A beautiful thing about music is just how many artists there are to enjoy. As a result of the different sounds there are to experience, some amazing artists, unfortunately, fall to the wayside of mainstream ears.
I want to shine a light on some of these artists who deserve more love.
MAVI
The 25-year-old rapper from Charlotte, North Carolina, Mavi, started his career off in absolutely legendary form.
As far as albums go, few artists in the hip-hop sphere have been on a better run than Mavi with his three releases: “Let The Sun Talk (2019),” “Laughing So Hard, it Hurts (2022)” and “Shadowbox (2024).”
All three projects are beautiful explorations of themes like mental health, generational trauma, substance abuse, self-love and more. They are deeply vulnerable and beautiful projects that see Mavi shine on each.
Mavi is also a top-tier lyricist with songs that often feel like poetry and a flow to match that sees him glide smoothly over the lowkey and melancholic instrumentals that fill his tracklists.
Currently, Mavi stands at around only 892,300 monthly listeners on Spotify. A number far too low for someone who I believe is one of the most skilled rappers in the game today.
JORDAN WARD
Jordan Ward is the most popular artist on the list with around 1.5 million monthly Spotify listeners. However, that number is still far too low relative to Ward’s talent and quality.
Ward’s 2023 project “FORWARD” is a fun, bouncy R&B album that stuck out as one of my favorites in a year full of solid albums. His style is infectious and catchy, full of beats made to be played on the dance floor or to bump in your car.
His music is the perfect balance of chill and energetic. He’s an artist that has at least one song that can fit in everyone’s playlist. From more touching tracks like “Famjam4000” to bangers like “Sidekick,” Ward is incredibly versatile with enjoyable songs in every style that he has in his repertoire.
Of the artists on this list, I believe Ward has the biggest likelihood to blow up due to his catchy sound. If he does, it will be well-deserved for an incredibly talented artist.
REDVEIL
Potential is the name of the game when it comes to redveil.
At current, the 20-year-old rapper holds around a mere 613,500 monthly listeners on Spotify. But having already worked with legendary rappers of the underground/mid-mainstream like JPEGMAFIA, Danny Brown and Denzel Curry, the sky’s the limit for redveil as his career progresses.
His 2022 album “learn 2 swim” made waves in the underground hip-hop community. Songs from the album like “pg baby” and “morphine (da ways)” shone a light on redveil’s powerful and sort of aggressive rapping style as well as his unique and enjoyable production which is self-done.
This amounted to a good heap of critical praise for the album and left critics and fans alike wanting more. And with his whole career and likely many more years ahead of him, redveil will only get better with his following projects. I for one can’t wait to hear them.
