A new generation of Belgian rappers is conquering the Netherlands with catchy,light-hearted tracks that found their way to the top via TikTok. But why is itthat artists like Katnuf, Jinho 9 and Brysa are less successful in their owncountry? ‘Flanders is lagging behind.’
Jasper Van LoyOctober 15, 202217:08
“Who is Anas ‘Katnuf’ Kasmi, creator of the 2022 summer hit?” headlined deVolkskrant end of August. The answer: Kasmi is the man behind ‘Be Van mij’, alight-hearted and danceable love song that is still in the top five of theDutch charts on Spotify today with 15 million streams. In Belgium, ‘Beingmine’ has not yet reached 37th place in the Ultratop. However, Katnuf has beenliving in our country since he was 6 years old and does not consider hishometown Amsterdam, but Roeselare as his real home.
Katnuf is not the only Belgian who is doing better in the Netherlands thanwith us. Among the new songs by David Guetta and Sam Smith you will also findthe Ninoof rapper Jinho 9 in the Dutch charts, who collected three millionstreams in one week with the sultry club track ‘Blind opzoek (Trapagas)’. TheMechelen rapper Makar is a bit further down the list with ‘Mood’, but has themost success in the rest of the world: thanks to top twenty quotations inSwitzerland and Germany – for a Dutch song – the song has 33 million streams.
There is no real Belgian scene in the Netherlands, but the stories of thesuccessful rappers are similar. For example, Jinho 9 and Katnuf are bestfriends. “As a child I already watched Junior Eurovision Song Contest and_The Voice Kids_ , but I kept my music to myself for a long time,” saysKatnuf. “It was only during the lockdown in 2020 that I found the courage toput a few songs online. Jinho thought those tracks were ‘hard’ and sent me amessage. A while later we were back in the studio messing around. When Jinhowas on the toilet, I randomly clicked a file on his PC.”
That file eventually became ‘Interesting’, a song for which the twocollaborated with another Belgian, Jiriel Thunder. The track instantly wentviral: about 60,000 TikTok users used it as a soundtrack for their own videos.“I already had conversations with labels before that, but they hardly saw mebecause I didn’t have a viral hit yet,” says Jinho 9. “That’s how it goesthese days: you have to have developed your own revenue model before they signyou.” After ‘Interesting’ Sony jumped on the bandwagon.
78 percent
Makar neither knows Katnuf nor Jinho personally, but his story is much thesame. Originally he wanted to be an actor and with funny videos on Facebook hegot his first audience together. A parody of mumble rappers was so popularthat his best friend, who is now his manager, convinced him to start makingmusic himself. A week before the release of ‘Mood’, he already gave the chorusaway on TikTok, so that it almost became a hit before the full song came out.
No one can properly explain why the Belgians are just now coming to theNetherlands, not even Bryan Mg. However, the Ghent rapper has been scoringmore streams above than below the Belgian-Dutch border for years. “The onlything I can say is that I have always aimed for the Netherlands. The urbanscene is simply much more visible there. Just look at FunX.” Bryan refers tothe radio station that only plays genres such as hip-hop, R&B and dancehalland is especially popular with young people in the big cities.
Jinho 9 already played a session there two years ago, for his big hits. “TheDutch are hyenas,” says Makar. “Once they see your talent, they try to bringyou in.” Katnuf knows by heart that 78 percent of his listeners come from theNetherlands. “I love Belgium, but for my career, the Netherlands is better.The urban scene in our country is lagging behind what is happening there.Almost all producers are there and you have a studio on every street, so tospeak.”
Historical backlog
That backlog is historic. Spotify was available in the Netherlands a yearearlier than in Belgium and our northern neighbors responded much faster tothe worldwide rise of hip-hop. The big milestone is the New Wave project:under that name, some twenty rappers and producers went into hiding atSchiermonnikoog in 2015 to come out with a joint record, which included ‘Drinken drugs’ by Ronnie Flex and Lil ‘Kleine.
Flanders still has a hard time with that kind of accessible Dutch-languagerap, and not just because there are three times as many Dutch people asFlemish. The rappers who are successful with us sing in their own regionallanguage (Brihang, Tourist LeMC) or distance themselves from the mainstream(Dvtch Norris, Zwangere Guy).
Not that the Belgians are not welcome in the Netherlands: the popular rapvideo platform 101Barz regularly welcomes compatriots, while rappers such asZwangere Guy and Freddie Konings also collaborate with their Dutch colleagues,but a hit as big as ‘Van mij zijn’ delivered that until recently. not on. Rarestreaming guns such as Bryan Mg and Soufiane Eddyani received less attentionin the Belgian media.
“Something is happening,” Makar thinks. At the beginning of this year, rapperBrysa from Kessel scored a number one hit in the Netherlands alongsideCristian D and Ashafar with ‘Amsterdam ‘. Wawa, the Aalst native whorecently appeared in the VRT MAX documentary Plan A was allowed to taste thesuccess two years ago when he collected 18 million streams for ‘Entrepreneur’together with Dutchman Kempi.
Will the great Flemish wave of streaming rap start via the Netherlands afterall? Everyone expresses great ambitions, Makar has even signed with UniversalGermany and is now learning Goethe’s language at a rapid pace. Bryan Mg hasone more advice for the new generation. “Now it comes down to not sticking to