Lola Young, Gigi Perez & Cash Cobain: 2025 Artists to Watch

Bronx rapper-producer Cash Cobain is the mastermind behind “sexy drill,” which reimagines samples from pop, rap and R&B, and has become ubiquitous in various pockets of the culture. Last year, the 26-year-old polymath guested on tracks with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie (“Body”) and Don Toliver (“Attitude”); the latter sampled Snoop Dogg and Pharrell Williams’ 2003 hit “Beautiful” and became Cobain’s first Billboard Hot 100 entry. Yet his breakout song, “Fisherrr,” a flirtatious viral hit featuring Bay Swag, intrigued fellow Bronx native Ice Spice, who hopped on the remix last April. Since, Cobain has earned co-signs from rap’s elite including Drake and J. Cole, the latter of whom was featured on Cobain’s “Grippy.” After releasing his debut album, Play Cash Cobain, last August and opening on Ice Spice’s Y2K! world tour, Cobain will take center stage at Rolling Loud California in March. With sexy drill breathing life back into what was once a lethargic New York hip-hop scene, Cobain’s love for nostalgia could reach new ears — and heights — in 2025. —Carl Lamarre

Gigi Perez entered 2024 with the desire to reconnect with music as an art form, after a deal with Interscope Records ended with little fanfare in 2023, and the goal of learning how to record and produce her work. Other than that, “I entered last year in a state of no expectations,” she says. 

Then “Sailor Song,” a folksy ode to queer infatuation, blew up on TikTok following its July 2024 release and peaked at No. 22 on the Hot 100. Its success helped Perez score a new label deal, this time with Island. “After I left my first label, I was fully like, ‘I’m not going to do that again,’ ” the 24-year-old explains. “But Island has been incredible, and I just feel so supported.”

Last October, Perez released “Fable,” a strummed reflection on faith that also honored her late sister. The themes of both singles will be included on Perez’s in-the-works first album for Island. “A lot of the project is informed on being in love, but also grieving and struggling with religion,” she says. (Perez is again working with Noah Weinman, who co-produced “Sailor Song” with the singer-songwriter.) “At the center is this really beautiful love, filled with complexity and fervor.” —Jason Lipshutz

Nora Cheng, Penelope Lowenstein and Gigi Reece formed Horsegirl as teenagers in Chicago and turned heads at DIY shows with their captivating post-punk performances. In 2022, the band released its debut album, Versions of Modern Performance, on Matador; the same year, the trio snagged opening slots for Pavement and Wilco and relocated to New York. But, for a couple of ice-cold weeks in January 2024, the act returned to Chicago to record its second album at Wilco’s Loft studio. Now in their early 20s, the members maintain their indie-rock roots for Phonetics On and On, out Feb. 14, but other influences seep in, from the bright post-punk of 1970s U.K. legends The Raincoats to the spacious, somber delivery of Welsh artist Cate Le Bon, who produced the album. Phonetics On and On still brings the noise — and some moments of shredding — but is subtler than the group’s debut, clarifying Horsegirl’s sound and refining its melodies across 11 tracks. The band will embark on a monthlong tour starting in February, bookended by shows in its native Chicago and adoptive home of New York. —Christine Werthman

“One of the top comments on my YouTube video is like, ‘Hardest artist to figure out what the album sounds like based on the single,’ and I was like, ‘Yessss,’” Jane Remover says with a subtle fist-pump.

The New Jersey singer-producer relishes unpredictability, particularly when they’re working on a new project. Jane Remover became an indie darling with 2021 electro-emo debut Frailty, then sharply pivoted to languorous shoegaze on 2023 follow-up Census Designated. Last year, they released twitchy pop singles like “Magic I Want U” and “Flash in the Pan” that made year-end critics’ lists and hinted at a crossover bid.

Although the 21-year-old recorded an album in 2024 designed to house those hook-laden singles, that’s not the full-length they’ll release in 2025. “I had an album that was basically finished — it was 18 songs, well over an hour — and I was like, ‘No, throw it away,’ ” they say. “If it came out, I was going to be, like, main pop girl. And I didn’t want that, even though at [one time] I thought I did.”

Instead, upcoming album Revengeseekerz was previewed with “JRJRJR,” a loud, relentless mashup of rage and hyperpop, with six verses about Jane Remover’s shape-shifting identity that they wrote in 30 minutes in a green room while touring with JPEGMafia last year. Although Revengeseekerz is still being finished ahead of a headlining tour that kicks off in April, “JRJRJR” was intended to shake listeners awake — that’s why Jane Remover released the single on New Year’s Day.

“I’m coming in hot!” they declare. “It seems to be divisive, and I feel like that’s perfect.” —J.L.

From living at a gas station in the small Colombian town of El Cabuyal to peppering the Billboard charts, Kapo, 27, has been able to make a name for himself with his uplifting lyrics that ooze confidence and chill Afrobeat melodies. After hustling in the music industry for 15 years, the artist born Juan David Loaiza Sepúlveda inked a record deal with La Industria in 2019 and became a local sensation thanks to singles such as “Pelinegra” with Nanpa Básico and “Bulevar” with Esteban Rojas and Pirlo. But in 2024 — after realizing “there was a lack of feel-good, reflective, romantic music,” as he previously told Billboard — he scored two concurrent global hits with “Ohnana” and “UWAIE,” both of which entered the Hot Latin Songs, Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts. The former earned Kapo his first No. 1 on Latin Rhythm Airplay in November thanks to a star-studded September remix featuring Maluma, Ryan Castro, Farruko and Nicky Jam. Now, anticipation is building for a follow-up to his 2023 debut album, Tu OG Favorito, with Kapo hoping to perform English versions of his music with artists from Africa. —Jessica Roiz

Carrying the weight of parental estrangement, the wistful, piano-fronted “Like Him” from Tyler, The Creator’s Chromakopia already had a sturdy emotional core. But the soulful background singing of Young made the song soar and introduced the 24-year-old South Londoner to a wider audience as the track reached No. 29 on the Hot 100 (her debut on the chart). Young — who attended the prestigious BRIT School, signed to Island Records at 18 and nabbed a BRIT Award nomination for Rising Star at 20 — hit her creative stride on 2023’s emotional My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely, which she followed with last year’s beautifully brash This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway. Abandoning the smooth ballads and R&B style of her earlier days, Young embraced a rock sound and bolder lyrics that dealt with the chaos of life, best showcased on her song “Messy.” The track exploded on TikTok and in January cracked the Hot 100’s top 40, reaching No. 24 on the Jan. 18-dated chart, leaving little doubt that Young is well positioned to break through in 2025, with plans to release new music later this year. —C.W.

Wetmore’s upward trajectory has continued in 2025 with his song “Wind Up Missin’ You” reaching No. 2 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. This romantic pop-country hit follows his 2024 Hot 100 debut, “Wine Into Whiskey,” which peaked at No. 68. The Kalama, Wash., native began playing piano at age 11 and soon took up guitar. In 2020, he moved to Nashville, quickly aligning with the Rakiyah Marshall-led Back Blocks Music; after releasing “Wine Into Whiskey,” deals quickly followed with Universal Music Group Nashville and WME. In October, Wetmore, 25, issued his eight-song EP, Waves on a Sunset, and is following that with a full album in 2025, balancing recording sessions with responding to fan demand for live shows. Wetmore extended his headlining Waves on a Sunset tour this year and will join Thomas Rhett’s Better in Boots Tour in June. “I don’t want it to just be a moment,” he previously told Billboard. “I want to use the momentum to build something great.” —Jessica Nicholson

This story appears in the Jan. 25, 2025, issue of Billboard.