Ztekk has partnered with Simple Stupid and Geffen Records to ink Byron Messia.

The 23-year-old Saint Kittian artist has garnered plenty of buzz with his breakout hit “Talibans,” which went #1 in 13 countries on Apple Music, entered Spotify’s Daily Viral 50 Global chart at #10 and has generated 25m+ YouTube views alone since release.

In addition to hitting #25 on Shazam U.S. Top 200, the track reached #1 on Shazam in N.Y., is Top 5 in Boston, Top 10 in Miami and Top 20 in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.

It also just broke the Top 40 on the U.K. OCC singles chart and continues to gain traction in the N.Y. market, where it’s been #2 at Apple Music’s NYC charts for the last two weeks and is now getting radio airplay at iHeart.

Bringing his own style to dancehall and rap music—a genre he titled “dancesoul”—Messia’s recent success propelled his 2023 debut album, No Love, to reach #8 on the Reggae Albums chart.

Having earned co-signs from the likes of Dave, Bobby Shmurda, Burna Boy, Stefflon Don, Popcaan, Chris Brown, Drake, Swizz Beats and Lil Tjay, Messia most recently dropped his follow-up single, “90z,” on 5/26.

Photo Credit: Nicholas Gregg