Spotify has just released Episode 7 of the Spotify: For the Record podcast featuring six up-and-coming artists from Spotify’s RADAR program: J.I the Prince of N.Y, Lous and the Yakuza, Young T & Bugsey, merci, mercy and Rina Sawayama. The hosts also talk with Andy Sloan-Vincent, a member of Spotify’s International Music Team about building and sustaining the program.

INTERVIEW QUOTES
Andy Sloan-Vincent, International Music Team @ Spotify

• On the definition of “emerging artist”: “For us, we defined it as an artist that's moving into the next stage of their career… And the next stage for them is really recognizing what their artistic brand is. It's more that we can help provide support for artists you know, at any stage of their emerging careers.”

• On identifying local talent: “Each of the local markets is really empowered to look at what's going on locally and see you know, if there's cool new genres popping up. If there's an amazing new artist that everyone's talking about. If they've just seen someone at a local show and they're like, wow, they're incredible, I need to work with them.”

• On the range of artists in the RADAR program: “We have artists from a completely diverse spectrum of backgrounds, geographical location, musical styles, age, gender and everything in between. And so I think there's really something for everyone in the program.”

J.I the Prince of N.Y

• On that make-or-break moment: “This is almost a sold out show, 3500 people. I told myself, like, yo, this is gonna make or break me. I got booed off stage two years ago. I haven't performed in two years. This is gonna make or break me.”

• On his early love of writing: “I just always had, like, a real craving and love for writing. I would just go to my grandmother's house after school and I would just put words together. And then it got to the point where I got so obsessed with it I would do it in school, like in between periods.”

• On never giving up: “You lose once you give up I feel like. Life is a whole challenge… You never going to win if you give up and you stop trying.”

• On seeing his face on a billboard: “You gave me a billboard in my own city, like I flew in from Miami the next day just to see the billboard because it was just like, wow, like it's crazy seeing your face up there and your own city.”

Lous and the Yakuza

• On finding expression through writing: “As soon as I learned to write, I was writing like a fool, like 10 stories a day. I think it was maybe because I was feeling some kind of urge to express myself, express my feelings, because people were not very expressive around me because of war.”

• On keeping hope in dark times: “I never lost hope. And that me alive and kept me away from heavy drug dealing or prostitution and all the things you come across when you're in the street - you don't have money, you don't have anything. All you have is your body. Everyone in the streets suggests that you could maybe be a prostitute... I didn't understand how traumatizing that was in my life. Now I do, and I'm trying to process it five years later.”

• On the release of her debut album: “I waited for my whole life to deliver this piece of art. My music is very hard to describe - hip hop is predominant because of my flow, the way I carry myself, my background and my culture. But the next single “Amigo” is based on Latin and Spanish chords, and at the same time could be totally Congolese. It's a big mix of everything. It reflects my personality.”

Young T & Bugsey

• On the viral success of “Don’t Rush”: “It was crazy… We haven’t performed it since.” - Young T

• On making it onto President Obama’s Summer playlist: “We were literally just chillin’ in the studio. And then [President Obama] just posted it. No one on our team knew about it so I just saw it when everyone else was. I was like wow, big Barack, yeah? It was sick to be acknowledged on that kind of scale.” - Bugsey

• On bringing the rap scene to Nottingham: “And if I'm being honest, there wasn't a rap scene. I'll say like, when we started doing what we were doing in Nottingham, I will say we definitely birthed that.” - Bugsey

• On Afrobeat influences in their music: “When people say we've got, like, Afro-infused sound into our music, it’s ‘cause it’s literally just us in it, like, it’s just our heritage in it.” - Bugsey

• On the challenge of emerging artists: “In music, getting people to actually, genuinely support you, I feel like, is one of the hardest things.” - Bugsey

merci, mercy

• On that aha moment: “I showed my teacher, Miss Blazey my song and she was like, yeah, this is like this is a banger, like you're going to be a pop star. And I was like, oh, okay, I'll take that.”

• On communicating through song: “Before, I would deal with it myself and I didn't think much of it. Like, oh I'm just sad, like everybody gets sad. But then, when I wrote these songs and I showed my family, they were like, Mercedes, you're obviously not okay. We need to do something about it before it gets worse.”

• On the healing power of music: “I've definitely shed a lot of tears hearing that my song has helped someone get through something because that's what I wanted to achieve with my music...It's like, oh, yes, I have a purpose in life. I'm not just going to be a failure.”

Rina Sawayama

• On her debut record, “Sawayama”: “It's a whole crazy mishmash of pop and alternative pop and rock and RB and every single song has some sort of different genre going on. But the overall theme is me talking about my identity as a Japanese person growing up in the West and all the things that come with that.”

• On the virtues of age: “I think the sound of the record wouldn't have happened if this was my first album and I was much younger. So I do feel like artistically I'm a little bit more progressed than someone who is maybe starting out a bit younger. So maybe I have skipped ahead some, some stages.”

• On her earliest musical influences: “Avril Lavigne was the biggest. You know, when I was I guess I was 12, I used to wear a white vest and wear my school tie because that's where she was.”

• On standing out in 2020: “People care so much more about what your story is now. They didn't care before. They cared about how perfect you are onstage. But now -- that's not good enough. Like, you need to have a story.”