Here are 4 Atlanta musicians you should have on your radar in 2026
While Atlanta is known for its mainstream stars, the area has no shortage of budding musicians looking to make it big in one of the top musical cities.
Below is an in-depth portrait of four such acts that we’re excited about in 2026, including a playlist of their work.
Swavay
Hometown: Atlanta
Age: 28
Suggested track: “Bishop”
A few minutes of listening to Swavay’s 2025 “Billy2″ mixtape will transport you into a boxing ring fighting against your enemies.
The standout project, also named on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s best in music list last year, is pure villainy, centering the Cobb County-bred rapper’s war against the music industry and naysayers.
“I have nothing to lose,” said the artist, born Andre Jones (Swavay is a childhood nickname), about his mood when creating “Billy2.” “Like, if I lose with this, it is what it is. But I also wanted to make something that I wanted to listen to every single day.”
Since the release of the mostly self-produced mixtape last spring — featuring infectious samples from Destiny’s Child and Beenie Man — he’s been featured on Jermaine Dupri’s “Magic City” compilation album, toured with JID and headlined his first show.
In November, Swavay dropped an extended version of the project, hosted by legendary Atlanta producer DJ Holiday.
This year, he plans to release the third and final installment of his “Billy” mixtape series, which began in 2024. Its title stems from yet another childhood nickname: “Billy Badass.” His mom gave him the moniker as a result of his bad behavior.
In middle school at Imagine International Academy, Swavay was quiet and dreamed of playing basketball. However, after winning a lunch rap battle, he started taking rap seriously. He wanted to “record in every way I can, on Rock Band mics, Guitar Hero mics” and at the studio of his uncle (and former Atlanta Falcons player) Bryan Scott. Simultaneously, Swavay fervently studied rappers Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole.
“When you catch that music bug, nothing else matters,” he said.
In the late 2010s, he became the first artist signed to Metro Boomin’s Boominati Worldwide label. He later left the deal on amicable terms (“being the first artist comes with its own trauma … but you can never put nobody at fault for that”) and signed with New York-based Def Jam Recordings.
“Almetha’s Son,” his major-label debut, dropped in 2022. The album, featuring James Blake, G Herbo and Destin Conrad, is autobiographical. Throughout it, he employs a stream-of-consciousness flow to address new artist woes and being adopted.
“I wanted to have a project that people listened to and was like, ‘I know who Swavay is’ versus being like, ‘I mean, I listen to such and such, but I don’t really know nothing about him.’”
Shortly after, Swavay found himself taking the independent route yet again, leaving Def Jam because of budget cuts. Now, while working on “Billy3,” he’s searching for a new label, wanting to make his “next move my best move.”
Although “Billy3″ (tentatively scheduled for the spring) is a mixtape, Swavay is approaching it with the same intentionality as an album. For him, that means more honesty: ruminating on jealousy, past label troubles and meeting his biological mom.
An untitled, neo-soul flavored track on the project offers a hearty taste: “Pray to God that my trauma don’t rub off on all my kids,” Swavay raps over a jazzy guitar beat.
“This is (the) first time in my life I felt pressure,” he said. “I know a lot of people feel like this next one gotta be the one for me … I need that one that kind of pushes me a little further.”
Csndra
Hometown: Orlando, Florida
Age: 30
Suggested track: “Cuida”
Csndra’s love songs are rooted in the big feelings and emotional depth reflective of her life. She’s married to fellow Atlanta artist, Christian rapper WhatUpRG, with whom she shares a 6-month-old son.
“I’ve grown as an adult in my relationship, and there are things that have changed about me,” the singer, who has Puerto Rican roots, said. “I’m a mother now, and my viewpoint on time now is literally so precious.”
The artist journey of Csndra, whose real name is Cassandra Jolie Garcia, officially began in 2017 while undertaking vocal training. As a former choir and theater kid who grew up in a musical family, pursuing the arts was always her priority.
She later moved to Miami, then metro Atlanta in 2020, eventually settling in Suwanee. Csndra dropped her first single, “Very Well,” in 2022. In 2024, she released her first EP, “Lovers Club, Vol. 1,” introducing listeners to her amatory croons laced with subtle, alternative pop sounds.
This year, Csndra will release part two of the project, which she says is “rooted in more mature love.” Its soon-to-be-released lead single “Lovesick” is based on her growing relationship with her husband, as the pair navigate their respective music careers and a young marriage.
“I think something that we always try to do is just make time to be human because we’re so busy,” she said. “The essence of the song is like having someone to ground you. (Part 2) is not so much like I have a crush on you and I kind of think I like you. This one is more like I want to care for you. I want to be with you. This is very much so learning to love as an adult.”
Next month, she’ll hit the road on her first tour, as a supporting act for Houston-based Latino rock band Vortxz.
For Csndra, who performs in Spanish and English, supporting her culture and the artists within it is always important, “especially (with) everything that’s going on with ICE right now,” she said, alluding to controversial federal immigration enforcement tactics.
“I realized that the best parts of me are my culture, like my food, my memories with my family. The music that we make is so beautiful and so rich. However I can express this and keep this alive, I’ll do my best to do that.”
At the same time, as she interacts with new fans while on tour, she’s hoping people understand the totality of her artistry.
“People are like, ‘She’s a Puerto Rican indie pop artist from Orlando,’” she said. “I’m like, ‘I’m mostly a human girl with real feelings and a struggle.’ Music helped pull me out of a dark place. When I make music, I make it for people who have hard homes that they’re growing up in, for kids coming out of really tragic breakups or people just navigating their own identity and insecurity.”
Improvement Movement
Hometown: Atlanta
Age: 30-41
Suggested track: “Too Far”
There are several possible ways to describe Atlanta band Improvement Movement’s music: folk, rock, experimental, psychedelic, soul.
But, if you ask the band, its sound is less complicated.
“The one thread through all of it is that there’s a lot of singing, a lot of harmonies, there’s a lot of all four people in the band bringing in a song or writing completely and collaboratively,” said keyboardist Zach Pyles.
Along with Pyles, the four-piece act includes drummer Tony Aparo, guitarist Clark Hamilton and bassist Marshall Ruffin. All four members contribute to vocals.
Most of the group met in the city’s indie scene a decade ago, forming a casual, larger collective of musicians and friends who’d record at a studio in the now-defunct Mammal Gallery, previously located in south downtown before moving to the West End.
“It was like this secret little room tucked away in a place where there were maybe 20 artists during the day at any given time doing something,” Aparo said. “It was a very inspiring place to be.”
Things didn’t really kick off for the band until the late 2010s, when it solidified as a quartet. In 2019, Improvement Movement recorded its debut album, “Don’t Delay, Join Today,” an offering abundant with 1970s-era trippy rock.
But the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests halted the release plans.
“I’m not trying to raise my hand and be like, ‘Look at my little album,’” Pyles said. “It was not the time for that.”
The album eventually dropped in 2022, followed by the indie band’s 2024 follow-up “Slump.” Last year, Improvement Movement released a deluxe edition of the latter and made its Shaky Knees Festival debut.
The show, one of roughly 120 concerts the band performed last year, felt like the band’s homecoming, Aparo said.
“We drove through the night from Virginia. We were still on tour. We had to leave two days after, so being right over there, and sitting on the stage and seeing the skyline from an angle of a performer — which, I’ve sat in the park there a lot — was really surreal.”
This year, the band is working on new music and gearing up to release its third album. Improvement Movement is tight-lipped on specifics, but they know the new LP will be darker and more upbeat than the previous album.
And, of course, influenced by the group’s long time on the road last year. Improvement Movement wants the music to mimic the energy of its live performances.
“How do you want to feel?,” Pyles said about the new album. “Where do you want to go with an audience? You want to experience a lot of things at a show. What are they, you know?”
Storm Ford
Hometown: Providence, Rhode Island
Age: 25
Suggested song: “Step Back”
“I’m a supernova.”
That’s the affirmation Storm Ford said to herself every morning after dropping out of Manhattanville University in New York shortly after enrolling. It was 2020, at the height of the pandemic. Ford, a member of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Indian tribe who also has a Nigerian and Laotian background, was studying to be an entertainment attorney.
But she always knew her talents were a better fit for the stage.
“I feel like it’s so typical for people to be like, ‘I’m a star,’” she said. “But the supernova is the biggest, strongest star. So why would you not say that?”
After five days, the affirmation paid off. She participated in an Instagram Live talent show for the Atlanta-based label LVRN, signed a songwriting publishing deal and moved to Atlanta. The career-defining move crystallized a journey that began a decade prior.
Ford started writing songs at the age of 10, with her creative juices galvanized by the music in the 2006 Oscar-winning film “Dreamgirls.” Ford’s grandma, her primary caregiver, bought her the CD, and she mimicked the tone and riffs of leading stars Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson.
In high school, she interned at a local music studio and dropped her first EP, “Highest Mountain.” Upon moving to Atlanta, she honed her knack for songwriting, penning for the likes of Ari Lennox, Summer Walker and Mary J. Blige.
Still, Ford’s creative and personal life felt empty.
“I was really in a naive and maybe insecure or more desperate space and just really wanting people to validate what I had seen in myself.”
That was until 2023, when she signed a deal with Human Re Sources, a distribution company servicing artists like Raye and Jill Scott. The partnership proved to her that she had to go “full throttle” in showcasing her solo artistry.
Last year, she dropped her first full-length offering from that deal, “Down Payment.” The eight-track EP, with lead single “Trying,” is sprinkled with the many growing pains of falling in and out of love — all while being a mirror of contemporary and old-school R&B.
Songs from the EP were written over five years, laying the foundation for the revelations on her debut album slated for this year.
“All of that naivety and desperateness are not undertones in the album, but I think that’s where a lot of women are from like 19 to 23 because of societal pressures that say you should aspire to be desired by men,” Ford said. “I think I really had to grow out of that.”
The album, titled “The Cost of Feelings,” is nearly done, though it doesn’t have an official release date. A preliminary version features soul veteran Marsha Ambrosius and R&B newcomer Chase Shakur, exemplifying Ford’s skill in studying the greats while embracing new sounds.
There’s “Unspoken,” a sexy house-tinged track about a tantalizing attraction too alluring for words to describe. There’s also “Human Design,” a somber, hazy song with a compelling chorus about Ford’s experience with borderline personality disorder.
The album’s intimacy and depth, both sonically and personally, is what Ford’s most excited to share with her growing audience this year.
“I want people to hear my internal dialogue, how my heart operates, how I navigate this world as an entrepreneur, as a young woman trying to adequately represent all of my ethnic backgrounds. It’s just a fusion of everything that I am, and hopefully a little piece of who y’all are.”
About the Author
DeAsia is a music and culture reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She focuses on the intersection of arts, culture and diverse communities, as well as how emerging social trends are being expressed through the lens of the Atlanta aesthetic. DeAsia's work can be seen in Pitchfork, Essence, Teen Vogue, Elle and more.
