\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tLast year, Ayetian solidified himself as one of Jamaica\u2019s most promising rising dancehall stars with a trio of smashes, including \u201cTip,\u201d \u201cBalance\u201d and \u201cWah Yo Deh Pan,\u201d helping him earn 22.9 million official on-demand U.S. streams in 2025, according to Luminate.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t2026 Caribbean Music Awards Nominees: Lady Lava, Machel Montano, Ayetian &\u00a0More\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tCaribbean Up-And-Comer of the Month: Lu City Is Shaking Up the Worlds of Pop & Hip-Hop With a Saint Lucian\u00a0Twist\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tCaribbean Up-And-Comer of the Month: Lady Lava Chose Her Career Over Being a Housewife \u2014 And Inspired Women Across the Diaspora in the\u00a0Process\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tNow, the Montego Bay-hailing artist, 21, is doubling down with a whopping seven nominations at the 2026 Caribbean Music Awards, as well as his recently released, star-studded mixtape: JamPack<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s all about keeping consistency,\u201d he tells Billboard<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tBorn Malik Legend Tercien, Ayetian grew up in a Haitian household soundtracked by konpa and reggae, eventually finding his primary influence in Tommy Lee Sparta, a 2010s-defining dancehall star who also hails from Montego Bay. He even names \u201cCaptain Sparta\u201d as the first song to get stuck in his head. A true child of the social media era, Ayetian earned his first viral moment at just 14 years old.<\/p>\n \n\tWhile in grade nine at Jamaica\u2019s Cornwall College, Ayetian would frequently write poetry inspired by his daily life and freestyle his own songs under the early alias, Lyrical. A friend shared a video of one of those freestyles on TikTok, and within two weeks, Ayetian started gaining serious traction across Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. \u201cEven by the next day, we saw it getting a lot of views,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople were coming up to me like, \u2018Yo, this bad!\u2019\u201d From that moment, he began to officially pursue a music career.<\/p>\n \n\tNvtzz (born Nathaneal Brown) \u2014 the producer behind early 2020s bangers like Koffee\u2019s \u201cLockdown,\u201d and an artist in his own right \u2014 reached out to Ayetian after coming across the viral freestyle, which quickly became the pair\u2019s first commercially released collaboration: 2022\u2019s \u201cEasy.\u201d \u201c10 inna night, she a call me\/ Gyal wan gimme di tsunami\/ If me tek yo gyal, I\u2019m sorry, not sorry\/ We nuh touch kids, left dat to R. Kelly,\u201d he spits at the top of the song, immediately setting the tone with slick flows and punchlines. Soon after, he previews his penchant for intonation shifts, painting the bridge with a whispery cadence as Nvtzz\u2019s guitar-inflected trap production steadily builds.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c[Nvtzz] kept me under his wings. He\u2019s been tutoring me about music and teaching me stuff [about production],\u201d says Ayetian. \u201cI\u2019ve been learning a lot about how to control my voice, [how to improve] my writing skills, and how to deliver my songs. If you want [falsetto], you have to elevate your chest to allow the airflow. If you want the hardcore, dark voice, you have to sing [from a deeper place].\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAyetian smartly maintained the momentum from \u201cEasy\u201d with 2022\u2019s \u201cLawge\u201d \u2014 which he calls both his first local hit and the song that unlocked his \u201caggressive\u201d tone \u2014 and subsequent heaters like 2023\u2019s \u201cRaftsman\u201d and 2024\u2019s \u201cAnyweh.\u201d At the tail end of 2024, Ayetian teamed with producer DJ MAC for \u201cBalance,\u201d a slinky, sensual trap-dancehall song that eventually earned a remix that incorporated elements of \u201cThe Truth,\u201d King of Soca Machel Montano\u2019s contribution to Full Blown\u2019s wildly popular Big Links riddim.<\/p>\n \n\tAs that soca-meets-dancehall moment swept across the Caribbean, Ayetian fired off another hit just a few months later at the top of 2025 with \u201cTip,\u201d which soon earned a pair of remixes (one with Skillibeng and the other with Shenseea and DJ MAC). By the summertime, Ayetian dropped what\u2019s arguably the biggest song of the three: \u201cWah Yo Deh Pan,\u201d a Govana-assisted club anthem.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c[That one] took a long time because I wanted to find the right person and the right vibe to go with,\u201d he reflects. \u201cGovana is the streets guy and the females love him, so he made the most sense\u2026 If I did it, then I expected it, you know? But I didn\u2019t expect it to be so viral back-to-back, back-to-back, back-to-back.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSince breaking through with his freestyles, Ayetian has shifted to writing his songs because he prefers the opportunity to edit and truly fit his flows with riddims that boast \u201cperfect bass lines.\u201d Nonetheless, he\u2019s still intent on delivering the \u201craw Ayetian,\u201d even when he\u2019s teaming up with international hitmakers like MOLIY and Tyga on Rvssian\u2019s \u201cWhat I Like,\u201d which has earned nearly four million official on-demand U.S. streams in just six months.<\/p>\n \n\tAhead of this year\u2019s Caribbean Music Awards \u2014 where he\u2019s tied with Montano and V\u2019ghn as the most-nominated male artist (seven) \u2014 Ayetian has unveiled his debut mixtape. Released on July 10 via TrapMilli Entertainment, LifeStyle Musik Group and Spaj Phoenix Records, JamPack<\/em> includes collaborations with Kodak Black, Stefflon Don, Ky-Mani Marley, Nvtzz and Skillibeng. On the production side, the project also features contributions from Silent Addy, Disco Neil, DJ MAC, Crawba Genius, Countree Hype and more.<\/p>\n \n\tLed by \u201cRiddle Mi Dis,\u201d the project finds Ayetian continuing his expansion of Mobay\u2019s signature trap-dancehall sound by nodding to his all-time favorite lyricists (Vybz Kartel, Rytikal, Aidonia, etc.) and delivering odes to his hometown that prioritize reality over fantasy.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMobay City,\u201d the first song crafted for the project and the last to be added to the tracklist, explores Ayetian\u2019s conscious side, examining \u201cwhat\u2019s been happening in the city from my school days to now,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to end [the project] on a calm note, because the middle has a lot of vibing and jumping up and down\u2026 after a long day, you haffi cool down.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSome of those livelier tracks include the Kodak Black-assisted \u201cZzz Out,\u201d which \u201ctook a while to get,\u201d according to Ayetian. When Kodak, a Billboard 200-topping Haitian-American MC whose wicks inspired Ayetian\u2019s, opens the song with \u201cAyo, Ayetian!\/ Tell these people you Haitian, bro\/ Tell these people you Jamaican and Haitian fam,\u201d it\u2019s a direct nod to the Montego Bay star\u2019s mission to promote Caribbean unity through his own multicultural background. There\u2019s also \u201cGih Yuh Some,\u201d which finds Ayetian linking with one of his all-time favorite artists, Skillibeng. \u201cWhen you\u2019re working with Skilli, you haffi perform on a high level because either you match him or go even further,\u201d he says. \u201cI can\u2019t outdo what\u2019s perfect already.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs fans spin JamPack<\/em>, they\u2019re also enjoying \u201cDonkey Call,\u201d Ayetian\u2019s excellent addition to Di Genius\u2019 viral \u201cHill & Gully\u201d riddim, which recentered the Jamaican folk music tradition of mento. \u201cSome people didn\u2019t want it, but it\u2019s our culture,\u201d Ayetian says of the cleaner, traditional sound. \u201cNowadays, Jamaicans tend to love slack music more because it\u2019s what they\u2019ve grown up with. But riddims [like \u201cHill & Gully\u201d] are cultural, so you can expect some more from me in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWith hopes to tour JamPack<\/em> around the world, Ayetian is all about elevation. One day after the mixtape arrived (July 11), he performed at Atlanta\u2019s Rum Island Festival, joining Aidonia and Denise Belfon.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI don\u2019t have a set limit, but the primary goal is Grammys and Billboard charts,\u201d he says. \u201cAnywhere the music takes me, I\u2019ll go with it. Even though I\u2019m Haitian and building my foundation in Jamaica, it\u2019s all about the Caribbean.\u201d<\/p>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/features\/caribbean-up-and-comer-july-2026-ayetian-jampack-dancehall-1236294603\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Up-and-Comer-Ayetian-v22-e1784140010136.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard Last year, Ayetian solidified himself as one of Jamaica\u2019s most promising rising dancehall stars with a trio of smashes, including \u201cTip,\u201d \u201cBalance\u201d and \u201cWah Yo Deh Pan,\u201d helping him earn 22.9 million official on-demand U.S. streams in 2025, according to Luminate. Related 2026 Caribbean Music Awards Nominees: Lady Lava, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2045020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2045020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2045020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2045020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2045020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Billboard](\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/2HpFicp.png\")
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