LONDON — In the video
for his recent single “Du
Lundi au Lundi” (“From Monday to
Monday”), French rapper Stanislas
Dinga Pinto, better known as Niska,
stretches out on a gold chaise lounge
in the palatial grounds of a hilltop
château, surrounded by exotically
dressed models and balaclava- wearing
members of his crew.
It’s a fitting metaphor for Niska’s
place among the new wave of French
rap royalty that’s taking over the
charts in the world’s fifth- biggest
music market.
“As a young man from the hood, my
songs strike a chord with my gener-
ation,” says the 25-year-old, whose
third album, Mr Sal, was released
by Universal France on Sept. 6 and
topped the French charts for five
consecutive weeks.
Niska is the latest example of a trend
that’s transforming the music busi-
ness around the world. Thanks to the
way streaming has altered the music
landscape, hip-hop artists of almost
every nationality are dominating radio,
streaming and overall music consump-
tion in their home countries and, more
significantly, in their own languages
— in some cases even outperforming
established international superstars
like Drake and Ed Sheeran.
“Some people thought the switch to
streaming consumption would homog-
enize global music, but it’s actually done
the opposite,” says Stu Bergen, CEO of
international and global commercial
services at Warner Music. “It’s given
local artists a great avenue to reach fans
in their own country who are eager to
embrace music in their own language
that tells stories that resonate with their
personal lives and experiences.”
This new reality, already starkly
evident in Europe and now emerging
in Asia and parts of Latin America,
has turned on its head the way music
usually takes hold, forcing the majors
to play catch-up with local indies to
maintain market share. And those ma-
jors, which have traditionally focused
on the business of global stars, are
fighting to control the local markets.
“What we are trying to avoid in some
of these new emerging markets is the
hip-hop business growing outside of the
major-label system,” says Universal Mu-
sic Group (UMG) executive vp market
development Adam Granite. “It gives
rise to some incredible entrepreneurs
who perhaps were forced to develop
their own respective businesses outside
of the majors. We want to get ahead of
that and not see that trend continue in
places like India or Thailand.”
In Europe, with its polyglot mix of
languages and proudly independent
nations, hip-hop artists — many from
independent labels — are already
dominating the charts in Germany,
France, Italy, Belgium, the Nether-
lands and even Nordic countries like
Finland and Norway.
“Streaming has broken a lot of the
bottlenecks that you had in the market
before,” says Spotify France director
of artist relations and labels Antoine
Monin. Those bottlenecks included the
need to be signed by a label, get radio
play and sell your record in stores.
But the majors still have a big part
to play. Leading the charge in Ger-
many is Vladislav Balovatsky, better
known as Capital Bra, who was the
most streamed artist in Germany in
2018 (over 1.4 billion streams) and the
first-ever act to score eight domes-
tic No. 1 singles in a calendar year
— all while on German indie labels
Team Kuku and Ersguterjunge. The
Ukrainian-Russian immigrant signed
with Universal Music Germany in Jan-
uary and released his latest album on
Oct. 4. It went straight to No. 1 and its
lead single broke domestic streaming
records. Other hip-hop acts flying high
in their home markets include Italy’s
Capo Plaza and Sfera Ebbasta, Dutch
rapper Boef (recently signed to Sony),
the duo Karpe in Norway, JVG in Fin-
land and Kontra K in Germany.
In France, which has had a robust
hip-hop scene since the 1990s,
Niska’s five-week run at No. 1 was
preceded by fellow rapper Nekfeu,
whose third album, les étoiles vaga-
bondes (also on Universal), held the
top spot for 11 consecutive weeks.
Driving the move toward their main-
stream adoption on their home turfs is
a streaming consumption model that
prioritizes local repertoire over global
acts, allowing local hip-hop acts to grab
multiple chart spots every time a new
album is released. That, in turn, forces
radio and TV stations to get behind
them, further growing their fan bases.
“The influence of streaming from
an album to the singles chart is
crazy- big at the moment,” says Dom-
inique Kulling, BMG’s executive vp
Continental Europe repertoire and
marketing. “It doesn’t necessarily
reflect the market.”
But there is no doubting the growing
dominance of hip-hop in key markets.
According to Spotify data, the genre’s
share of listening in Europe has grown
by an average of 20% every year for the
past five years. Local-language hip-hop
acts now account for almost half of all
hip-hop listening on Spotify in France,
Germany and the Netherlands, and
around 30% in the Nordics.
Local-language hip-hop is also
consistently in Spotify’s top 10 most-
engaged playlists in Europe, says
Sulinna Ong, Spotify’s head of music,
U.K. and Ireland. The trend is even
more pronounced at Deezer, where
the top 10 hip-hop artists in Germany
this year are all domestic. In France,
it’s nine out of 10. In Brazil, local acts
take eight out of the top 10 spots.
“Consumers relate to these artists,”
says Deezer head of global artist rela-
tions Junior Foster. “It isn’t about the
influx of American artists talking only
about an American perspective.”
It’s also no coincidence that many
of the scene’s biggest names come
from immigrant backgrounds largely
marginalized by mainstream cul-
ture. Deutschrap, as local-language
hip-hop is called in Germany, for
instance, is dominated by artists from
Muslim backgrounds, says Warner
Chappell Music Germany senior cre-
Rap Goes Global, On A Local Level
Some thought streaming would homogenize the music people hear around the globe.
Instead, it’s boosting hip-hop artists building careers in their own languages
BY RICHARD SMIRKE AND ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
TUNECORE AND CD BABY SIGNED PARTNERSHIPS WITH CHINA’S TENCENT MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT. MACIEJ WOĆ WAS NAMED MANAGING DIRECTOR OF SONY MUSIC POLAND AND EASTERN EUROPE.
From left: Boef (in black jacket), Summer Cem,
Capo Plaza, Madgi Omar Ytreeide Abdelmaguid
of Karpe, Capital Bra (in white shirt), Chirag
Rashmikant Patel of Karpe, Niska, Nekfeu (in
black cap) and Kontra K.
BOEF:^ COURTESY^OFWARNERMUSIC.^ S
UMMER,CAPITAL,KONTRA:IMAGO/ZUMA^PRESS.CAPO:DANIELEVENTURELLI/GETTYIMAGES.^ K
ARPE:^ MICHAELRAYANGELES.^ N
ISKA:^ DAVIDWOLFF- P
ATRICK/REDFERNS/GETTY^IMAGES.^ N
EKFEU:SIPA/NEWSCOM.^ M
IDORI:^ COURTESY^OFLUZ^ LANZOT/MIDORI&FRIENDS.ILLUSTRATION BY MAX-O-MATIC
THE MARKET GLOBAL REPORT
20 BILLBOARD • OCTOBER 19, 2019