19-05-2025
Gauging the next generation of hip-hop in Papua New Guinea with one of its bright up-and-comers, Jay Sint
For multilingual music-makers in the Pacific, which language would you deploy when spitting a couple of fire hip-hop bars?
It's just one of the many questions we had for Jay Sint, an up-and-coming rapper in Papua New Guinea's hip-hop scene.
On the dynamic felt between him and his peers, he told Nesia Daily: "It's competitive but it's healthy competition between brothers… It's very exciting to come together."
Spurred on by the lyricism of local legends such as Sprigga Mek, Jay Sint and his crew of young, like-minded MCs found some national attention through a collaborative single released in late 2024, Block Party Dubplate — a song which found legs well beyond its original purpose as promotional material for a live event they were putting on in the nation's capital.
"So when people started vibing to it and listening to it, I'm like… It wasn't supposed to blow up like this," he said.
Funnily enough, despite having already happened, he still has people asking him for details about the show spotlighted on the track.
Speaking candidly with Nesia Daily, Jay Sint spoke about his family roots, music making, and which language he finds most natural whilst rapping.
