It’s been a while since a duo has truly shaken up the pop, R&B and hip-hop scene in one fell swoop — and Saint Lucia’s Lu City is aiming to do so with an unmistakably French Caribbean twist.
Comprised of two homegrown musicians — singer Ryie, born Tyler Ryie Auguste, 30, and rapper LUJA, born Jean-Atem Farah, 29 — Lu City consciously operates in the footsteps of the culture-steering musical duos and groups before it. The duo’s catalog, anchored by two studio albums, trades on the suave swagger and sing-rap balance of OutKast, the genre fusion of early Black Eyed Peas and the moody 2010s brand of R&B that buoyed Majid Jordan. The template is familiar, but Lu City innovates by injecting every aspect of their sonic and artistic profile with the rhythms, lingo and feeling of Saint Lucia — and several other West Indian cultures.
At the encouragement of the King of Soca, Machel Montano, the duo named themselves after their affectionate nickname for their home country. “The same way we Drake calls Toronto ‘The 6,’ we call Saint Lucia ‘Lu City’ in our songs,” LUJA tells Billboard, just a week after the duo’s mainstage performance at the 2026 Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival. The OVO crew is a major influence on Lu City; LUJA grew up studying 50 Cent, Lil Wayne and Eminem but has been rocking with Drake “since 2009,” while Ryie remembers going from OutKast, Chris Brown and Miguel to Partynextdoor, who he calls his “favorite R&B artist.”
