The BoykinZ emerge from TikTok as youngest stars in country's Black female revolution

Noting that the area between independent African-American sister vocal quartet The BoykinZ's roots in Columbia, South Carolina and home in Snellville, Georgia, includes Augusta, Georgia -- the home of both James Brown and Amy Grant -- provides the best context as to why Alona, Anale, Kylan and Nytere Boykin, aged 15-21, have amassed nearly 500,000 TikTok followers in just over a year. As viral popularity becomes the greatest judge of acclaim in country music, they are the best-poised act yet to achieve crossover social media-driven success in the genre.

Alisa and Lonnie Boykin are the parents of seven children in total. Four girls, three boys. Look at the husband and wife team's LinkedIn pages and for the past decade, they've attempted to develop their quartet of daughters into big business in popular music. Yes, The BoykinZ, LLC is an actual legal entity, and their children are home-schooled.

The family -- and their marketing and media team -- smiles confidently while conversing with The Tennessean at Lower Broadway's festive, multi-level concept restaurant Layer Cake. They feel their potential resembles another family-driven Black, southern musical group: Destiny's Child.

It's still early to parallel their success to Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams selling 35 million albums worldwide with four No. 1 singles in under a decade. However, the potential for African-American female success in country music -- even after country music has existed for nearly a century -- is entirely unknown.

Mickey Guyton, Linda Martell, Rissi Palmer, Allison Russell, and Yola have succeeded in the past half-century. However, mainstream country music is still a slowly evolving space for Black women.

"We want to achieve spectacular success and inspire young Black women to be here, in Nashville, right now," says Anale Boykin. "Via social media, younger creatives are expressing themselves. That's wonderful," adds Kylan Boykin.

Kylan notes that they thought TikTok was a "silly" way to highlight what were already tight, four-part harmonies bolstered by razor-sharp pop-aimed dance routines to songs that blend bits of honky-tonk ready country with mid-2000s R&B and trap-style flavors.

The group has already been recording in Nashville alongside three-time Grammy awarding winning producer and songwriter Nathan Chapman. The Music City native is best regarded for his decade of work with Taylor Swift, among many others.

Moreover, the group is honing their skills as instrumentalists, too. Three of the four Boykin sisters are guitarists, with Alona joking that she's willing to learn the tambourine.

These growing talents yield a diverse, growing touring schedule -- Black women's empowerment conferences in Atlanta, rodeos in Dallas, Texas and elementary schools in Brooklyn, NY.

Alongside acts like Tanner Adell, Blanco Brown, BRELAND and Tony Evans, Jr., the quartet highlights Black country music artists using social media to grow sustainable numbers and unprecedented acclaim early in their country music careers.

All of these acts currently have between 300-500,000 followers and in the case of Brown and BRELAND, have parlayed their popularity to the top of Billboard's Country Airplay charts.

Couple this with the idea that 15-year-old Alona Boykin has only known a country music real-time existence that starts with Jimmie Allen moving to Nashville while Palmer and Darius Rucker both having charting success (Palmer with three consecutive Hot Country Chart singles between Nos. 47-54 and Rucker with back-to-back platinum-selling No. 1 singles -- "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" and "It Won't Be Like This for Long").

The power of living in a moment where Black excellence in country music feels as achievable as Black excellence in any other genre is highlighted by their discussion about playing for public elementary school students in Brooklyn and The Bronx, NY.

"We were supposed to surprise these kids, but they surprised us with their choreography and cowboy wear. They authentically appreciate how we infuse country music and its lifestyle in our music.," stated Nytere Boykin.

In 1997, Destiny's Child received a massive mainstream co-sign when Fugees member Wyclef Jean remixed their debut major label single "No, No, No." A fan of their work, he took them on the road as his openers and every night on tour, rapped his prediction in song form that the group's success would "go from a dream to the young Supremes."

Twenty-five years later, the music industry is an entirely different monster. However, on a Feb. 4, 2023 episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show where The BoykinZ were interviewed by the taste-making American Idol winner with three No. 1 Billboard singles in a decade, they were surprised by her other guest: 100 million record-selling, three-decade veteran country music icon Shania Twain.

The ten-minute-long segment highlights their new single "Girls Night," plus their covers of songs by a multitude of country music stars, including Dan + Shay, The Judds and Dolly Parton. Halfway through, Twain emerges.

"I think you guys are so fabulous," the 16-time chart-topper gushes. "I want to sing with you."

The shock of the ask takes a few minutes to resonate for the quartet of sisters.

Later, Twain redoubles her resolve and makes a direct demand.

"When I'm in Nashville, I want you to come up and sing with me onstage. Yeah, we gotta do that."

Twain's 2023 "Queen of Me Tour" has over 50 dates already announced. Nashville's date on June 7 at GEODIS Park will feature Kelsea Ballerini and BRELAND -- and now, The Boykinz. In addition, Priscilla Block, Lindsay Ell, Mickey Guyton, Robyn Ottolini and Hailey Whitters have also been announced for other dates.

Regarding her diverse talent choices, Twain told The Tennessean the following.

"Country music remaining exclusive sends talented artists to other genres, which denies country music the ability to continue adapting to pop music's trends. I don't want country music to lose deserving artists by not properly highlighting them."

Twain's advice to the group on the Kelly Clarkson Show doubles best as the best judgment of their potential and next best steps.

"You're so excellent and disciplined already. I hope you feel the conviction of your skill and talent -- stay unique and follow your own direction, don't be followers."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: The BoykinZ emerge from TikTok as youngest stars in country's Black female revolution