Article written by TIITII NBA, artist of the New Bouyon Wave collective.
Sources: platform traces (Apple Music, Shazam, Qobuz), PepseeActus profiles, RFI 2025 interview and public discographies, cited at the end of the article.
Note: this chapter tells the story of a scene I belong to. I lean on public sources to avoid subjective storytelling.
You can contribute to the blog's evolution: leave your corrections and additional info in the comments at the bottom.
In short. The New Bouyon Wave names the 2023-2026 Guadeloupean network-wave, crystallized around 8 artists: 1T1, TIITII NBA, DJ Softee, Aknose, Nils, Lucky lukee, Le Juh and Theomaa. The name appears publicly on 30 June 2023 with TiiTii NBA's New Bouyon Wave EP, confirmed on 29 September 2023 by the collective single New Bouyon Wave #1 (TiiTii NBA, Nils, DJ Softee, Aknose & Theomaa).
Guadeloupe, 2023. A banner starts circulating on platforms: New Bouyon Wave. Nobody expects that this label, posted by an independent artist producing his sounds on an iPhone, will in three years become the name of a whole generation.
You listen to Bouyon Gwada on TikTok or Apple Music, you see TIITII NBA, 1T1, Softee, Aknose pass by, and you wonder what New Bouyon Wave really means. You are in the right place: this chapter separates the three levels of the name (EP, collective single, network-wave) and explains why the core is made of 8 artists, not 5, not 12, exactly 8.
I. Before the name: the network
When 1T1 lists the Bouyon that shaped him, every name he gives is Dominican: Triple Kay, Signal Band, WCK, All Star Band, Asa Banton. What Guadeloupean Bouyon was missing, he told Loxymore in December 2024, was the pressure and the lyrics.
He started on drums at three, with his uncle. Ten years of drumming before he touched a keyboard. He doesn't read music, he plays by ear. Today he is the one getting interviewed in Paris as one of the voices of Guadeloupean Bouyon. This chapter covers the distance between those two points.
The earlier chapters have already laid the ground: Dominica gives the grammar, Guadeloupe builds its first wave, the Gwada transition plugs the cables back in between 2016 and 2022, and Saint-Martin proves with Tolly Boyz that other islands can write their names into Bouyon. In 2023, the novelty is not that Bouyon suddenly exists in Guadeloupe. The novelty is that the new generation dares to name itself.
The New Bouyon Wave forms exactly there: between the raw energy of Bouyon Gwada, the collaborative habit of the transition period, and the platform logic of the 2020s. It does not look like a Dominican band such as WCK or Triple Kay. It does not look like one locked collective with a single membership card either. It works more like a network made visible through features.
The wave begins when a network stops being only a network and becomes a name.
The format that ties them together is the One Riddim. One instrumental, several artists riding it, one track each. It's a Caribbean dancehall habit, and 1T1 says where he picked it up: Genesis's Lyrikal Terrorist, a Guadeloupean dancehall ensemble that was already placing several voices on shared instrumentals.
II. The One Riddims: four projects, one instrumental each time
Keneth Riddim opens the run with four tracks. "No Sex Over Money" for TIITII NBA, "Bidiba Bidibou" for Aknose and Softee, "Sicré Kon Miel" for Lucky lukee and Nils, "Piney" for Le Juh and Theomaa. Eight names on a single instrumental, and the core is already there.
In December 2023, Zézé Riddim runs the circuit again. "Pied au Plancher" with TIITII NBA and Le Juh, "Gardavou" with Lucky lukee and DJ Softee, "Bad Girl" with Nils and Aknose, "Gasolina" with Theomaa. The same voices, dealt out differently. Those who shared Keneth end up apart, and the other way round.
The following year, TROICROI RIDDIM delivers four more: the full version with Theomaa and RvF, "Party Rocking" with those same two, "Oui Nou Monss" with LeJuh and LGC, "Everyday" with DJ Softee. The circle widens without breaking.
Then Mas La Rivé pushes the principle to its limit: nine artists credited on a single instrumental. 1T1, Theomaa, Aknose, DJ Softee, DJ TKrys, Bismok, Jicypie, DJ Kylled, LeJuh.
Four projects, sixteen tracks, some fifteen voices wired together before the name even existed. That is where what would be called the wave gets built: not in a meeting, but in a catalogue where everyone has already sung over everyone else's beat.
The format also explains why the scene holds. On a One Riddim, nobody releases alone. An artist who breaks through pulls along everyone on the same instrumental, and a listener who comes for one track lands on the other three. Collaboration isn't a friendly gesture here, it's the structure of the release itself.
September 2023 doesn't come out of nowhere, then. It comes out of this.
III. TIITII NBA: the method before the storefront
In 2022, an entire project comes out of Guadeloupe recorded on an iPhone. No booked studio, no label, no engineer: New Bouyon Age, TIITII NBA's first project, is made on the phone. That is the platform bio talking, not myth-making.
The detail isn't a technical footnote. It states the method of the period: work with little, post fast, don't wait for the industry's permission. A year before the word starts circulating, the method is already there.
The name New Bouyon Wave does not come from a marketing office. It comes from a practice: artists publishing, answering one another, crossing paths, building a public by accumulation. The word "wave" makes visible what is already moving. It is not yet an institution. It is a banner.
There is also a trap to avoid: telling TIITII NBA's story as if he erased everyone else. A pivot role is not a solitary role. On the contrary, the strength of this period is that it turns scattered presences into an audible network. The pivot does not replace the wave; he gives it an entry point.
IV. 30 June 2023: the New Bouyon Wave EP
On 30 June 2023, six tracks come out under a name nobody had used for a release yet: New Bouyon Wave. Apple Music counts them, PepseeActus gives the list and the beatmaker, DJ Skaytah and the tracklist: Manaudou, Jumping Jack with Lünik, Pushing P with DJ Skaytah, Vody Lavish with Kevni, Put it in with DJ Softee and Edday, then Oshan.
That tracklist matters because it links several periods. Lünik brings back the T-BTS / 2020 transition thread. Kevni comes from the dancehall-Bouyon zone already active in 2018-2019. Edday was already a collaboration pivot before 2023. DJ Softee arrives as a DJ, composer, singer and connector of the recent era. The EP does not manufacture the scene from nothing; it gathers lines that had already been prepared.
Jumping Jack becomes a strong marker because it condenses that logic. The public tracklist places Lünik on the EP. His presence connects the 2020 collective base to the 2023 banner: the New Bouyon Wave does not cut the transition off; it exposes it.
This also corrects the chronology. The wave is not only the September single. By June 2023, the name is already circulating as a TiiTii NBA project. September will make the network more collective, but June places the label.
V. 29 September 2023: New Bouyon Wave #1
Three months later, on 29 September 2023, five voices share one track. TiiTii NBA, Nils, DJ Softee, Aknose and Theomaa: two minutes thirty-six, and a title that wears the wave's name with a number after it, New Bouyon Wave #1. Shazam confirms the same configuration.
A number is a promise: there will be a next one. After the EP that places the name, the collective single gives the wave a face.
1T1 walked CKO through how a collective track gets made: someone brings a short intro, he builds the beat around it, Theomaa lays his verse, and he closes with the hook. The track then gets road-tested live before it is finished in the studio. Less a career plan than a workshop routine, with a mandatory stop in front of a crowd.
The nuance is essential. New Bouyon Wave can name three different things: a TiiTii NBA EP from 30 June 2023, a collective track from 29 September 2023, and a wider era of Guadeloupean features. Mix those levels and the story becomes foggy. Keep them distinct and the story becomes readable.
In that reading, TIITII NBA stays central because he gives the public name in June. Nils, DJ Softee, Aknose and Theomaa give the September signal its collective shape. 1T1, Le Juh and Lucky lukee do not need to be on that track to matter inside the wave: they belong to the network that thickens the period through other tracks, other crossings and other circuits.
VI. The core: eight names, not a cage
Aknose wears Vybz Kartel tattooed on his skin. "I was raised in dancehall," he told Loxymore at the Karukera One Love Festival in April 2024. Bouyon isn't where he comes from, a cousin pushed him to try it.
His definition of the genre doesn't run through geography but through the body: Bouyon is Caribbean techno, same tempo, same effort. "It's cardio," he repeats. He plays all over France.
That sums up the core better than a list. People come in through different doors, and nobody was born inside.
There are eight of them: 1T1, TIITII NBA, Softee, Aknose, Nils, Lucky lukee, Le Juh and Theomaa. That core is not an administrative cage. It is a circulation map: who returns in the tracks, who connects the circles, who makes the scene recognizable from 2023 onward.
Lucky lukee enters the map through another door: Apple Music documents Volé'y feat Nils & LeJuh on 13 July 2023. That track matters because it shows the wave does not depend on one official release. It exists as a cluster: an EP, a collective single, side collaborations, artists answering one another.
1T1 has another function again. He holds himself to a limit few keep: four productions a month, no more. Co-founder of the AB Boyz label with Young Chang MC in 2021, he runs its bouyon branch there. RFI presents him in 2025 as a Guadeloupean composer, producer and singer, one of the voices of new-generation Bouyon. PepseeActus documents him as Terry Baptiste, Guadeloupean artist/beatmaker, Bouyon genre, with CHORD in the discography and several connections to Theomaa, MiiMii KDS, Aknose and others. He is not only a voice: he becomes a producer-artist and point of organization for the network.
VII. What the wave changes
When 1T1's hit breaks, the media arrive in an order that says everything: the United Kingdom first, then the United States, Canada, and France last. He described that sequence to CKO in 2025. He sings mainly in English and owns it: "the flow in English just glides." Bouyon comes from an English-speaking island; his language takes him back to the source, and far beyond the French Antilles.
That is what the wave changes. Not the definition of Bouyon, the base remains fast, direct, Caribbean, inheriting from Dominica and Guadeloupe. What changes is the way the scene becomes visible. Before, a band, a party, an organizer and a place mattered most. Now, platforms, clips, short snippets, features, artist profiles and clean metadata matter too.
The New Bouyon Wave did not only change the names on the poster. It changed the speed at which a scene becomes visible.
After this chapter, the next question is what the wave does to tempo. Once Bouyon is visible everywhere, another question appears: can it slow down without losing its fire?
FAQ: common questions about the New Bouyon Wave
What is the New Bouyon Wave exactly? A 2023-2026 Guadeloupean network-wave, crystallized around 8 artists: 1T1, TIITII NBA, DJ Softee, Aknose, Nils, Lucky lukee, Le Juh and Theomaa. The name covers three distinct levels: a TiiTii NBA EP (30 June 2023), a collective single New Bouyon Wave #1 (29 September 2023) and a wider era of crossed features.
Who are the 8 NBW core artists? 1T1 (Terry Baptiste, beatmaker-producer-singer), TIITII NBA (artist-pivot of the name), DJ Softee (Julian White, DJ/composer/singer), Aknose (Gaël Rampath, Les Abymes), Nils, Lucky lukee, Le Juh (Julio Polydamas), Theomaa (Mathéo Coquerelle, AB Boyz). Canonical composition verified by public sources.
Why 8 and not 5 or 12? Because it is the composition crystallized by the public releases and crossed features in 2023-2024. The collective single New Bouyon Wave #1 (Sept. 2023) gathers 5 (TiiTii NBA, Nils, DJ Softee, Aknose, Theomaa), but the network-wave extends through other tracks: Volé'y by Lucky lukee feat Nils & LeJuh (July 2023), 1T1 releases (CHORD, RFI 2025), etc. 8 = circulation core, not official members.
Who first posted the name New Bouyon Wave? TIITII NBA, on 30 June 2023, with his eponymous 6-track EP (Manaudou, Jumping Jack feat Lünik, Pushing P feat DJ Skaytah, Vody Lavish feat Kevni, Put it in feat DJ Softee and Edday, Oshan). The EP is documented by Apple Music and PepseeActus.
*What is the New Bouyon Wave #1 single?* Released on 29 September 2023, with TiiTii NBA, Nils, DJ Softee, Aknose & Theomaa. It is the second major milestone: after the EP that places the name, the single gives the movement a group image.
What role does 1T1 play in the wave? Producer-artist and network organizer. RFI presents him in 2025 as one of the voices of new-generation Bouyon. PepseeActus documents him as Terry Baptiste, with CHORD in the discography and connections with Theomaa, MiiMii KDS, Aknose. He rises across 2024-2026.
What does the wave change compared to earlier Bouyon? Not the genre's definition (still fast, direct, Caribbean, inheriting Dominica/Guadeloupe), but the diffusion mode. Before: band + party + organizer + venue. Now: also platforms + clips + snippets + features + metadata + artist profiles. A visibility speed the first wave did not have.
Where can I listen to the New Bouyon Wave? TiiTii NBA's New Bouyon Wave (Bouyon 2023) EP on Apple Music. New Bouyon Wave #1 on Shazam and Amazon Music. Volé'y by Lucky lukee on Apple Music. Releases by 1T1, DJ Softee, Theomaa, LeJuh, Aknose on PepseeActus and streaming platforms.
Further reading
- Gwada Transition. Chapter V. The 2016-2022 bridge generation that makes the New Bouyon Wave possible: Bilix, Kevni, Edday, Team Bwè Tou Sa. - Saint-Martin Wakes. Chapter VI. The other island that dares to name itself: Tolly Boyz / YMW place the first SXM Bouyon track (2015-2025). - Warm Up. Chapter VIII. When the New Bouyon Wave slows the tempo without losing its fire: KPT, 1T1, Theomaa, DJ Softee, TIITII NBA. - Global Crossover. Chapter IX. How Theodora, Mr Ridge, Lady Lava and Asa Banton carry Bouyon beyond the Antilles. - Back to the Bouyon hub. The interactive 3D map of the 12 chapters + 130 artists.
Next step
Chapter VIII. Warm Up
2019-2026. Bouyon slows down without losing the fire: live traces, Warm Up, KPT, 1T1, Theomaa, DJ Softee, TIITII NBA, tempo becomes another strategy.
