cousin.world is a regular newsletter on global music.

Each week, I’ll update one of the following playlists with 10 ascendant tracks from global markets and provide analysis to explain how they’re breaking:

• run ⇡ — club tracks from euro & UK dancefloors

• cherry soda ⚭ — breaking k/c/p-pop, city pop and indie

• the grid ✚ — sounds of urbano, reggaeton, funk

• magnitude △ — afrobeat, dancehall and amapiano rising

Today, the grid ✚ contains two tracks performed at last week’s VMAs, one from the biggest independent label in Brazil, the latest release from BZRP Music Sessions and notes on the power of intra-regional collaborations.

This playlist serves to highlight releases from Latin markets with a particular focus on funk and reggaeton. Next week, magnitude △ looks into the latest blockbuster releases from markets across Africa and the Caribbean, with a focus on dancehall, afrobeat and amapiano.

I’m making this resource to hopefully demystify how songs are getting big internationally and inspire any artists, labels or teams looking overseas for their next collaboration or new connection. Feel free to forward this to anyone who might be interested.

If you have any thoughts on today’s mailer, please shoot me a reply 💌

the grid ✚

1. ‘Tá OK’ (Remix) — DENNIS, MC Kevin o Chris, Maluma, Karol G (Brazil/Colombia)

Speaking on the popular Brazilian culture podcast Podpah last month, Anitta decried the lack of playlist infrastructure for the genre of which she is a figurehead: funk.

In the clip, she asks: “if this song is hip hop, let’s put it in the hip hop category, if this song is reggaeton, let’s put it in the reggaeton category. My music is funk; are there playlists for funk in English or Spanish, outside of Brazil? Where does my music go? It’s a new type.”

It’s an interesting point. One that is surely soon to be addressed as the genre continues to export across the globe. Just last week, we saw two separate funk performances at the VMAs: Anitta, with the track ‘Funk Rave’ for which she took home the Best Latin award, and Karol G, a reggaeton star from Colombia performing her and Maluma’s remix of mega-viral Brazilian funk hit ‘Tá OK’.

The existence of this collaboration goes some way to addressing Anitta’s point. If the existing playlist infrastructure can’t support funk’s international development, perhaps hacking reggaeton’s extensive network can carry these tracks forward, in turn making the case to gatekeepers at these services that there is a demand for dedicated real estate. The ‘Tá OK’ remix is still holding a high position in key, mostly-reggaeton, Spotify playlists Verano Forever and Hits Urbanos. Meanwhile the original was carried up the charts predominantly by third-party playlists and social media.

The original mix of ‘Tá OK’ by DENNIS and MC Kevin o Chris held the #1 Daily and Weekly chart positions on Spotify, Apple and Deezer back in June in both Brazil and Portugal. Combining the current streaming numbers with the official video gets you to around a quarter of a billion.

2. ‘LADY GAGA’ — Peso Pluma (Mexico)

Speaking of the VMAs, this track by Mexican artist Peso Pluma was also performed live during the awards last week. It’s called ‘LADY GAGA’.

Earlier this year, Peso Pluma released two important tracks: one of his own called ‘Ella Baila Sola’ (which peaked at #1 on the Billboard Global 200) and one for the hugely popular session series BZRP Music (more on that later). The combined strength of these releases shot him to global prominence, pushing the Regional Mexican — an umbrella term given to a collection of popular traditional genres — style to even greater heights. I would encourage you to check out this great Pitchfork primer on Regional Mexican music by Isabelia Herrera.

Today, Peso Pluma is one of the top 50 most-streamed artists on Spotify with over 50 million monthly listeners, roughly half coming from Mexico and the rest concentrated in the US, Spain and across Latin America. Last week, TIME Magazine included Peso Pluma in their 100 Next list.

The almost overnight success of this artist is a testament to Mexico’s agenda-setting presence in today’s music industry. Per Music Ally’s Country Profile from 2022, Regional Mexican music saw “a 450% increase in listening globally over the last five years on Spotify, with more than 39bn streams globally in 2021”. Instrumental in exporting the genre to global audiences is George Prajin, owner of Prajin Music Group which Peso Pluma releases under. While the independent label currently partners with The Orchard, there was some speculation earlier this year from Music Business Worldwide that the label might be one of the Latin labels HYBE have their eye on.

3. ‘Banco do Carona’ — Don Juan, Marks, Joaozinho VT, Kako, Robs, Gabb & Vine 7 (Brazil)

Usage of the streaming service Deezer is mainly concentrated in two markets: France and Brazil. To serve the latter, Deezer created a strong funk playlist ecosystem, curated by the specialist editor Eduardo Ribas. One of the most-followed playlists on the platform Funkadão has 1.7 million followers and this track is currently on the cover.

‘Banco do Carona’, an eight minute collaboration between eight artists — Don Juan, Marks, Joaozinho VT, Robs, Kako, Gabb and Vine 7 (produced by DJ Boy) — was released back in April on the Brazilian indie label GR6.

GR6 is a masterclass in audience development for indie record labels. This track premiered on their GR6 Explode YouTube channel where they boast nearing 40 million subscribers, 25 billion views and a constant hum of conversation surrounding their releases. It’s one of 20 channels the label operates along with a meme-heavy Instagram account with 1.4 million followers.

The label has been releasing hugely successful tracks from some of the biggest names in funk since its earliest uploads eight years ago. In 2020, they signed a global distribution deal with Ingrooves which you can read about here.

4. ‘X ESO BB’ — Jere Klein & Nicki Nicole (Chile/Argentina)

This is at the time of writing the most-streamed track in Chile: ‘X ESO BB’ by Chilean rapper Jere Klein and Argentine singer Nicki Nicole.

This intra-regional collaboration was released last month and topped the daily and weekly streaming charts in Chile not long after. These artists are independently massive; Jere Klein has over 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and over 1 million followers on Instagram. Nicki Nicole dwarfs those numbers with 5 million followers on Spotify and approaching 17 million on Instagram.

Since each country has its own parallel playlists, the track can benefit from both. Éxitos Argentina has 3.2m followers, Éxitos Chile has 1.8m. It’s also received support from some of the biggest regional playlists like the massive MANSIÓN REGGAETÓN (6.6m) and Hits Urbanos (2m).

The track is out on Dale Play Records, a label beloved by Argentine trap artists that is supported by Sony Music Latin. If you’re a Billboard subscriber, you can learn more about the label and its founder Federico Lauría here.

5. ‘Rauw Alejandro: BZRP Music Sessions, Vol. 56’ (Puerto Rico/Argentina)

I couldn’t start this series of the newsletter without writing admiringly about BZRP Music.

The now famous series started out as a hobby for Argentine rapper Bizarrap and producer Kodigo in 2018. Now on its 56th release, BZRP Music Sessions has played host to representatives from various regional genres — Dominican dembow, reggaeton, Latin trap — as well as collaborations with massive global superstars like Nicky Jam and Shakira.

A key release for the series was vol. 52 with Quevedo. That track stands at over half a billion views on YouTube and nearing 1.5m on Spotify. In August of 2022, it held the #1 position on the Billboard Global 200 for many weeks, hitting the #1 on the Hot 100 in their domestic market Argentina. Since then, Bizarrap’s collaboration with Shakira has broken various records including most streamed Latin track on Spotify in 24 hours and fastest Latin track to reach 100 million views on YouTube.

The latest release in BZRP Music is with Puerto Rican reggaeton star Rauw Alejandro. Pitchfork gave a great background to the series here while picking out five of their favourite sessions. The full list of sessions can be found here.

+ Five More…

6. ‘DONDE SE APRENDE A QUERER?’ — Mora (Puerto Rico)

Rimas is a major Latin label responsible for superstar reggaeton artist Bad Bunny. Following a similar trajectory is his label-mate Mora. His new single came out last week.

7. ‘FERXXO 151’ — Feid, ICON (Colombia)

One of the biggest artists in reggaeton today, Latin Grammy-nominated Feid, has a new song out with a group called ICON. Feid was interviewed for Variety earlier this year.

8. ‘Odio’ — Conexión Divina (Mexico)

The Latin Grammy nominations were announced yesterday and Conexión Divina, a group representing queer women in Regional Mexican Music, are up for Best New Artist. Learn more about them via this profile in Remezcla by Nayeli Portillo.

9. ‘Soy El Único’ — Judeline (Spain)

One of the most exciting new-ish artists to come out of Madrid recently is Judeline, who released this two-pack for Spotify Singles last month. Check out this profile on her by Alba Fabregat for the Spanish culture magazine METAL.

10. ‘Tempo’ — Van Zee (Portugal)

The most-streamed track in Portugal lately is from Madeira-born Van Zee. Releasing via Virgin Music Portugal, Van Zee is one of three Portuguese artists in the top 10 of the Spotify Top 50.

The Playlists