It’s been a great year here on Undertone. Now that 2021’s recaps are all complete, Alex Walden is here to guide us through the artists ready to take 2022 by storm.
It’s that time of year again. We’re all taking down our Christmas decorations and gearing up for the next year. Congratulations on making it through another year. This past year was a crazy one for music. We saw the return of some greats including J. Cole, Drake, Kanye West and, for the first time in 6 years, Adele. Yet, despite these amazing artists coming back, what can’t be ignored is the impact that the new wave has had on this year. Artists such as Jack Harlow, Lil Nas X and Doja Cat have managed to show us that the new wave of talent is here to stay and that the idea of artists coming and going is a thing of the past. There were also some new artists on the scene last year have still got room to grow. To that end, I present to you my top picks of artists to watch out for this year. Whether these artists will blow up this year remains to be seen, but these artists are currently very underrated and their careers far from finished.
Coshise
We’re kicking things off with a solid choice from Florida’s own Cochise. Originally from Jamacia, Cochise moved to Florida when he was young. It was there he would learn to play drums for his church choir as well playing soccer in his spare time. Upon discovering hip hop, Cochise started making music in college whilst trying to become a teacher in Japan until suddenly his songs blew up all over social media to the point where people had begun to leak his songs. Don’t get me wrong, leaking music is 100% wrong. Having said that, I was even more excited for the release of his hit song Tell Em after hearing the leaked snippet of the song. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one thinking like this, considering that the snippet had managed to gain so much hype that upon its release Cochise (and featuring artist $not) managed to bag themselves a music video from none other than the Quentin Tarantino of new wave music videos, Cole Bennet, who published the video on his Lyrical Lemonade channel. The song Tell Em is undoubtably one of the best upbeat tracks of last year. It features all the necessary ingredients for a perfect song to get you hyped up, with prominent use of 808s, a memorable hook and a smooth melody. Cochise has managed to find the perfect balance of hip-hop, trap and dancehall and has managed to infuse into his tracks to create a new psychedelic sound which will definitely serve him well in 2022.
VANO 3000
Next up is a choice that I know all my producers can get behind. VANO 3000 has repeatedly shown off his skills when it comes to finding and flipping samples. I originally discovered VANO 3000 very early this year when he posted clips of him and his friend flipping samples in his old truck. I remember falling in love with the vibe of watching two people just mess around on an old SP303 and have fun while seeing what they could come up with. VANO’s sounds always come with an extra dosage of good vibes which became widely recognised during last summer when VANO flipped a sample of BADBADNOTGOOD, which began to spread all over TikTok rapidly. The sound managed to bring a huge wave of nostalgia across adults and teens on the platform, and thus the Adult Swim trend was born. There are currently over 654,000 videos on Tik Tok alone of people using VANO 3000’s sound to bring their own version of Adult Swim bumps. This quickly became arguably the biggest trend on the social media platform, considering that I was seeing these kinds of videos on all of my social media, not just TikTok.
As of now, VANO has since released a fully polished instrumental of the Adult Swim sound as well as a couple beat tapes here and there. Looking at his social media, it appears that he thinks that his best bet at striking it big again is to make another track to bring back the Adult Swim trend which if I’m honest, I don’t see it working out because the only downside of this new age of the internet is that trends die out just as quick as they rise on social media, but I could be wrong. As far as his albums go, I find myself listening to TMS 2.0 often in my spare time. I look forward to seeing to what this man has in store for us next, considering I can never turn down a good sample flip.
Ryan Librada
Up next, we have probably the smallest artist I have on this list, giving a whole mix of sounds ranging from lo-fi to rock, Nevada’s own Ryan Librada is sure to go far in the future. Being a skater myself, I discovered Ryan on the YouTube channel Luis Mora, a cameraman and filmaker for the Erasedxproject clothing brand and skate crew. With over 1.56 million subscribers at the time of writing this piece, it’s safe to say that his work speaks for itself. The way he uses only one or two songs for a back in track for his videos is a great way to discover new tracks. I first heard the song RENO by Librada on a Tokyo night street skating edit. The song gives you a typical chilled out lo-fi vibe, yet it’s not like any lo-fi song you’ve heard before. It has a more upbeat feel to it when you add in the lyrics and drum style.
After this I began discovering songs such as Love Again and Down Bad and I couldn’t get enough of them. The 2010s rock guitar riffs mixed in with the modern trap drums puts an amazing spin on a genre I hold very dear to my heart. It took me back to my younger days when I would discover new songs from skate games I used to play.
Considering that Ryan Librada started making music just last year, it’s very clear that he’s not reached his peak yet, there’s a lot of potential that he is yet to discover, and it does show sometimes in his work, although I doubt that it will take long considering that every song he makes somehow improves in overall quality. I’m definitely excited to see what heights this artist can reach in the foreseeable future.
PinkPantheress
Let’s face it, you knew she was eventually going to be on this list. PinkPantheress has already been able to master the art of building a fanbase that desperately craves more of her short yet snappy style of music (let’s not forget that classic overly enthusiastic “hey” that we all love). Despite having previously written about her, she’s still making big progress as an artist. Since the release of her debut EP, PinkPantheress has had multiple interviews, including one with the internet’s busiest music nerd himself, Anthony Fantano, as well as the company Complex. Despite these major events, they are minor compared to the fact that she has also embarked on her first three live performances. Located in London, PinkPantheress decided to have three relatively small performances following the release of her EP. In her interview with Complex, she explains that she decided to choose to perform in relatively small venues due her thinking “it’s important to do intimate shows before you move on to the bigger ones. It’s a completely different atmosphere at smaller shows”. Clearly PinkPantheress knows to take things slow to ensure she doesn’t end up becoming one of those artists that just come and go. I still think that she is the biggest “what if?” artist of this year. She has the potential to bring a new wave of sound to mainstream media, yet there’s still that huge “what if?”: what if she doesn’t capitalise on her newfound fame?; what if this is her peak and she quickly fades out of the spotlight? Despite the suspense of her future as an artist, we can guarantee that she is bound to release very highly anticipated work in the near future.
Knucks
Finally, we stick to the UK for this artist. There’s always the ongoing debate about whether hip hop as a genre is nowhere near as good as it used to be. (I find this debate extremely annoying as all you’re doing by saying that is proving that you listen to the wrong music). In the UK this debate still rages on as the mainstream trap genre of UK rap has a heavy grip on the UK scene. However, one artist who definitely challenges this whole concept is Knucks. Hailing from North London, Knucks is easily becoming the biggest rapper you should know about. It’s honestly rare that I find an artist that is this talented that isn’t absolutely huge yet. I remember one day looking for new songs to add to one of my playlists when by luck, I stumbled upon Knucks’ single, Los Pollos Hermanos. I was amazed by how well this man was able to flow upon a beat. It sounded almost effortless, as if he was gliding upon the beat. After a couple listens, I quickly became intrigued as to what else Knucks could come up with, to which I found his album, NRG 105. I was amazed at how amazing this project sounded coming from an artist so small. The majority of songs on this project don’t even have over a million streams on Spotify yet they deserve so much more. However, one song sticks out from all the rest. With over 15 million streams as well as 9 million views on YouTube, Kucks’ shows off his storytelling and incredible flow on his hit track Home. With tag lines such as “can’t you see London’s burning, and you can’t duck this smoke” which will definitely be stuck in your head, as well as an amazing use of instruments ranging from pianos to saxophone, Home shows that Knucks is destined to become a force to be reckoned with in the UK scene. Considering that Knucks already has two albums and multiple singles under his belt, there’s not really much else you can ask him to perfect his craft even more. Honestly, I think Knucks has potential to make it mainstream as long as he keeps it consistent, he’s bound to go far this year.
So there you have it: five artists you should definitely look out for in 2022. Whether it’s that post punk era sound you’ve been missing for years or that fresh new flip of an old soul sample, I hope these artists give you the joy of listening to someone new that I experienced. Who knows who or what we’ll discover this year? As I’ve shown, this year I was introduced and re-introduced to multiple new sounds and genres that I’m glad to have found. Regardless of what happens, we can always assure that in the world of music, we’ll end up with a pretty good result.