by Korede Kaneto Akinsete

In mid-2020, when many of us had turned to virtually sharing our newfound interests— baking and perfecting TikTok dances —Brazy and YTboutthataction were busy cooking up the sounds that would launch them into a new dynamic class of Nigerian women artists.

“A lot of my friends can sing and produce, so we would always link up to freestyle to beats,” recounts Brazy via Zoom from Londonl. While YTboutthataction’s epiphany arrived during the depths of the pandemic, she didn’t record a proper song until 2021. ”I hadn’t even dropped yet and the day before, people were dm’ing me and asking me to be on their radio show,” laughs YTboutthataction.

Today, a quick search for Brazy's "Attends" (pronounced in French) and Ytboutthataction's "Cool Story Bro" on TikTok will present you with thousands of colourful videos from eager fans around the world mouthing along to the lyrics. The two young artists borrow from the playbook of internet virality authored by Soulja Boy (the self-proclaimed first rapper on YouTube) who burst onto the scene in 2007 with what most label execs would now describe as “internet gold” — an easy enough online dance craze and a call-and-response hook that name-dropped a superhero. 

“Internet music” has historically been received as comedic or overlooked with snarky condescension. When the Soundcloud wave hit and led to the proliferation of subgenres and movements including Alté, there was still a widely held assumption that this music could not hold up outside – in clubs, at the salon or on the radio. But in a few years, the global music industry has been forced to reckon with artists who have primarily found success on social media apps. Former Buzzfeed journalist Ryan Broderick aptly described this dynamic saying, “The pandemic finally forced people to stop acting like the 90s were only 10 years ago and now we live in a world where the internet is, arguably, the prime layer of reality and the physical world is a byproduct of what we post online.” Today, punchlines immortalised as Instagram captions serve as the hallmark of a “fire verse”, making it increasingly difficult for even the most critically acclaimed artists to ignore social media. While this shift may rattle the old guard, the prominence of social media has opened up the music business to a swath of artists that may otherwise have gone unnoticed. 

For young African women, who have historically struggled to receive the same opportunities as men in the industry, this is a welcome change. Women artists can now exist beyond societal expectations, bypassing industry standards to directly connect with consumers across the world. “I have people in China that can relate to me, people in Nigeria that can relate to me, people in Paris that can relate to me…I’m looking at something bigger than what people see a female African artist doing,” says Brazy with beaming eyes. "That’s why I wouldn’t describe my music as Alté or Afrobeats. My music is literally just dance music, club music, it’s techno, it doesn’t have a country attached to it.”

There is a science to achieving the coveted internet music success, and authenticity sits atop the formula. Recognizing this, both YT and Brazy sell more than music to their followers. They routinely engage them in their artistic journeys.  For example, YT( which stands for “Yung Tuts”) crowdsourced her stage name through a social media poll. “People don’t even know what they like. It’s about creating an experience that people feel they need to be a part of,” she says. While neither YT nor Brazy admits to a deliberate strategy, they both navigate marketing with the type of skill and creativity taught in classrooms — a distinct reflection of a generation that grew up on the internet. “From clothes to hair, my plan is to put myself out there more so that I can create a blueprint for how to tap into the Brazy aesthetic,” Brazy states while slipping into PR speak. 

The path to authenticity isn’t always as straightforward as “being yourself”, particularly for young Nigerian women striving to express their truth. However, the internet can serve as a shield when navigating topics women rarely have the liberty to discuss freely like sexuality and mental health. YTboutthataction's alias freed her from cultural expectations as she explores Plugg music, a subgenre of Trap reminiscent of the moodiness of Soundcloud-era music creators like Playboi Carti and Zaytoven. “There’s so much that comes with growing up as a Nigerian girl. So much projection, so much expectation, so much pressure,” the recent master’s degree graduate divulges. “It is a beautiful thing to have culture but sometimes cultural expectations and traditions are outdated. You just expressing yourself is an act of rebellion to them and like, I’m just existing.

Engaging with the harsher side of the internet becomes inevitable when one lives a significant portion of life online. YT, who jokingly confesses to truly being about that action, put her moniker to the test after the release of  “Cool Story Bro”. The TikTok favourite, which flips a Yoruba nursery rhyme, wasn’t always received so positively. Following the last-minute release of the visuals for the single, she quickly became prey for Twitter and Nigerian gossip blogs. “It first started off with people dragging me,” says Ytboutthataction, who credits the Twitter hate for drawing people to her TikTok. “They just knew that they had never heard anything like it so they decided to hate.”

In recent days, few topics ignite the flames of social media mobs as fiercely as appropriation and elitism. I ask Brazy if she’s worried or prepared for her musical experimentation with French and Mandarin to be seen as such. “I’ve had people comment on my videos being like, ‘Why is she speaking Mandarin if she’s Nigerian? Why is she making songs in a language we don’t understand?’ And like, it doesn’t matter to me because I don’t care about lyrics. I don’t make my music for you to understand my lyrics. I make my music for you to feel it,” she states. After a brief pause, she engages further, emphasising her respect for language and interest in learning about other cultures. “I actually do speak Mandarin. Whenever I make a song and I put Mandarin in it, I always go to my friends from China and ask their opinion.”

As with their predecessors, today’s internet stars are criticised for a lack of substance in their music. YT admits to “Cool Story Bro” being the song off her Love & Vex EP that took her the least amount of effort. She, however, quickly reminded me that it had the most commercial value.“ There’s a myth that you have to pack music with conscious lyrics,” she explains. “Making music is a skill in itself. There is no formula.” Although their creative expressions may not align with conventional notions of substance, their broad understanding of the global musical landscape sets them apart. YT cites 70’s pioneers, The Funkadelics, as a source of inspiration and Brazy references Sasha P, Da Grin and Mary J. Blige as some of her favourites. 

Increasingly, there is no way to be a successful mainstream recording artist without following the “internet rapper” playbook. Looking to the future, it is easy to imagine a world where some artists solely exist in the digital realm. Such a distinction between physical and digital worlds aligns with the ethos of this new wave of multidimensional creatives, who are constantly itching to explore other interests and facets of themselves. “I hate being outside so just being on the internet is perfect for me. I can post and continue to live my life in my solitude and in my peace.” says YT. “I’ll take being an ‘internet rapper’ any day over being ‘outside in the field’.”