Townsville rapper, YNG Martyr, takes Australia by storm after whirlwind year

Fresh from rocking the main stage at one of Australia’s biggest festivals, Townsville’s own YNG Martyr looks back on a whirlwind year that’s launched his music onto the global stage.

Townsville rapper Seaton Rogers, most commonly known as YNG Martyr, performing at Listen Out in 2024.

Just one year ago, Townsville rapper YNG Martyr was performing in front of a small but energetic crowd of family, friends, and fans. Now, 365 days later, he’s cemented himself as one of Australia’s top rap exports.

Fresh off the back of performances with one of Australia’s biggest music festivals, Listen Out, Seaton Rogers, most commonly known by his stage name YNG Martyr, has had time to reflect on his whirlwind year.

“I recorded my first song when I was 15 or 16 … it’s been 10 years of doing this, so I should feel like a veteran of the game right now, but I feel like this is the year that I’ve truly gone bang and started to take off,” YNG Martyr said.

“(Last year) I was doing the Illy tour, which was cool. We done a ton of shows and I was kind of opening for him and people were like ‘Oh this guy is cool but who the f**k is he?’ People had no idea what my music was or who I was.”

“It feels like that’s changed now. I go and play shows, and people know me, and people are actually aware of my stuff now, which I think is very cool.”

Townsville rapper Seaton Rogers, most commonly known as YNG Martyr, performing at in 2024.

First gaining popularity in 2019 through his viral song ‘Nike Ticks’, the 25-year-old has used internet culture and social media platforms to set himself apart from other up-and-coming artists.

“My main problem was when I was making these songs, and when I made Nike Ticks, I was relying on meme pages and marketing my music through really rogue and weird methods,” YNG Martyr said.

“People started to love it, but they never really knew who made the song, so it has helped massively to stop leveraging all of that and entirely just put all of my effort into creating sick videos of myself to push the song.”

YNG Martyr performing at This That festival

“There’s so much more connective tissue now between me and my music, whereas before, I think my music really was just a stand-alone product.”

This method has boosted his reach and gained him nearly a million monthly listeners on Spotify as well as attention from celebrities such as Logan Paul, who shared an Instagram story using YNG Martyr’s song to his 27 million followers.

“He put that up on his story, and a few days later, he put it up again, and that’s when I messaged him saying that it was totally … life-changing,” YNG Martyr said.

“Being an independent artist that does not have all of these massive connections, just to see someone that big supports the music so genuinely … it’s super heartwarming, and I’m super grateful.”

He used his most recent milestone, performing at Listen Out across Australia, to give his audience a unique experience.

“I’ve done festivals in previous years on side stages and off to the corner, but this brought me on the main stage, so it was definitely a weird feeling … It’s such a cool experience,” YNG Martyr said.

Originally published as Townsville rapper, YNG Martyr, takes Australia by storm after whirlwind year