, the main vocalist who looks up to K-pop powerhouse Taeyeon) and Liwon (15, a vocalist who admires fellow teen singer Kiana).
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For now, the quintet has daily rehearsals, vocal and rap lessons, and group workouts. As their debut looms closer, the members will move into a shared living space and add media training and language lessons as part of K-pop’s famous trainee system. But unlike other trainees, the members of VVS will have had what Brittney and the girls call “culture classes” to dig into the roots of R&B and hip-hop.
“From the cultural beginnings to today where female rappers are able to perform onstage with such confidence, the fact that we are able to learn about the history of the OGs is really meaningful,” Ilee says through a translator. “We learned about female rappers at the start of the hip-hop industry, like Lil’ Kim, who influences me because she’s very confident.”
Brittney
Scott Joonhyuk Jung
Ilee
Scott Joonhyuk Jung
Meanwhile, Brittney — who nearly abandoned her K-pop dreams after time training in two different agencies before joining MCMZ — pulls inspiration from an act closer to home. “BTS came from a small company,” she says. “We come from a small company, too, so I think there’s a lot that we can learn from them. They’re very hard workers, they put all their effort into their job, and when they perform onstage, they’re 100%. I think their teamwork is amazing, so I tell my girls about them, too.”
After initially moving to South Korea to teach English, Thompson spent the following decade becoming the chart-topping K-pop producer MCMZ for arena-filling acts like EXO, NCT and Kang Daniel. Similar to NewJeans mastermind Min Hee Jin and other K-pop creatives who have moved from the liner notes to the C-suite, Thompson transformed his producer moniker into a corporate entity, founding MCMZ Inc. in early 2019 and incorporating as a Korean entity in January 2020 with an all-Korean staff and crop of songwriters that includes K-pop idol Yuju and lyricists in Los Angeles and Nashville.
Thompson’s own body of work — alongside key hires of management, casting and artist development veterans in Korea — quickly earned his new label the trust of the industry. Blackpink’s agency, YG Entertainment, has already invested in the company through a deal with its distribution division, YG Plus, to assist in merchandising and marketing, as well as global distribution.
And despite operating as an Italian American in a predominantly Asian industry, Thompson says, “All the parents know what I’ve done, all the trainees know, and a lot of them audition because of the music. They realize, ‘OK, the company is still Korean, all the contracts are done in Korean, it just happens that the CEO is not.’ ”
Jiu
Scott Joonhyuk Jung
Despite its American influences, MCMZ Inc. plans to target the international K-pop fandom as well as the scene’s core markets like Korea, Japan and English-speaking territories. “It’s going to be harder for us to get across because all the big companies have way more money than us to put toward marketing,” Thompson says. “The best way we can market ourselves is to go through other channels where we don’t have to put a huge budget behind that.”
That’s exactly why he has made yet another unconventional move: welcoming Anderson Cooper to film a CNN documentary about MCMZ Inc. to air at a later date. Thompson believes embracing such an unfiltered approach during a time of creative experimentation points to the type of ambition needed to break through industry hierarchies.
“They’re already going to be questioning if we’re authentically Korean,” Thompson says. “A lot of the Korean companies’ first target demographic is going to be Korea. For us, it’s still Korea, but we know we have a barrier there to entry anyway, so let’s see how we can market ourselves more accurately [beyond that].”
Liwon
Scott Joonhyuk Jung
Rana
Scott Joonhyuk Jung
This story will appear in the April 27, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Steve Aoki is obsessed with numbers. It’s why the Grammy Award-nominated producer and mega-DJ has a seven-page rider specifying the exact weight and dimensions of the sheet cakes he hurls into the delirious crowds of fans who flock to his shows holding signs that say, “CAKE ME!” It’s why, despite an “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” tattoo on the back of his neck, he knows per one epigenetic measure that he has slowed his aging process down to 0.8 out of 1 thanks to a rigorous biohacking regimen that includes tracking how much REM sleep he’s getting on his WHOOP watch. And it’s why, when asked why he wants to live so long in the first place, he equates life to winning the lottery and quotes the statistical probability of simply being alive on this earth as 1 in 400 trillion.
But there is one number Aoki prefers not to know: the amount he’s getting paid per show. He worries that knowledge might subconsciously affect the energy he brings from one massive outdoor stage to another, that it might cloud the sacred union he feels between himself, the lucky lottery winner, and his fans, who tend to embody the rollicking frenzy of a punk show that Aoki has injected into electronic dance music (EDM).
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It’s a high that he says he has grown addicted to, which explains why he DJ’d 209 shows last year and holds the 2012 Guinness World Record for most traveled musician in one year, and (though they’ve since been broken) the 2014 records for longest crowd cheer and most glow sticks lit simultaneously. It’s fitting, then, that on this Wednesday evening in April, Aoki is Zooming with me from a lounge at the San Francisco International Airport as he prepares for a flight to Australia, where he’ll DJ five shows in 48 hours before headlining the Siam Songkran Music Festival in Bangkok. At 46 years old — or 36.8, if you take into account his 0.8 aging rate according to TruDiagnostic, an epigenetic testing company — Aoki has little interest in slowing down.
“I still have the thirst,” he says. “I still have the enthusiasm, and with music, there’s no greater energy force. There’s no greater high than playing your records at your show in front of a crowd that knows your music and everyone’s just f–king lit up. Like, there’s nothing greater than that.”
Whatever you might make of his persona as a fist-pumping, hair-shaking, Takis-munching, EDM-spinning, sheet cake-throwing party bro who seems to have perpetually lost his shirt, it’s hard to dispute that over the last two decades, Aoki has firmly established himself as a pioneering figure in the world of dance music. That he has done so globally and exuberantly — despite the reserved Asian American stereotypes he grew up absorbing — is a testament to his unabashed confidence, unrelenting work ethic and entrepreneurial instincts, which extend far beyond music.
For starters, there’s the all-electric race boat team he recently purchased to compete in the UIM E1 World Championship against competing owners Tom Brady and Rafael Nadal; the Hiroquest graphic novel he published in April with comic book legend Jim Krueger, about a genetically augmented meta-human who journeys into the multiverse 400 years into the future; and his various forays into science and tech, from investing in brain research through his Aoki Foundation to ventures in cryptocurrency, esports, non-fungible tokens and cryogenics. In 2022, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa selected Aoki as one of eight civilians to join his SpaceX moon trip, with a yet-to-be-determined launch date.
“There’s always a new thing every year, and the whole team kind of shrugs their shoulders like, ‘OK, let’s go learn how to do this,’ ” says Matt Colon, Aoki’s business manager of 20 years and the global president of music at talent management agency YMU.
“He embodies that spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship that is so inspiring,” says Paris Hilton, a friend of Aoki’s since she was 16 who released her first-ever collaboration with him late last year. “Every venture he takes on, he does it with a sense of style and purpose. He has turned his artistic vision into an empire, and that’s something that I deeply respect and connect with in my own business endeavors.”
Balenciaga hoodie and jacket.
Jessica Chou
Colon sees it as his job to foster his client’s excitement — even if he admits that roughly half of Aoki’s business ideas “get dismissed kind of out of hand because once you get into the details, they don’t really make sense.” Still, Colon notes that it was that out-of-the-box thinking that allowed Aoki to break into the industry in the first place, by way of Dim Mak Records, the Los Angeles-based label he founded in 1996.
In the early ’00s, Dim Mak became a tastemaker by signing acts like The Kills, Bloc Party and Gossip. But perhaps more significantly, Aoki became godfather of the scene that coalesced around Dim Mak Tuesdays, the indie sleaze Hollywood party he threw from 2003 to 2014 to promote the label. With then-rising acts like M.I.A., Lady Gaga, Kesha and Justice clamoring to perform and buzzy guests like the Olsen twins all enshrined by the famed nightlife blog The Cobrasnake, the party took on a life of its own.
Aoki only started DJ’ing to fill the time before performances at Dim Mak Tuesdays, and in the beginning, “he admittedly was not a great DJ,” Colon says. But Aoki attributes his success today to his willingness then to keep trying, to fail in public, sweat bullets and then ask for help. “I don’t have any kids, but if and when I do, that’s one of the most important things I want to share: You need to have that shamelessness,” he says. “It’s such an important rule of thumb.”
“He’s an early adopter,” Colon adds. “It’s in his blood, and it’s often because he doesn’t have the shame of being afraid to ask. Most people just wait until it’s offered to them. Steve will always ask.”
Despite his far-reaching business interests, Colon says DJ’ing remains Aoki’s primary revenue stream, both internationally and in Las Vegas, where he lives and maintains residencies at three venues. As a producer, he has proved agile at working deftly across genres, collaborating with everyone from Linkin Park and Hayley Kiyoko to Lil Jon and Diplo.
“When you’re on the road that much, you come across new people, new trends and new sounds,” Lil Jon says. “He’s just really easy to work with. He’s not overly pushy in the studio — he lets me do my thing but still has input. Neither of us half-ass anything.”
Versace shirt.
Jessica Chou
Aoki’s reach also spans continents, having worked with South Korea’s BTS, Mexico’s Danna Paola, Japan’s Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Colombia’s Maluma. This hodgepodge has bolstered Aoki’s international appeal; he says his global fan base is particularly receptive in Central and South America.
He plans to release his ninth album this summer, featuring collaborations with Big Freedia, a rework of Lil Jon’s “Get Low” (called “Get Lower”) and a lead single with Ne-Yo called “Heavenly Hell” — a phrase he’s quick to point out inspired the title of a chapter he’s working on in the sequel to Hiroquest, which also happens to be the name of his last two albums that also spawned a line of trading cards meant to bolster his graphic novel’s intellectual property (IP) across platforms.
This is the way Aoki’s mind works — seemingly at its best when it has at least seven tabs open, all the better to connect the various dots that compose the Aokiverse. It’s an impulse he attributes to his father, Rocky Aoki, the wrestler turned powerboat racer turned founder of Japanese restaurant chain Benihana, who died in 2008 but remains Aoki’s North Star, a larger-than-life figure who seemingly did it all.
“He would just fly in like Superman, coming in to pick me up and take me on an adventure, and then drop me off [at] the humble abode of my mom’s house,” says Aoki, who was raised by his mother, Chizuru, whom he calls “my rock,” in Newport Beach, Calif. “So when I was with him, I just experienced all these things that he was doing. Like ‘Oh, my God. This life is crazy over there.’ ”
I was in college while you were coming up in the early aughts, and it felt kind of shocking to see someone who was Japanese American, like I am, take up so much space so aggressively in alternative culture. Were you thinking about ideas of representation back then?
I’m not going to go down memory lane too deep, but I remember when I first got into music in high school, the first thing I did was sing. You just didn’t see Asian singers. You just didn’t see Asian people in music, period, and if you did, they were really quiet, like the singer of Hoobastank, whom I looked up to. Actually, I am reworking [the Hoobastank song] “The Reason.” I guess we can announce it here: There’s a Steve Aoki-Hoobastank record coming soon. But it was cool to actually work with that guy [singer Doug Robb] because I remember looking up to him when I was in high school.
The other main artist I looked up to big time was Chad Hugo from The Neptunes. This is when I first got into production, around 2003. I was in L.A., and I remember hiring someone on Craigslist to teach me how to use Pro Tools because I just started dabbling on the computer. And I was like, “Chad Hugo, that’s my hero because he’s Asian, but he’s also quiet.” I’m always like, “Where are the loud ones?” I wanted to see someone Asian that’s just loud and in charge and commanding audiences.
Balenciaga hoodie, robe, jeans and shoes.
Jessica Chou
Did you become that character because you wanted to see it, or did that exuberance onstage come naturally to you?
One of the really important things that music gave me was a voice because I really, truly felt invisible. Growing up in Newport Beach, the statistic was 96% of the population is white — this is in the ’80s and ’90s. So I’m already kind of out there, I’m already different, and Asians, generally speaking, don’t rock the boat. Japanese people are quiet. My mom’s quiet.
Your dad wasn’t quiet.
No, he wasn’t, but I was raised by my mom. I mean, I’m sure I was inspired by my dad going, “Holy sh-t, my dad’s doing his thing and is successful, and it’s not bothering him that he’s Japanese, he’s just connecting with the world.” That is what I loved — the idea that it shouldn’t bother you.
But when I was a kid, I was bothered, and that’s where music gave me the voice. You could just belt your sh-t out. A lot of it was just understanding who I was, finding my identity through the music and allowing me to be unabashed about it. I grew up in the punk hardcore scene, and they thrive off that. It’s thriving off these underrepresented voices. That’s how the culture grows. So I was in the right place to foster this kind of attitude to be heard.
As someone who’s known for being a prolific collaborator, how do you connect with other artists? Do you still reach out to people?
It goes both ways for sure. In some cases, if we meet in person, the energy of that meetup ends up becoming something. When I met up with BTS in 2016 at a house in L.A., we just hit it off really well, and in 2017, I ended up remixing “MIC Drop,” which later led to [the BTS collaborations] “Waste It on Me” and “The Truth Untold.” But sometimes I just do cold DMs. I’ve always been very unabashed about that. Whoever I want to work with I just send a DM, and if it hits, it hits.
What’s your success rate?
I would say my success rate is pretty low. You know, of all the collabs I’ve done that are out, I’ve reached out to far greater [than have reached out to me], like 80%.
How does that make you feel?
It’s like a game of baseball. That’s how I see it. I don’t have a problem as long as I hit the ball and I get the home runs, you know? Like the best baseball player in the world hits the ball three out of 10 times. So if you hit the ball two out of 10 times, you’re actually above average. If you hit the ball once, you’ve made the cut. If I can make a record that’s meaningful to culture, meaningful to my fans, meaningful to what I’m doing, what my purpose is, then it’s worth it and I’m excited. I never lose my excitement on this stuff. I think that question would provoke a different answer if I was tired. If I was jaded. If I wasn’t really into what I do. When you love what you do, you still fight for it. You still have the hunger.
Balenciaga hoodie, jacket, pants and shoes.
Jessica Chou
What do you like about collaborating with such a wide range of artists? I think some producers would find that really challenging.
It is. It’s extremely challenging. It’s challenging on many different levels, too. It’s not just challenging on the creative side, but it’s challenging to your fans. Like whenever I started collaborating in a different space, I would get a lot of hate; I get a lot of criticism.
What’s an example?
When I started working with hip-hop artists in the early 2010s, there was a lot of negative criticism, even when I did Kolony, which was an entirely hip-hop album that I produced in 2017. You know, I’m a sensitive guy. I don’t like seeing negative sh-t just pile up.
Do record sales matter to you?
Honestly, no. In the beginning, it does matter, when you have your first hit, when you have something that’s just catching steam. But then, going back to your question about collaborating across different genres, I can’t think too much about what the world thinks. Of course, it’s incredible if I have a song that breaks 100 million streams on Spotify. That’s pretty f–king cool. But I can’t put my emotional place there. That would probably make me jaded. That would probably hinder my creative spirit, 100%. It’s more about, “How does it penetrate the culture? Do the fans at the festivals and the shows sing along? Are they connected to it?”
It sounds like the measurement for your success is more experiential than data-driven. How else do you gauge that?
Yeah, it is something that grows over time. You could sort of gauge it on some level of metrics, but then there’s a lot of other layers. You can’t just type in “What’s Steve Aoki’s biggest song on the festival circuit?” If you type that in, you might not get the correct answers. [Artificial intelligence] cannot generate that. For example, “No Beef” is an old song of mine that I made with Afrojack in 2011. That was before streaming was actually a big deal, but everyone knows the vocals to that at my shows.
As an artist, what are your thoughts on AI?
I’m still a novice in the usage or utility of AI, but I use it mainly for lyric generation. It has actually helped me quite a lot. If I have an idea of what lyrics I want to put down on a record, I’ll work that out with AI, and if I have a songwriting team in my house and we get stumped, we can always use AI. As far as sampling, I’ve used AI to get a particular female sound using certain words, and that has been fantastic.
What about the fear of it replacing producers and DJs entirely?
See, of course that’s the conversation topic because the possibilities are endless. But when that happens, I’m assuming, just like everything that we do with technology, we’re building safeguards. And you can’t stop AI. It’s not like, “Oh, f–k. AI is going to take away our jobs. F–k technology, it’s going to take away jobs.” You can’t. You just have to ride the wave with it and just start building safeguards as we go. We’ve been doing this the whole time with the internet.
Versace top, shirt, jeans, and shoes.
Jessica Chou
Let’s pivot to another serious topic: How does it feel to throw a sheet cake into someone’s face?
OK, there’s a lot of points here. One, I think it really goes along with this idea that people are singing your songs at your show and your music is their music. So we’re all part of the same culture. You’re partially responsible because you created that music and that experience. That’s what the cake is. I’ve been able to share an experience that was such a silly idea, and now it’s a thing. As a culture, people want to get caked, and it’s a very Steve Aoki thing.
How many years have you been doing it now?
Thirteen.
Wow. That’s a lot of cake.
Yeah, over 20,000 cake faces. It’s pretty epic.
How consciously are you aware of yourself, Steve Aoki, as a brand?
It’s interesting because when I see “Steve Aoki” on things or I see the logo, I look at it as a company. And I’m just part of that company.
You’re just another worker?
(Laughs.) I mean, really. It’s like, “Oh, my God. There’s a person with a Steve logo or a tattoo on his arm.” It does excite me. I’m like, “Wow, that’s so incredible.” But that’s the music, you know? It’s not me personally. So I finally started separating myself from that because I’m the same kind of fan. I have a band [tattooed] on my back that inspired me when I was in high school called Gorilla Biscuits. It’s not someone’s name, but Steve Aoki is like a band to someone. So I understand the way music moves people and why you do that. It’s a community. That’s how I see the brand.
I think a lot of this is not just about the music, too; it’s the experience, you know? And the experience itself is something that can last a lifetime. That’s why the live show is so important. It’s not just about being a producer in the studio and getting the music out there and having people connect with the music in their homes. A lot of my IP is based on the actual experience [of a live show], and unfortunately, I can’t clone myself because as an entrepreneur, you would think, “How do you scale that?”
Is that why you play so many shows?
Yeah. It’s like you get this momentum going when things are happening, and I’ve seen a lot of friends, a lot of artists, taking their brick and just disappearing. And they didn’t have the same momentum to come back as strong as they were.
Are you scared of that happening to you?
I am. I think I am. I mean, I don’t want to say that, but I think it does have this effect on me because the thing is, I love what I do. Like, to be able to be onstage and the high that you get after a show, it’s just incredible.
What’s the secret to keeping this so fun after doing it for so long?
I’m glad you asked this question. I just was in South Africa and I did two shows out there, and during my extra time, I worked on music with two South African artists. I actually connected with more African artists from different regions as well and their beats, like Afrobeats and amapiano, have definitely been coming up inside my beats. The sounds, the rhythms, the percussions, I have a strong affinity to this music. That was so much fun. That’s what keeps things going.
I think being a global artist, being able to travel all the time, my natural way to connect with different cultures is to musically connect and collaborate with different people of that culture. And fortunately, they’ve allowed me to work with them in different capacities that have brought out some of these incredible global records that connect my sound to their sound. And the more and more I do it, the more exciting it is and the more it’s connecting with a whole different world of people, with a different culture. You see it at the shows. It just becomes more exciting to do more outside of what you normally do. It’s a challenge, too, and I love the challenge.
This story will appear in the April 27, 2024, issue of Billboard.
As a student at the University of California, San Diego, Ollie Zhang oversaw the campus’ annual music festival and dozens of concerts throughout the year. Post-graduation, he co-founded the dance music brand Space Yacht in 2015. But he aspired to have a bigger, different kind of impact on the music business. “This idea of finding a place within the music industry for Asian artists to thrive always felt like a faraway concept to me,” he says. “A lot of the folks that I worked with and came up with in the music industry were Asian Americans. We all had this far-off dream that this is something that could be possible one day.”
So when Zhang (now 33) met Sean Miyashiro (now 42) in 2015, he says it was “serendipity” because Miyashiro was developing the very idea Zhang had imagined: carving out space for Asian and Asian American artistry to flourish. At the time, Miyashiro was helping VICE launch its dance music site, THUMP, but he soon realized, “If we created something to celebrate [our creative community], it would be better than anything else that exists.”
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Together, he and Zhang grew their shared vision into the company that became 88rising, the first and only hub for Asian artists in the music industry. 88rising launched with a small roster of clients Miyashiro was independently managing at the time, including choreographer-singer Brian Puspos, rappers Keith Ape and Dumbfoundead and dance artist josh pan. Zhang was at first, he believes, creative manager, then became chief of staff and is now head of artist development. (He also manages two of 88rising’s key signings, singer-songwriter NIKI and elusive indie-alternative star Joji.) And while the company initially focused on hip-hop, Miyashiro immediately made clear that it was never intended to be for any one type of creative — or even be any one thing at all.
Today, 88rising is a label, management firm and global brand — with Miyashiro, who alongside Zhang spoke to Billboard during weekend one of Coachella at a private residence in Indio, Calif., teasing that yet another new division is on the way. The company’s wide-ranging label roster includes NIKI, Joji and rappers Rich Brian and Jackson Wang. Meanwhile, the 88rising brand has grown into a behemoth. In 2018, it held its inaugural Head in the Clouds festival at Los Angeles State Historic Park, and the event has since expanded to New York; Jakarta, Indonesia; Manila, the Philippines; and Guangzhou, China. In 2020, 88rising launched North America’s first 24/7 radio channel dedicated to Asian artists, on SiriusXM; in 2021, the company curated the soundtrack to the Marvel blockbuster Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings; in 2022, it became the first label to score its own billing on Coachella’s lineup (returning in 2024); and, last year, it struck a global distribution deal with Sony’s The Orchard.
“Sean creating 88rising from just an idea in his head to what it has become today is incredible,” Wang says. “The thing I immediately knew about Sean is his vibe was so real from day one. He cares about art deeply before anything else, which is so rare in this music game or entertainment industry. I knew I could trust him, and he immediately began guiding me into decisions not only about my music, but how I see myself as an artist and human being.”
But regardless of exactly what 88rising does, Zhang attests that the why has never, and will never, change. “The mission statement remains the same to this day: uplifting Asian youth culture around the world,” he says. “Everything that we’ve done is a manifestation of that same intent. Obviously, the stakes have gotten higher, but where we’re at now is not even what we could have necessarily dreamed of.”
Tell us about operating as a label and as a brand.
Sean Miyashiro: It never was intended to be a label. I didn’t know anything about what it was to distribute a record or whatever. And I probably still don’t, frankly speaking. Like, I still don’t know how royalties break down and all this stuff. The intention of 88rising was to be a celebratory platform, and just by nature of what we were putting out, which was really based on the distinct taste of the people that were working here, that became the brand. That became the beating heartbeat of what 88rising was. And then all these artists started hitting us up, just being like, “We like this energy. Let’s do something.” Being a label was a happy accident… And we have a great opportunity to continually do more, so we have to take responsibility in that opportunity because nobody has really come after us.
Sean Miyashiro photographed on April 17, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Yuri Hasegawa
How does operating as a global brand entice artists, beyond only offering label services?
Ollie Zhang: There’s that little percentage of value that comes with [being] a brand, and I think that’s the intention. We do our best to make it incredibly clear that being here for an artist is advantageous and that you will be supported. Seeing [Japanese girl group] Atarashii Gakko!, for instance, use every single Head in the Clouds festival over the last couple of years, moving them slowly up and up the lineup and introducing them to different markets around the world — that is something that people definitely notice. And especially for an act like [them], the experience of being at that show instantly converts you into a fan. So how do we create as many opportunities for people to experience that as possible? That’s the advantage of being the platform that we are.
Miyashiro: When we’re in Asia, it’s crazy. I went to Indonesia with my family, and I was in one of those things that scale a mountain, and the operator is like, “You’re Sean.” When we go to Japan, when we go to China, it’s the same type of feeling — people know what we’re trying to do. And it’s by way of trying to be as consistent as possible. We have to push ourselves to stay ahead of this. I have anxiety; I never ever feel that we’re sitting pretty. It’s the complete opposite.
Many of 88rising’s wins are industrywide firsts, like the label’s now-annual Coachella billing. Why is the company able to pull off such feats?
Zhang: I think that’s a big credit to Sean and daring to believe that that’s possible. And obviously, a credit to the team that’s here and has been here over the last eight years to help execute that. And we couldn’t have done that as well without earning the trust and belief of artists that we look after, artists within the community, artists across the world. And it has all been iterative, right? It’s not necessarily a straight path, but it has always been moving in that direction.
Miyashiro: I love being able to [work with Japanese group] Number_i and new things because K-pop is already fully [established globally], times a thousand, and that’s amazing. [It’s] incredible what the whole industry there has built. But I want to showcase somebody from Cambodia or Vietnam. We love being first; it’s fun. Who wants to be second?
The 88rising Coachella set always features a variety of talent across countries and genres, including Japanese acts like Number_i this year. Considering that the label launched as a predominately hip-hop platform, what is now drawing a wider range of artists to the company?
Miyashiro: Fundamentally, we’re not business-driven or very good at business. Business is something that we have to learn by nature of, like, being able to make payroll. We’re inherently artist- and creative-driven. That’s what fuels everything. But the thing is, we’re so lucky to have built a relationship and a friendship and a bond with [our roster]. That’s what it really is. And that’s why nobody leaves, to be honest. We say this all the time: It needs to be so painfully obvious to the artist that [being on 88rising] is a benefit to them.
Zhang: It’s [about] aiding the artists on their own journey to find out what they want to communicate to the world or what kind of artists or musicians they want to be. NIKI is a great example of that. In the pandemic, she really started feeling like the kind of artist she wanted to be was going back to the singer-songwriter lane where she was making music in her bedroom in Jakarta. That’s why when she brought that original idea for [her second studio album] Nicole, it was a no-brainer in terms of wanting to embrace that and bring her creative partners that make sense.
88rising artist Jackson Wang, who says of Miyashiro: “The thing I immediately knew about Sean is his vibe was so real from day one.”
Connor Gaskey
NIKI performs at HITC on May 21, 2023 in New York.
Lindsey Blane
What up-and-comers are you putting muscle behind this year?
Zhang: A big part of the 88rising set [at Coachella] was an eye toward great Japanese talent with Number_i, Atarashii Gakko! and Yoasobi. I don’t know if it was intentional, but that’s what we’ve rallied around in this specific moment.
Miyashiro: A lot of people have been like, “Oh, dude, there’s a lot of Japanese artists,” but it wasn’t a planned thing. It’s always by nature of who we might be talking to about something as small as making a song. And then it’s like, “Yo, come on over.” These are invaluable opportunities for artists. Just in culture, [the fact that] Number_i played Coachella is like, “What, where did that come from?” Because it’s like, how else would they get here? We love being able to deliver these things with ease … It’s like, “Yo, Paul [Tollett, president of Coachella promoter Goldenvoice], give us some real estate here. We’ll figure it out.” Literally, I was like, “Just make sure that we’re on the flyer.” I had no idea what we were going to do, but it’s organic. It’s like putting together a block party.
How do you see 88rising’s Coachella billing evolving?
Miyashiro: We’re going to do it again next year. We’re going to start earlier, and I have an idea … We’ve been doing a celebration, [offering] a glimpse of all these artists going back-to-back-to-back. I think that, in the future, we want to do something a bit more orchestrated and seamless with a theme. Kind of like a musical. Tell a light story in 75 minutes. We’re actually starting that process.
What else are you working on?
Miyashiro: Right now, there are so many aspiring artists, young people, deciding to make music. And with all the infrastructure that we built and the know-how, we have the opportunity to help a lot of them. We are going to create something called FAM, Future of Asian Music. It’s a distribution ecosystem for independent Asian artists.
There’s a lot of distribution mechanisms that somebody can use, but we’re going to be [creating] a really nice ecosystem of curation and recommendation through artists of influence. [There will be] a lot of live stuff within this, and it’s all around the ethos of DIY, independent, next-generation Asian music from all over Asia. We’re doing a ton of content around this from live programming, like our version of COLORS [the German music platform known for simple live recordings from up-and-comers around the world]. It’s like [a] from-your-bedroom-to-stardom-type of thing. We want to be a part of that conversation and journey every step of the way. This is a fire starter … and pretty soon, there’s hopefully a thousand artists distributed through us. I think that we will reach that.
Zhang: It’s fully realizing the original intent of 88rising. And more important for an artist nowadays is not the sheer process of getting your music on a platform, it’s how do you create content to put you in context with all the other artists that are uploading music every day? FAM is a vehicle to express that.
Artists who performed at the 88rising Futures showcase at Coachella on April 15. Standing, from left: BIBI, Atarashii Gakko!’s SUZUKA and MIZYU, JP the Wavy, U-Lee, Jackson Wang and Number_i’s Yuta Jinguji, Yuta Kishi and Sho Hirano. Seated: XIN LIU, Tiger JK, Yoonmirae, Atarashii Gakko!’s KANON, Awich, NENE, MaRI and LANA. Kneeling: Atarashii Gakko!’s RIN. Right: Rich Brian.
Lindsey Blane
Rich Brian performs at HITC on May 21, 2023 in New York.
Deanie Chen
What subgenres do you think are shaping the future of Asian music?
Zhang: I think that Isoknock — [comprising dance/electronic artists] ISOxo and Knock2 — are leading the charge on a major resurgence in electronic dance music here and around the world. They are just pure rock stars. And I think that they are actively revitalizing a scene that has been dormant. Both Sean and I come from the dance world, grew up in electronic music — so has a lot of our staff — so that’s something where once we saw how special it was, just from the ground floor, we wanted to jump on it. For them to be two Asian American kids from San Diego and for dance music being a big part of Asian American culture over the last couple of decades, that really means something that they’re at the forefront.
How do you view the impact of 88rising so far?
Miyashiro: It’s funny because when we started, some haters were like, “Oh, dude, you think you’re the only person that can do this?” I hear people in investment meetings saying, “We’re going to be the next 88rising for African music,” and that’s dope. I love hearing that. But in the Asian space, it hasn’t happened yet. I’m sure it will in some way, shape or form. And we love that. That was the point. If we cease to exist tomorrow, we can look back and have some peace and be like, “We really did something here.”
This story will appear in the April 27, 2024, issue of Billboard.