Aries is an artist of many talents: rapper, singer, producer, director, graphic designer, illustrator. Quickly proving himself as a visionary force to be reckoned with, the 23-year-old's genre-fusing music, blending hip-hop and alternative influences, has gained him a legion of die-hard fans and a notable track record of sold out shows across North America and Europe.

Aries grew up in a musical household in Orange County, CA. He took influence from his Dad as a professional violinist, but his drive to pursue music seriously was sparked as much by his DVD collection as his musical upbringing. "As a kid I used to love watching Linkin Park's live DVD's. I was inspired by them to be on stage, so I worked backwards from there on how I could do it." Aged 13, Aries started writing raps and teaching himself to produce beats, spending hours on end developing his artistry while his peers socialized. "I was good with all the cliques around school, I just didn't feel the need to be part of them," he recalls. "I stayed home and worked on music constantly, every single day."

Taking an unconventional route to build a fan base, Aries put his self-taught production skills to use and launched a YouTube channel where he recreated the beats behind popular records in just two minutes. Aries would strategically select songs that were on the cusp of taking off, like Playboi Carti's "Magnolia" and Lil Uzi Vert's "XO Tour Llif3," and soon his clips were racking up millions of views. However, this was just a means to an end. "The YouTube channel was really just a platform I wanted to build so I had an audience to share my own music with" Aries states. "Once my subscriber count started to rise, I knew I was onto something."

Having built a community of over 200,000 music lovers on his channel, Aries had created the perfect environment to push his own music. Throughout 2018, he revealed a unique new sound, matching his melodic vocals with his rock and rap-fused production on singles "CAROUSEL", "SAYONARA", and "RACECAR", and leading to tens of millions of streams in the process. The more he posted his own music videos on the channel, the more he turned the subscribers into loyal fans of him as an artist. It wasn't long before the beat recreations became a thing of the past.

"The overriding feeling that I like to create in my music is nostalgia," he says about his songwriting process. "But I still want my music to sound like nothing else."

In 2019, Aries independently released his self-written and self-produced debut album WELCOME HOME, which has gone on to accumulate over 200 million worldwide streams. Drawing out rabid crowds on tour, Aries sold out all 21 of his debut shows across North America & Europe, solidifying his status as one of the most in-demand new artists on the live circuit.

Stretching his creative output beyond just music, Aries also designed WELCOME HOME's album artwork, directed the music videos, and subsequently launched his WUNDERWORLD brand following the album's release, featuring his own clothing designs and illustrations. "I really enjoy any chance I get to be creative. I love designing and illustrating as much as making music," states Aries.

With a new album on the way, Aries is taking his musical prowess and all-encompassing creative vision to unparalleled territory as a must-watch artist on the rise.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee yet raised in Alabama, Jessie's early life was spent bouncing between small town and moderately big city. Her family moved from Nashville when Jessie was five, first settling into Huntsville, Alabama and later moving to Athens. Growing up, Jessie pursued her passions for figure skating and cheerleading, all while secretly wanting to be a singer. With both parents being musicians, the dream of becoming a recording artist wasn't that far off.

It was when her family moved to Athens that there was a noticeable switch in lifestyle, one where women's roles were still viewed to be cooking and cleaning. By this point, Jessie was already building a buzz on TikTok, posting videos of her dancing to various songs and singing covers. Once her school caught wind of her growing online popularity, they started wrongfully punishing her for it, ultimately causing Jessie's family to relocate.

Not all was lost; the backwards society pushed Jessie further toward music, where she used songwriting to blast past the gender norms surrounding her former community. While Jessie is still young, she knows exactly who she is and the kind of music that she wants to make. "I always ask myself, ‘Is this something that I would listen to?'" she says matter-of-factly. "Because the music I make is for girls and boys to scream to in their car, to cry to, and say ‘fuck you' to. I make songs that say the things we always want to say, but don't."

At just 20-years-old, Peter McPoland creates the kind of finespun folk-pop that feels both beautifully lived-in and undeniably original. McPoland picked up guitar at the age of 14 and taught himself to play, finding lessons to be too regimented. Within a year he'd started writing his own songs, mining inspiration from folk artists like John Prine and Gregory Alan Isakov. As shown on breakout hits like his self-released single "Romeo & Juliet," the Texas-bred artist has an incredible gift for capturing the most nuanced emotional experiences, then bringing that expression to life in idiosyncratic detail. McPoland made his Columbia debut in May 2021 with "i can't sleep," a quietly powerful song penned in response to his parents' recent divorce. McPoland is now at work on new music and has begun expanding his sound by exploring more elaborate textures and harder-hitting arrangements. At the same time, he's sustained his deliberately solitary approach to songwriting, a process that provides a certain emotional outpouring. "I don't cry much, I just write songs instead," McPoland says. "I take whatever I'm going through, write it all out and put it in a point of view that rhymes. I don't know if it fixes anything, but everything always feels a little better after that."

Colorfully stylish while pulling in intimate emotions and a delirious slew of influences from across generations, SSGKobe echoes the mystifying energy of the internet. Raised in Centerville, Louisiana, Ko’s road to musicianship wasn’t straightforward, but it felt inevitable. In many ways, it starts with a computer. Having jumped onto an HP desktop for the first time at just 3 years old, SSGKobe—whose name is derived from his Kobe Bryant fandom and a love of the Dragon Ball manga franchise—was born to be a star. Using a dancehall beat he got from a friend he met on Instagram, Ko wrote his first song in 2016. In order to record it, he waited until his mom was in the shower to use the voice memos app on her iPhone. He was too shy to share the resulting song titled "Important" with his friends, but he did upload it to SoundCloud, and enough people listened and convinced him to stick with it. By 2019, the secret was out, and by the time he dropped off his M3 project and songs like “WYD,” a track that laced luxurious flexes with artful randomness, he was on his way to stardom. After collaborating with Brockhampton for their album Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine, Ko released "Calabasas," an exuberant cut that became his biggest to date. He's replicated that hyperactivity with "M.I.A.," an intoxicating song that lets loose exasperated yelps amid a tale of drug use, newfound wealth, and reluctant love. Alongside a unique visual directed by Cole Bennett, “MIA” evokes his mission to inspire listeners to find comfort in their identity but also to enjoy themselves. “I want my fans to be themselves and have fun,” shares Ko, who, at 17 years old, is preparing for his senior year of high school. Looking ahead, SSGKobe’s dreaming big. He hopes to make the best album possible and, eventually, become the best artist of his generation.