Coast 2 Coast is the world’s largest DJ coalition (more than 2,000) for the past fifteen years. Its motto: “The largest artist showcase in the world”. Since its creation, hundreds of urban artists increased their visibility in the United States and throughout the world. Guadeloupean singers Nashoo and Haya participated in this great contest and are now representatives of Coast 2 Coast in France.
In 2014, when they lived in England, singers Nashoo and Haya decided to participate in Coast 2 Coast mixtape, this United States-based contest in which thousands of artists participate each year. The name of their song was “Tsunami” and about the qualities of a woman with dance hall rhythm. They could not imagine that with this song they would first seduce the viewers – who voted massively for them – then, they would be second in this contest. “We just participated, but we did not think to be ranked well. When we saw the results, we were surprised and happy”, said Nashoo. After the contest, “Tsunami” was among the songs selected for the “mixtape” (volume 270) released on October 4, 2014. As a gift, on the song “Tsunami”, the famous American rapper Future speaks to close the “mixtape”…
It should be known that in the United States, a “mixtape” is an unofficial, not labeled release presented by a labeled – so a very well-known – artist. Generally, when an already famous artist is about to release an album, he contacts Coast 2 Coast to present his new music tracks to the public on a “mixtape”. Future followed this path then Coast 2 Coast made a call to the independent artists (like Nashoo and Haya) to be on the “mixtape” by popular vote.
“Tsunami”, a lucky song
Future is not the only one to have used Coast 2 Coast to launch a new album, other stars like Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne or Dr Dre regularly use this contest which is a kind of media “springboard”…
“After this good rank for the mixtape, we got thousands of followers, downloads, good feedback. So we decided to participate again in the Coast 2 Coast contest but this time, it was not only a question of sending our song, we also had to perform live, on stage. In addition, this was the first time that Coast 2 Coast moved to England and Europe”, said Haya.
It should be noted that, every year, on Labor Day in September, all winners of the “mixtape” contests meet for the annual convention at Coast 2 Coast headquarters in Miami; the big winner receives $50,000 and signs a contract for the broadcast and promotion of one of his music tracks.
Both Guadeloupean artists chose to compete again with their song “Tsunami” and, after the online public vote, they obtained their selection to perform live. They found themselves before the jury composed, among others, of Lil Fats in person (the CEO of Coast 2 Coast), 808 Mafia (the most famous coalition of beatmakers in the United States), DJ Biggs (a great DJ). On September 13, the contest took place in Camdem, a district of London. The Guadeloupean duo ranked 4th among the twelve finalists.
Ambassadors for Coast to Coast
The next day, Haya and Nashoo, had planned to return to France so, Coast 2 Coast asked them to become its ambassadors on the French territory; one of their main missions was to organize this great contest in France, something which had never before happened in the country. Both artists accepted this unexpected proposal. “Nashoo and I were very honored and we took the opportunity to work with Coast 2 Coast”, said Haya.
Another important point: the two artists speak English which facilitates their exchanges. Indeed, Nashoo (Nadine) was born of a Dominican mother and a Guadeloupean father; as for Haya (Cédric), by living in England, he learned to master the language of Shakespeare.
On February 6, 2016, they organized the first edition of the Coast 2 Coast contest at the Mikado in Paris. Jury members were, among others, Yann Dakta (Producer for rap group PNL), Dream Touch (producer for Sexion d’Assaut, Booba, Shaggy etc.), Hit Lokal (an association that distributes awards to French artists from the Caribbean since 2012), or Y-Not Productions (producer for Elephant Man, Mavado etc.)
Then, in June 2016, they organized the Coast 2 Coast contest in Cannes during the International Market in Music and Music Publishing (MIDEM), the world’s largest gathering of companies working in the music industry.
A growing popularity
For two years, N&H has already organized in France 7 editions of the Coast 2 Coast contest with 7 winners. The next edition will take place in August 2018 and, for the first time since it was launched, the contest will not be held at the Mikado but in a place called Les Disquaires located in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. The couple of artists who has been living in Guadeloupe for eight months to reconnect with his roots ensures that the contest organization is going well. “Now, we have an overview of the music industry. Thanks to Coast 2 Coast, we built a lot of contacts. So we decided to create our own label – Spaceship Music International – for music production, management, events”, said Haya.
Today, the popularity of Nashoo and Haya continues to grow in the world of urban music. They give interviews in Guadeloupe but also in the United States. In 2017, American rapper Reimes Schemes invited them to record on his album “Rhymaggedon” the music track “Island Flame”, the only multilingual song played by major radio stations throughout the United States, Canada…
