Trim Is Billboard’s Up-and-Coming Hip-Hop Artist of the Month for May 2026
Categoria: Musica
From "Boat" to "Cocount Water," the rising South Carolina rapper is quickly making an impact.
Por Billboard | 22/05/2026
From Grammy-nominated MCs like Jeezy to late ‘00s/early ‘10s icons like Lil Ru (“The Nasty Song”) and newer cats such as Dro Kenji, South Carolina has been an underrated hip-hop state for several decades now. Armed with an innately melodic Gulla Geechee accent, zany beat selection and a knack for endlessly quotable hooks, Trim is looking to be the latest South Carolina rapper to wave her state’s flag in the hip-hop mainstream. Related Isaiah Rashad on Choosing Radical Acceptance With New Album 'It's Been Awful': 'S–t Happens to Everybody' Stray Kids to Play Special Concert Series STRAYCITY in Latin America: Here Are the Dates SiriusXM's 'Billboard Top 500 Summer Hits Countdown Channel' Returns Born Ahlaisha Kornickey, 19, Trim started rapping last year. She didn’t grow up scribbling bars in an old notebook, nor did she come up trying to memorize her favorite verses in the back seat, but she knew she needed to find her purpose. So, she started freestyling in her backyard, uploading clips to TikTok and quickly accruing a fanbase that rallied around early singles like “Maybach” and “Rocket.” Through developing her rapid-fire flow and bending her malleable accent to achieve different intonation effects, Trim found her voice — and quickly found an audience willing to listen to her. “[I started rapping] so people could listen to me and so I could express my feelings for real,” she tells Billboard . “When you don’t have a lot of people that listen to you in real life, you might try to find your purpose by being around somebody who will listen to you.” Last April, Trim teamed up with fellow ascendant South Carolina rapper Ashswervo for “Timbs,” the song that truly blew her up locally and helped her land a distribution deal with BuVision, the label founded by record executive Abou “Bu” Thiam and now operating in partnership with Atlantic Music Group. After closing out 2025 with a steady stream of standalone singles — including breakthrough single “Boat,” a guest appearance on Sunshine Benzi’s “Trump the Bill” and a remix of Monaleo’s “Putting Ya Dine” — Trim’s star skyrocketed at the top of the new year. Just before Christmas, Trim tapped YKNiece and BunnaB, two Atlanta female rappers who broke out in 2025, for a remix to “Boat” that helped the song go from buzzy social media track to streaming hit. Also aided by a later Pooh Shiesty remix (one of the Memphis rapper’s few post-prison collaborations before getting back in trouble with the law), “Boat” has garnered over 33.5 million official on-demand U.S. streams in 2026, according to Luminate, good for a No. 48 debut on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. At the top of 2026, Trim scored another viral hit with the score-settling, Arctic Monkeys-nodding “Floor.” She maintained that momentum with “Guapo,” and a pair of eye-catching collaborations: “Chröme” (with Slayr) and “No Trick” (with Luh Tyler). Each of those tracks was a necessary step to “Coconut Water,” a d