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Understated Texan singer/rapper and songwriter Kaash Paige broke through as a teenager with the yearning ballad "Love Songs" (2019), a viral hit that reached Billboard's Hot R&B Songs chart a week before the release of the Parked Car Convos EP. Her debut album, Teenage Fever, arrived the following year. In 2022, Paige issued singles such as "Girlfriend" and "Doubted Me."

Raised in Grand Prairie and based in nearby Dallas, Paige (D'kyla Paige Woolen) grew up into sports more than music, but started writing and recording in high school, uploading tracks to SoundCloud. By early 2019, she had attracted attention from several labels, and eventually landed a recording contract with Def Jam. Her first song supported by the major label, "Love Songs," took off with TikTok users and entered Billboard's Hot R&B Songs chart that November. Within a week of that, Paige released Parked Car Convos, a seven-track EP with "Love Songs" as a bonus cut. A remix featuring 6lack was out by the end of January 2020, around the time the EP registered on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. Deeper into the year, she continued to release loose tracks such as "Frank Ocean" and "Jaded," and signed a management deal with Roc Nation. Her debut long-player, Teenage Fever, appeared in 2020 and reached number two on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Paige kicked off 2022 with the release of the single "Girlfriend." This was followed by "24 Hrs" (featuring Lil Tjay) and "Doubted Me." ~ Andy Kellman

Bronx-bred rapper Lil Tjay is one of the most prominent faces of the New York drill scene, with a pair of high-charting albums and several platinum-certified singles to his name. After building an audience in the late 2010s with a pair of well-received EPs, he integrated R&B elements into his style, and became a mainstay on the Billboard charts with albums like 2021's Destined 2 Win. Additional singles like "Beat the Odds" and "Give You What You Want" led up to the release of his third full-length, 2023's 222. He followed with additional tracks like 2024's "Told Ya" and "Legacy."

While in prison on robbery charges, Tjay (born Tione Jayden Merritt) found the motivation to get through his sentence by writing lyrics. Upon his release in 2016, Tjay, still just a teenager, began recording his songs and posting them online. Almost overnight, several tracks took off and were streamed in the millions, gaining the rapper massive attention for his often-downcast songs that combined vocal hooks and rhymes about hardship written while he was in jail. "Resume" was his first completely solo song, and it quickly went viral, ultimately being streamed over 14 million times in a little over a year. He followed with multiple one-off tracks over the course of 2018, with many of them selling/streaming by the millions.

Self-released tracks like "Brothers," "Goat," and "Leaked" all gained serious traction and quickly drew the attention of major labels hoping to sign the rapper. Tjay inked a deal with Columbia, which released the five-song EP No Comparison at the tail-end of 2018. A second EP, F.N, arrived in August 2019 and included the singles "Ruthless" featuring Jay Critch and "Laneswitch." His first to chart on the Billboard 200, the short set was quickly followed a few months later by Tjay's official studio debut, True 2 Myself. Certified gold and peaking in the Top Five on the main album chart, True included his hit singles as well as the previously unreleased "Hold On."

In May 2020, riding the success of his debut LP, Tjay issued his third EP, State of Emergency. A Top 40 hit, the short-player featured "Zoo York" with Fivio Foreign and the late Pop Smoke. Later that year, he delivered the R&B-leaning single "None of Your Love." In 2021, he released the single "Calling My Phone," a slow-burning melodic trap song made in collaboration with 6LACK; it became Lil Tjay's highest-charting track up to that point, debuting at the number three spot on the Billboard charts. Second studio full-length Destined 2 Win followed shortly thereafter, expanding his drill beginnings to explore various approaches to songwriting. The album featured contributions from Polo G, Offset, Saweetie, and others and debuted at number five on the Top 100 albums chart.

Later that year, Tjay teamed up fellow New York rappers Fivio Foreign and Kay Flock on the single "Not in the Mood." The Top 40 hit "In My Head" appeared in 2022, followed by "Goin Up" and "Beat the Odds." "Give You What You Want" rounded out the year. In 2023, Tjay was featured on several singles, including Rich the Kid's "Do You Love Me?" and Sleepy Hallow's "Pain Talk." "June 22," detailing the harrowing events of a shooting which left him unconscious, was released a year after the shooting took place. The song preceded the release of his third album, 222, which charted at number 24 on the Billboard 200. "I Should've Known" (featuring Kyle Richh) followed, and "Told Ya" was Tjay's first single of 2024. Other tracks appearing during the year included "No No," "Took a While (Be Us)," and "Legacy." ~ Fred Thomas