The Sound Of The Underground

Call it the Tik Tok-fication of music: a new and young generation of performers who are eschewing elaborately produced bangers and music videos for a sound and image both raw and real with an unplugged edge no matter the genre. Nicholas See spotlights five up-andcoming names in the local scene to listen out for.

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Alternative trap - a fast-emerging, experimental take on the hip-hop subgenre - tends to be a male-dominated scene, but Tish Errda is putting her own boldly romantic take on it and winning critics over. Check out her first single, BEH CAMNE (yes, spelt all in caps), released two months ago. A hypnotic Malay number in which she croons about navigating a toxic relationship with her powerful honeyed vocals (the song title is a colloquial phrase often used to express a demand for answers), it brings to mind a female version of The Weeknd. Yet the 24-year-old marketing and business law student is quick to credit her counterparts - folks like Ahmadjohnson69, who produced her debut track, and the celebrated chanteuse Aisyah Aziz, whom she counts as a friend - for influencing her artistry. Says Tish: "It's important to have close collaborators in the community because it helps our industry to grow as a whole." This year, expect her to blossom with a series of new releases and tie-ups with artists from Singapore and the region.