GOLDEN STATE GROOVES PT. 2
BY BRENESSA ROACH | SEPTEMBER 7, 2024
Welcome back to our series “Golden State Grooves” where we will highlight and share all the amazing and emerging artists that are from and based in California. If you haven’t read the first article, read it here. In this article, we will share six more artists in California that we love and think deserve more listeners.
Current Monthly Listeners: 195.3K
niko rain is a singer-songwriter from the Bay Area in California. He made his debut on February 12th, 2021 with the single “blame” which was in collaboration with Aleebi. His solo debut was on July 21st, 2021 with the single “never be the same!”. Following his debut, he collaborated with Harry Sins for the song “c u tmr” in October. He then released “long distance” on November 17th and ended the year on December 8th with “hallows”.
On March 16th, 2022, niki collaborated with his best friend EJEAN for the single “find you”. In 2022, he also released “yuna (i’ll see you again)” in July and “leave your side!” in October. On January 6th, 2023, he collaborated with EJEAN again for the single “Home”. This was the first song of niko and EJEAN’s that we listened to. This song is also niko’s second most popular song with 950K streams on Spotify. 2023 was niko’s first super active year, releasing many singles and collaborations.
His first single of 2024 was with jøno on January 12th for “Hopeless”. In April, he collaborated with EJEAN again for the single “Stay A While” which is now his most popular song with over 1.7 million streams on Spotify. niko’s latest single “Runaway” is from August 2nd.
We have been following niko for over a year now and we cannot wait to hear what other songs he will release in the future.
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Current Monthly Listeners: 151.1K
Aleebi is a Korean-American artist based in the Bay Area. He made his debut on August 21st, 2017 with the single “Nandemonaiya”. Following his debut, he released “Paralyzed” on November 26th, 2019. During 2020, he started to release a lot more music. On May 13th, 2020, he released the single “caffeine and dopamine, Pt. 2” – which is a collaboration with keepitinside.
Aleebi has a large discography and each single has a different sound and shows his musical growth. We first heard about Aleebi around December 2022 after the song “Party Tonight” with Lydia Ganada which came out in July 2022 started gaining attention. This is now his most popular song with almost 10 million streams on Spotify. In late 2022, Aleebi was affiliated with the former collective EXPOSITION. He collaborated with other EXPOSITION artists juhye, melatonin boy, siopaolo and Nomichit for the single “flyaway” which now has over 1.8 million streams on Spotify.
On January 13th, 2023, Aleebi collaborated with J Ho and JNYBeatz for the single “Tryna Figure Out”. Following that single, he collaborated with SeoulFly on January 27th for the song “LONELY” – which is in our top songs from Aleebi’s discography.
On March 25th, 2023, Aleebi opened for GEMINI’s Still Blue North American Tour in San Francisco. Throughout 2023, Aleebi was super active and did a lot of collaborations with artists such as; nickwuh and nothenri for the single “summer”, JNYBeatz and AidEn for “medication”, hyejin and kasper for the single “I’VE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE Pt. 2” and more. His most popular release of 2023 was on May 19th for the single “LIPSTICK” which was in collaboration with Chinese-Canadian artist Koven Wei.
Aleebi started 2024 off with the release of “SEASONS” which was in collaboration with Howl. Following that single, he released “MOON” with Keydom in March and “DETOX” with nickwuh in April. In June he released “KAGEBUNSHIN” and “4NSWER” with Philip Yu. He also released the single “FLICKER CROSS HOPE” with audiodiary and recycleBin on August 21st. His latest single “GVRDEN” came out earlier this week on September 4th and it’s such a great song.
We have really been liking this sort of new sound and era for Aleebi this year and cannot wait to hear what else he will release.
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Current Monthly Listeners: 54.6K
Jessica Domingo is a Filipina-American singer and songwriter born in Seattle and currently based in Los Angeles. She debuted on September 16th, 2016 with her debut EP *Moonplay.* In April 2018, she released the single “Honey Skies” which garnered over 1 million streams on Spotify. This was a pre-release track for her debut album Floral Mind which came out on July 6th, 2018.
Jessica has stayed active in the industry since her debut and released a few singles throughout 2018-2020. Her second album Butterfly Paradise came out on October 8th, 2021. This album includes her most popular songs; “Island – Acoustic” which has over 1.9 million streams and “Gravitate” which has over 1.8 million.
On February 24th, 2023, Jessica Domingo released the single “Could’ve Been U” which was in collaboration with pastels. This was the first song of hers that we listened to back in 2023. In November 2023, Jessica Domingo was the opening act for Jimmy Brown and Rovv’s “Like This” North American tour stop in LA.
She started 2024 off with a collaboration with ZUHAIR for the single “there for me”. Following that single, she released “Baby I’ve Been” on July 16th, 2024. This is our favourite song from her discography. Her latest single “Crush” is in collaboration with pastels and dropped on August 9th.
It has been so exciting to see Jessica Domingo’s growth and we cannot wait to see what the future holds for her.
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Current Monthly Listeners: 37
Jonathan Um, also known previously as Jonum and now performing under the artist name UM?, is a multi-instrumental singer-songwriter and producer originally from Texas and currently based in LA.
UM? made his debut on July 22nd, 2024 with the Alternative/Indie pop track “behaviors” which is a coming-of-age anthem that resonates with those navigating their own paths. UM? is set to release his second single in September and has plans of releasing a few more projects for the rest of the year.
We are so excited to be part of UM?’s debut and see his growth.
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Check out our “GOLDEN STATE GROOVES” playlist on Spotify:
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