Shallipopi

Shallipopi's genre-bending glitch wins him TikTok Artist of the Year, 2025

Shallipopi, born Crown Uzama, seizes TikTok’s 2025 Artist of the Year title for Sub-Saharan Africa, following a ceremony in Johannesburg spotlighting digital culture’s key players. His genre-splicing concoction—Afrobeats, Afropop, Amapiano, and Trap—acts less like a musical style than an algorithmic glitch designed to hijack the platform’s soundscape.

His tracks, omnipresent across countless user feeds, become unofficial anthems for split-second trends. He edges out contenders from Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, and Nigeria with a playlist that seems tailor-made for virality.

Afro-Pluto Gets Louder: Shallipopi Talks Fame, Loyalty & Log Drums on Auracle

Completing a trilogy that began with Planet Pluto and stretched through Presido La Pluto and Shakespopi, Shallipopi’s Auracle doubles down on his Afro-pluto blueprint—amapiano log drums, street philosophy, and nursery-rhyme hooks smoothed with polished production.

The 22-track project features Gunna's Atlanta drawl on HIM and Burna Boy’s weighty verse on Laho II, trading grit for global fluency while Shallipopi ruminates on fame and loyalty without abandoning his Benin-coded swagger.