TikTok Treats, Week Of July 27th

A Weekly Roundup Of Interesting Music Stories From the World of TikTok; This Week, a Look at How Emerging Artists Use Their TikTok Accounts to Raise Their Profiles and Engage With Fans

• Emerging rapper ppcocaine has been making her presence felt on the app. Last week, she posted dozens of TikToks in a matter of days, earned more than 67 million video views, and crossed the 1 million follower mark. Her profile is diaristic and undeniably authentic, whether she's dancing to '00s throwback jams, introducing the world to her friends, or bragging about her success. ppcocaine's recent success is fueled by a snippet of her song "PJ," which went viral on the app and generated over 465k video creations. Even more impressively, the song remains unreleased on streaming services--the artist recently posted a video asking fans to use TikTok's duet feature if they're looking forward to its official release. ppcocaine is making the most of her moment, as her song "DDLG" reached the top of Spotify's Viral 50 chart and her new song "Catching Feelings" racked up 57k streams in its first four days of release.
   
• A professional producer and master of mashups, Carneyval is taking TikTok by storm. The L.A.-based artist has over 1 million followers, who look to him for innovative mashups of today's hottest songs. Rather than just mash two songs together, as the name mashup implies, Carneyval's mixes put songs in dialogue with each other, creating duets that cross genres (Twenty One Pilots x Wiz Khalifa x Panic! At The Disco x Travis Scott) and eras (Jack Harlow x Jay Z x Kanye West x DaBaby). He enjoys mixing together recent TikTok hits (like Don Toliver's "No Idea" and StaySolidRocky's "Party Girl"), combining two different songs by the same artists (in this case, Rod Wave), and making bangers that don't make any sense at all (Swae Lee singing atop the "Theme From Friends").
   
• An offbeat rapper/producer from Southern California, Sueco The Child was one of the first artists to fully embrace the power of TikTok as a marketing tool. He built a massive following on the app just by being himself--telling outrageous stories in his deadpan voice, making beats for his songs out of unusual objects and sounds (like the clinking of his friend Smokepurpp's jewelry), and showing off his oddball sense of humor. Sueco’s career started to take off when he uploaded a comedic video set to his single “Fast” in April 2019, getting the attention of TikTok user @legitlukas, who made a video broadcasting the song to his 363k followers. “Fast” eventually earned a remix featuring Offset and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, inspired over 3 million TikTok video creations to date, and earned a Gold certification from the RIAA. 
   
• Shuba first earned fame as a contestant on Season 12 of American Idol, but she's been raising her profile by indulging her creative side on TikTok, building a following of more than 1 million. In addition to her golden pipes, Shuba is an expert impressionist, echoing stars like Carrie Underwood, Joe Jonas, and Amy Winehouse, a surprisingly sharp emcee, and sometimes, she's both. When she's not indulging in the latest TikTok trends, the singer takes time to promote her new music. Shuba's TikTok engagement is already starting to pay off--her new song "Gimme Gimme" is picking up momentum on streaming services.
   
• Singer-songwriter Ephraim Bugumba has always been shy about his upbringing. Inspired by his wife, he took to TikTok earlier this month to tell his life story--he is a refugee from the Congo, fleeing his country at 3 years old and settling in the U.S. at the age of 16. Soundtracked by his ethereal single “Stormz,” his video racked up over 1.5 million video views and convinced fans to check his music out. In an emotional thank you video that was released this week, Ephraim revealed that his TikTok led to massive increases in consumption of his music: he gained 5k followers on Spotify, and his single “Stormz” climbed from under 1000 to 70k streams in less than two weeks.
   
• Rising rock band Kid Sistr can't perform live during the pandemic, but that hasn't stopped them from becoming TikTok's favorite backyard band. The trio is known for their covers of songs like Blink 182's "All The Small Things" or Curtis Walters' TikTok hit "Stunnin" with powerhouse performances and creative visuals. But they're just as likely to goof around, taking part in the latest TikTok trends, promoting their own music with funny memes, or creating a viral moment (1 million VV) with a recreation of the Battle of the Bands scene from Freaky Friday. The group recently released their self-titled debut EP (and promoted it on TikTok, of course)