Kenny Mason, Omar Apollo and Much More!
As the year comes to an end, we thought we’d give you some new music to kick off 2020 the right way! Here are five up-and-coming artists who are putting out great music as we speak. Give them the attention they deserve and add these tracks to your New Year playlist!
Surfaces
Straight out of Texas come Forrest Frank and Colin Padelecki, the duo that makes up Surfaces. If you’re searching for that feel-good, no worries music, then look no further.
Surfaces fuses soothing vocals with jazzy tunes to create music that sticks out of the mess of mainstream pop music. You can’t help but imagine yourself sitting poolside under an umbrella while sipping a tropical drink out of a coconut … once you listen you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about!
Some fun tracks to get you into Surfaces include Sundays Best, Good Day, Heaven Falls/ Fall On Me and 24/7/365.
Oliver Tree
Oliver Tree Nickell is something of an exaggerated character rather than a typical musical artist. This Santa Cruz native is weird, unique and sometimes you just can’t tell if it’s all some sort of performance art. Regardless, Tree is a talented musician and producer.
Oliver has one full-length studio album, Splitting Branches, which released several years ago, but he’s remained busy since — doing sketch comedy for various websites … for some reason. He hasn’t forgotten about music though — in addition to touring with Louis the Child, he’s also dished out a handful of singles.
One of those singles released on December 6, 2019 and has been on repeat on our playlists since. The track is called Cash Machine and it’d definitely an ear worm. It takes you back to the pop-punk days of the early 2000s … hear for yourself!
Kenny Mason
Kenny Mason is a 24-year-old rapper out of Atlanta who is skyrocketing to stardom after the release of his new single, Hit.
One of the reasons you may not have heard of him is because, until recently, he absolutely refused to put his previous music releases on the big streaming platforms or even YouTube. He would post recordings on Twitter for his fans and grew his popularity that way.
Hit is catchy, quick and pretty funny. It’s certainly a head-bobber that goes fast, slow and then gets you chanting along with him.
Alec Benjamin
Alec Benjamin is actually a previous music pick of ours, and for good reason. This Arizona native singer-songwriter is so incredibly talented it’s hard to deny him the attention he truly deserves. The most bizarre thing about Benjamin is although he’s well into his 20s, he has a uniquely high-pitched voice!
After the success of his mixtape, Narrated For You, Benjamin has been touring the globe with super catchy hits such as Let Me Down and 1994.
Now, as we near the end of 2019, he’s dropped a new single titled Mind Is A Prison. He proves once again he’s a master at writing catchy hooks and focusing on relatable subject matter.
Omar Apollo
Omar Velasco, aka Omar Apollo, is a Mexican-American singer-songwriter/producer from Indiana. As a self-taught musician, the 22-year-old worked his ass off in order to be able to provide for his parents who immigrated from Guadalajara before becoming American citizens. It’s because of his parent’s sacrifices to start a new life in America that he feels obligated to repay them.
Although it’s still very early in his career, he’s released an EP and various singles, including Hit Me Up, which features our favorite artist of 2019 and future superstar, Dominic Fike. I expect big things from Omar Apollo, and a successful 2020.
