Music That Has Shaken the World in June

What exactly happened in June?

In this month’s edition I write about the coolest new releases, including multi-genre artists, rising stars that are growing and the power of staying true to yourself as an artist (but also as a human being).

Song of the Month

Born in Nigeria and raised in South London, FLOHIO has proved to be one of the best rappers with unmatched raw, infectious and authentic sound and she is back with another hip-hop banger 'Juice', ahead of her highly anticipated new album .

With Juice, FLOHIO continues to push the boundaries of contemporary rap. Blending elements of grime, house and high-energy rap the song is a summer hip-hop banger and a big night clubs dance floors contender.

Interestingly enough, the artist explained recently to Clash that the song happened almost spontaneously in her studio in Bermondsey, first having the melody in her head. “I was feeling nice and in a really good mood that day, this was one of my first sessions with Oscar who produced the track so we were just testing the waters and came out with it.’’ And we can totally feel the good mood!

Favourites

If you have not heard of Peso Pluma yet, you certainly might’ve heard his song BELLAKEO with Anitta or QLONA with KAROL G playing on the radios or at a party somewhere. Perhaps you even saw him on TikTok in the several memes in which fans tried to copy and make fun about the way he was dancing with Anitta when they performed the song live for the first time at the TikTok music festival in Arizona, United States.

But we are way past that and there are more recent performances of this song in which he showed a lot of chemistry with Anitta.

Known for having regional Mexican sound as an influence, Peso has gained a lot of attention last year, reaching several charts and taking traditional Mexican music to unprecedented commercial levels and stages, including the main stage of Coachella in 2024.

Peso Pluma, however, is a multi-genre artist and his new album ÉXODOS continues to prove that. On the project, he keeps experimenting with hip-hop and reggaeton while also continuing to lead a new wave of corridos artists both in Mexico and the US, with the intention to keep revolutionising Mexican music and taking Mexican culture to a global level.

This is important to him because, as he mentioned in his latest interview to SPIN magazine he wants to make corridos more widely accepted as hip-hop is nowadays.

For a more in depth read about his career and the new album I highly recommend the article on NPR written by Susy Exposito.

Concerts to Watch

Anitta stays true to herself in Baile Funk Experience

Speaking of Anitta, the global superstar that has been the topic of my Music That Has Shaken The World Lately a couple of times is on tour to promote and celebrate her new album Funk Generation, what she calls her dream album: an entire Brazilian funk album, showing her roots and that took years in the making trying to convince labels. The album takes the genre to even more global levels and I had the chance to catch the show and even chat with her for a bit.

Said in our conversation, as well as in several interviews, for the Baile Funk Experience international tour, Anitta swapped the arenas, big stages and fancy dressing rooms for smaller venues as an intentional choice to bring the experience of a proper Brazilian Funk party to the world. She also explains that in this tour she is truly living in the present, not so worried about results and achievements, but rather exchanging energy with the crowd.

For this tour, Anitta really wants the Brazilian fans, but especially the international fans to have an authentic experience of Brazilian culture, energy and warmth, which is noticeable in every detail: from the opening of her show (no spoilers here!), to the very end it feels like you are teleported directly to Rio. And what a wonderful thing it is!

If you have the chance to catch her tour, do yourself a favour and go to this party. 

Spotlight: Keep an Eye on Jalen Ngonda

One of the most captivating performers of today’s soul scene, Jalen released his stunning debut album Come Around and Love Me last year.

I have been following his career since 2016 and it is beautiful to see that he is having the recognition he deserves.

Over the last year Jalen has gained over 1.3m new listeners on Spotify and his single If You Don’t Want My Love continues to appear everywhere on TikTok this year, including this month, with almost 28.000.000 plays on Spotify.

You can hear this one and much more here: