The team behind Ndotz and LeoStayTrill have spoken about the global impact of independently released hits and their vision for breaking Gen-Z talent.
During 2024, combined video creations on TikTok by each artist’s breakthrough hit have totalled almost 10 million.
London-based rapper Ndotz recently had the No.1 viral song globally on TikTok with Embrace It and is making his mark on Spotify’s global chart.
Ndotz has 12 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Embrace It made the Top 30 in the streaming giant’s rankings during October, ahead of frontline releases from major UK artists.
“I would say it is probably one of the biggest records in our culture this year,” said Ndotz’s manager Ade Shonubi, who aligned his firm Flystr8 with Chosen Music in a joint venture.
Embrace It is on 190 million global Spotify streams, an impressive result for a new artist and an independent track. The track has amassed 250m streams across all platforms.
Alistair Goldsmith, Chosen Music co-founder and president, described it as “one of the biggest songs from any new British artist in the world this year”.
According to management, Embrace It is the fourth most streamed UK rap single of the year and Ndotz is the ninth most streamed UK rap artist.
The single has 164,871 UK sales to date, based on more than 23m UK streams, according to the Official Charts Company.
Ndotz has 1.1m followers globally on TikTok, while Embrace It has been used in 5.5m video creations on the platform. Its total TikTok views are a staggering 10 billion.
The strategy is us knowing how to make TikTok convert into streaming, and also building an artist proposition
Ade Shonubi
“The strategy is us knowing how to make TikTok convert into streaming, and also building an artist proposition and not just a viral moment,” said Shonubi.
“TikTok is a big driver,” he added. “But then it's also about knowing how to scale all the platforms at the same time. With these kids [artists], they love focusing on TikTok because it’s what's giving them the most attention, and they've seen the numbers. But once you have TikTok, you need to be able to scale that to Instagram, build up to Facebook, scale that to YouTube with your subscribers and all of these things.”
Shonubi has previously had success with Stepz, who had the most viewed UK artist account on TikTok in 2022 following the impact of his track Cramp Dat.
The Embrace It viral campaign has been powered by regular TikTok posts by Ndotz, as well as organic creations and influencer campaigns.
For the release, Chosen Music and Flystr8 licensed the single with US-based Broke Records and Isekai, the label owned by RJ Pasin, whose music was sampled on the single.
Broke’s strategy saw the team jump on a dance to Embrace It posted by a TikTok creator, which has now been played more than 78 million times. The track’s virality was also fuelled by its accompaniment to football videos.
Goldsmith suggested that young artists themselves are often “really good at the digital side of things”, which can then be amplified by the resources and expertise of the Chosen Music and Flystr8 joint venture.
“I’m sure we will again partner with different labels, but the magic is what happens here,” he said.
“Our main thing is us being hands-on, regardless of whether it’s signed to a label or it’s with us,” added Shonubi. “It’s digital-first, so a lot of things digitally can be done without having to have a lot of people put in place.”
We’ll partner with whoever we think is right and we’ll invest in artists that we believe in together
Alistair Goldsmith
Earlier this year, FlyStr8 and Chosen Music partnered with TikTok’s distribution arm SoundOn to release Pink Lemonade by LeoStayTrill & Mr Reload It. The single peaked at No.56 in the UK and has surpassed 100,000 chart sales.
Pink Lemonade has ended the year with 100m streams across all platforms, four million video creations on TikTok and seven billion TikTok views.
“What we’re about is Gen-Z talent,” said Goldsmith. “We’re not exclusively with any one distributor or one record label. We’ll partner with whoever we think is right and we’ll invest in artists that we believe in together.”
In terms of a release campaign, Goldsmith added: “We want to have those conversations with the artists, not with record companies. It doesn’t mean that we don’t value them. It just means that we want to work closely with artists, because that’s where we feel that we are going to get the best results.”
While Embrace It continues to grow in the UK, the focus is on the US at present with Ndotz teaming up with American artists Sexyy Red and Flo Milli for the remix.
Shonubi stressed that Ndotz had been prolific in the run-up to this global hit. He also praised the UK rapper for being quick to get music into the market once it was recorded.
“This isn’t a one-hit-wonder for Ndotz, he has released seven or eight songs, he’s consistently posting on TikTok,” said Shonubi. “You can’t hold back on your songs, because at the end of the day, you miss all the shots that you don’t take.”
FOLLOW 
