Caribbean Up-And-Comer of the Month: Lu City Is Shaking Up the Worlds of Pop & Hip-Hop With a Saint Lucian Twist
Categoria: Musica
The R&B-rap duo is ready to bring Saint Lucia to the world with their upcoming EP.
Por Billboard | 28/05/2026
It’s been a while since a duo has truly shaken up the pop, R&B and hip-hop scene in one fell swoop — and Saint Lucia’s Lu City is aiming to do so with an unmistakably French Caribbean twist. Related Brandy & Monica, Kes the Band & Tems Dazzle at Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival 2026: 5 Best Moments Kes Teases New Album; Talks Tiny Desk Debut & Hopping On Di Genius’ ‘Hill & Gully’ Riddim: ‘Nobody Expected That!’ Vybz Kartel Announces New ‘God & Time’ Album: ‘The Flow Will Be Different’ Comprised of two homegrown musicians — singer Ryie, born Tyler Ryie Auguste, 30, and rapper LUJA, born Jean-Atem Farah, 29 — Lu City consciously operates in the footsteps of the culture-steering musical duos and groups before it. The duo’s catalog, anchored by two studio albums, trades on the suave swagger and sing-rap balance of OutKast, the genre fusion of early Black Eyed Peas and the moody 2010s brand of R&B that buoyed Majid Jordan. The template is familiar, but Lu City innovates by injecting every aspect of their sonic and artistic profile with the rhythms, lingo and feeling of Saint Lucia — and several other West Indian cultures. At the encouragement of the King of Soca, Machel Montano, the duo named themselves after their affectionate nickname for their home country. “The same way we Drake calls Toronto ‘The 6,’ we call Saint Lucia ‘Lu City’ in our songs,” LUJA tells Billboard , just a week after the duo’s mainstage performance at the 2026 Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival. The OVO crew is a major influence on Lu City; LUJA grew up studying 50 Cent, Lil Wayne and Eminem but has been rocking with Drake “since 2009,” while Ryie remembers going from OutKast, Chris Brown and Miguel to Partynextdoor, who he calls his “favorite R&B artist.” Growing up obsessed with music, both members of Lu City knew that field was their calling — it was just a matter of getting there. Their first stop? Saint Lucia’s Rodney Bay back in 2012. “Our manager, Eliot Bailey, owned a lot, and I used to walk around singing,” recalls Ryie. “He heard me one day, said I had a really good voice, and gave me a beat to see what I could do with it. The very next day, I wrote a song to the beat, brought it to him and he signed me.” Soon after, a mutual friend introduced Ryie to LUJA, who sold him on a three-minute voice note of him rapping over Kendrick Lamar’s “Look Out for Detox” instrumental. “Eliot hung out with my older cousins and uncles, so when Ryie sent him the voice note, he was like, ‘That’s the Jean that I see in Rodney Bay drinking rum at 16 years old? He raps? And at this level?’” LUJA remembers with a laugh. “I was graduating that same week [with] no plans to go to university because I never liked school, so I signed to Eliot.” By 2017, Ryie and LUJA participated in Digicel’s inaugural Music Academy (essentially a massive three-day writing camp set in Jamaica), w