Independent ridge
July 02, 2020

Curtis Waters - TikTok star who refuses to sign to record labels

Curtis Waters was in a bad mood, "trying to make some stupid shit and cheer up", and made 'Stunnin'', a moody song with a laid-back, appealingly shabby dance routine. It suddenly picked up hundreds of thousands of views overnight, and last week, 'Stunnin'' became the fastest unsigned record to go into Spotify’s flagship playlist, Today’s Top Hits, since Arizona Zervas’ 'Roxanne'. But unlike Zervas, who inked a deal with Columbia Records, Waters is choosing not to sign with a major label, as he's told Rolling Stone - "I felt like I was being treated like a commodity, like I was just a product”. So he wrote another song, 'System', a brittle, declamatory punk missile with a blunt message - “I’m boutta fuck the system up”.