[Saturday Spotlight] Ashoka + Swavay

Welcome back to another edition of Saturday Spotlight. Each week we review submissions from all over the globe, picking the best out of the batch to highlight at the end of the week. If you’re an aspiring rapper, a producer wanting to create a buzz, or a singer looking to expose their talent, Saturday Spotlight is dedicated to discovering the next star. This week, we received over 50 submissions, below are the two picks!

Whether it’s your latest single or a new beat you made, all upcoming artists can submit music to us for Saturday Spotlight on this link.

Ashoka

Rockland County’s very own Ashoka is back with high-energy single ‘Splash Bros’. Though boasting talents of singing and songwriting, Ashoka’s latest single is jam-packed with bars delivered with the heated intensity of an artist hungry for acknowledgement as a rapper to fear and respect. ‘Splash Bros’ is the song to listen to while working out, or while planning world domination. Featuring on-trend caption worthy bars like ‘Ex-bitch cry me a river, okay!”, Ashoka uses the song to have his fun with braggadocious bars with chuckle-inducing punchlines.

The track features Phay, first generation Palestinian-American rapper from East Atlanta. Both artists find their flow on ‘Splash Bros’, thanks to their artistry and the talented production of Lucas Quinn.

Listen to ‘Splash Bros’ below.

Swavay

Hailing from Atlanta, Swavay, one of Def Jam’s most recent signees through Giant Music, has released his first single ‘JUGG’, complete with an official music video directed by Bobby Lee Palmer. Cosigned by the likes of multi-platinum artists like Metro Boomin and James Blake, with even a Grammy nomination already under his belt, SwaVay has marked himself as a rising artist with a blindingly bright future.

‘JUGG’ comes to the scene as an imprint of Swavay’s unique sound — sometimes trap, sometimes soulful, sometimes both. In this particular case, the artist’s single is a display of his writing prowess, describing his environment through a storytelling lens. The song’s hook is a prime example of this: “I’m in Atlanta sun beaming on my back/Ain’t talking drugs when I say my n– crack”. Every bar and frame of the track and its video are littered with motifs that feel personal to the artist’s background. Though the production, courtesy of 20 Rocket and WhatupKali, and bars are minimal by nature, SwaVay’s skill as an artist lies in communicating complex concepts in accessible ways.

After detailing with poetic ease an upbringing of violence, drugs, and struggle, SwaVay ends the tracks in this powerful manner: “And that’s just what it is/Ain’t no point in judging or discussing it/Came from nothing ain’t nothing to hustling/Came from nothing ain’t nothing but suffering/Promise I’m uppin it”. There is profound intelligence in the matter-of-fact manner in which SwaVay states the reality of who he is, where he comes from, and where he plans to grow from here. To honour his words, we won’t discuss it – we’ll just point out its brilliance.

Watch the music video for JUGG below.

– by Nadine & Navjosh

Through our artist discovery platform Saturday Spotlight, we have discovered some amazing talent in the past including Russ, Ty Dolla Sign, Mez, IDK, Victoria Monét and Trap Beckham to name just a few. In most cases, coverage on HHNM was their first look among media outlets. Find the submission guidelines here.