In Search Of: 19-Year-Old Rapper Ambjaay Is TikTok’s Latest Favorite Artist

Here at Genius, we’re in a unique position as a music lyrics site to discover rising artists while staying on top of the latest trends. Millions of fans come to Genius every day after using Google to find the lyrics for songs they truly love, whether they’re looking for their favorite buzzing artists or the most viral songs of the moment. Every week, we’re going to look at our data and pinpoint why fans have been searching for a selected artist. While our Top Songs charts already reflect what’s popular right now, this is a deeper dive into the data to find the hidden gems that aren’t as readily apparent.

Following in the footsteps of Lil Nas X, Watts-raised rapper Ambjaay (pronounced Am-Bee-Jay) is the latest hip-hop artist to score a TikTok-fueled viral hit with the semi-bilingual “Uno.” Relatively new to the game, the 19-year-old Columbia Records signee has been making music for two years, and first started gaining traction with a small, but loyal following through Instagram.

After establishing his name in late 2018 with the regional hit, “Shit Talker,” Ambjaay dropped “Uno” in February. In an interview with Rosecrans Radio, the rapper explained how the beat inspired him to mix rudimentary Spanish with English lyrics.

According to Ambjaay, he made the hook immediately after hearing the Almighty Quise-produced beat on Instagram. “I hit [Quise] up like, ‘Take that down. I already made the hook,‘” Ambjaay remembered. “And then it’s already like a Spanish, like Mexican beat so I wanted to come like Spanish-type, but English with it, too.”

During an interview for Genius' series Verified, Ambjaay elaborated about wanting to unite different cultures through the song. “I had to include Latino culture because it’s like a Latino beat,” he said. “To be honest Latinos and black don’t really be getting along, so this song can bring us together.”

Ambjaay isn’t the only Los Angeles rapper to mix Spanish and English on a recent track. Three months after “Uno” was released, YG dropped “Go Loko” as the second single from his most recent album, 4REAL 4REAL.

“Uno” became the breakout track from his EP, It Cost to Live Like This. The song racked up hundreds of thousands of SoundCloud streams within the first month of its release before receiving a major boost from a viral dance video on April 24:

Genius daily pageviews doubled overnight, allowing “Uno” to cross the 1,000 pageview threshold on April 25. The song continued the momentum over the next four weeks before receiving another small boost on May 20 when Ambjaay performed it at his sister’s wedding. Around the same time, “Uno” got picked up by TikTok, where popular users like dev and Rece made videos centering around the track’s chorus.

Elsewhere in the Genius interview, Ambjaay spoke about the role of TikTok and Triller, a similar app, in popularizing the song. “TikTok and Triller helped a lot because mainly I feel like kids be on there a lot,” he said. 2 million TikTok clips have been made with “Uno” to date.

From there, there was no stopping “Uno” as a viral hit. It entered Spotify’s Viral 50 chart at No. 4 on May 23, reaching a new peak of 7,177 daily pageviews that same day. Within the next week, Ambjaay capitalized on the momentum by dropping the song’s music video. Celebrities such as Wiz Khalifa, Kehlani, and Jay Rock all followed with their cosigns.

Since May 23, “Uno” has maintained a steady presence on Genius' Top Songs chart, where it currently sits at No. 16 with 253,066 total pageviews. With a June average of 9,298 daily pageviews and a video that’s racked up 4 million YouTube views in two weeks, the track doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon.

Whether Ambjaay can be anything more than a one-hit wonder remains to be seen, but he has found some other success with “Choppa Go (Blocka Blocka).” The more straightforward track has surpassed 1 million SoundCloud streams, suggesting that Ambjaay may not have to stick to the sound he established on “Uno” to increase his fanbase.