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Filipinos have been listening to a lot of Pinoy hip-hop these last few years, Spotify noticed
While K-pop has been dominating global music headlines and airwaves, Pinoy hip-hop has quietly been capturing Filipinos' attention steadily over the past several years.
According to Spotify, streams of Pinoy hip-hop have grown nearly three times since 2018. What more, Pinoy hip-hop artists like Matthaios, PDL, and Skusta Clee have not only been breaking into Spotify's Philippine Top 50, they've also been hitting the number one spot of the aforementioned chart.
In this year alone, Kalye Hip-Hop — Spotify's flagship Pinoy hip-hop playlist — has seen more than 50% increase in streams alone. "It's become the most streamed playlist in the Philippines on a weekly basis," Kossy Ng, Spotify's Head of of Music in Southeast Asia told GMA News Online in an exclusive video call last week.
Data says that Pinoy hip-hop is most popular among the 18-34 age range, and only slightly learning toward male listeners.
Interestingly enough, Filipinos are on-point with the rest of the world, as Spotify data shows hip-hop is on the rise in the global scale, with more markets embracing their own, just like the Philippines.
"Thai hip-hop has also been huge for the last two years. Hip-hop in Malaysia has been around for a long time. Vietnam, Korea — they all have a very, very good mix," Kossy shares.
Kossy adds, hip-hop these days has "a diverse sound. While you do get some electronic beats, there are also more aggressive sounding ones, and then you can also get [nuggets of] melodic [tunes], so it's really nice to discover the world of hip-hop in the regional space."
Given the data, Spotify is pushing local hip-hop to the front with four new playlists dedicated to the genre.
There is Kalye Hip-hop, the flagship Pinoy hip-hop playlist, where exclusive content from local artists will be launched.
Bago Sa Rap contains the latest and newest local hip-hop tracks.
Dugong Hip-Hop is essential Pinoy hip-hop listening and finally, Pinas Vibes highlights Pinoy R&B, which is a close relative to hip-hop and also showing promise on the charts.
As though that's not enough, the streaming giant released a video dedicated to Pinoy hip-hop on the Spotify Asia Instagram page, where videos from the likes of Matthaios, Karencitta, Peaceful Gemini, and more will be released on the coming days.
— LA, GMA News
