James Kawele Kavimba, popularly known as JEMAX, has become the third Zambian artist to surpass 60 million album streams on boomplay with his ‘The Boogeyman’ album. The album also became the second Zambian hip-hop to achieve the milestone after rapper Chef 187 achieved the said milestone with his ‘Broke Nolunkumbwa’ album.
The 31-year-old rapper who hails from Kabwe, Central Province, released his highly anticipated album on 24th May, 2024. After its release, the album saw an exponential growth amassing over a million streams on boomplay with 14 hours and 5 million streams within 48 hours.
Today, the album stands at over 60.1 million boomplay streams, hence becoming his biggest release of his career. The album joins top Zambian rapper Chef 187’s Broke Nolunkumbwa album and top Zambian singer Yo Maps’ Try Again album, which were released in 2023.
Jemax’s The Boogeyman also accumulated over 2 million streams on Spotify, becoming the second most streamed album released in 2024. This milestone continues to highlight the huge impact the piece of art has had not only on the rapper’s career but also on the Zambian music scene.
Among the top three Zambian albums that have surpassed 60 million boomplay streams, two of them are hip-hop albums whilst the other is Afropop. This raises the question, is Zambian Hip-Hop the most loved genre by Zambian music consumers?
The rapper has not released any other project since the release of The Boogeyman almost a year ago. One thing for sure is, the 13 track album for a long time will remain one of the biggest projects to ever come out of Zambia.
