Tolly Boyz

Tolly Boyz, or YMW in their local acronym (Youry, Mathieu, Wizito), is the first group to make bouyon a Saint Martin scene. In 2017, the local press outlet SoualigaPost calls them the inventors of Saint Martin bouyon. The label is not about inventing a sound but claiming a geography: before them, bouyon circulated in Saint Martin without a single track being produced from the island.

The story starts in April 2015 in a party bus in Sandy Ground. Youry Fleming, 18, hums an improvised verse. Tolly she want, in front of his neighbour Mathieu Richardson and Bernard Gumbs (also known as Wizito). A few hours later, at a neighbourhood party, Youry asks Wizito to sing the track to test the crowd's reaction. The reaction is enough. The next day, the trio records it at Madtwoz studios in Sandy Ground, over instrumentals composed by D-mitri, Youry's brother and a local beatmaker.

The public breakthrough comes in 2017 with On Plonge feat Bilix. The video, directed by the Guadeloupean team at G-Islands, is published on 29 January 2017 on YouTube. SoualigaPost reports over 511,000 views in two months and presents it as the likely anthem of the Saint Martin 2017 carnival. The SoundCloud version, dated 17 February 2017 under the title YMW (Tolly Boys) Ft Bilix. On Plonge, is filed as bouyon, the most direct platform trace of SXM bouyon. Bilix's presence weaves a bridge to the Gwada transition documented in chapter V: Caribbean scenes talk to each other through features, not through administrative borders.

In April 2017, The Daily Herald announces the Tolly Boys on the main stage of Carnival Village during the Youth Extravaganza. Mannequin Challenge extends the carnival streak. After 2017, public documentation thins out: no major confirmed releases under the Tolly Boyz name between 2018 and 2024. The SXM scene does not disappear but leaves fewer platform traces.

The SXM signal returns in 2025 with BRG Hollywood, Xavvoknockin / Xavern Labega (production) and the first edition of the Strictly the Best Festival Bouyon Edition in St. Maarten (26 April 2025, more than 5,000 fans, Two Brothers Entertainment, Mr Ridge closing). That new platform phase does not replace Tolly Boyz: it confirms that a Saint Martin scene exists over time, in cycles, with its crystallisations and its quiet stretches.

The editorial position to hold: SXM bouyon is not a separate sonic subgenre. No source shows a musical signature radically different from Dominica or Guadeloupe. SXM is a geographic scene, and Tolly Boyz are its first known crystallisation.