Arizona Zervas is an American rapper, singer and songwriter from Hagerstown, Maryland. He is associated with hip hop, pop rap and trap.

Career

Zervas releases his first song while he is still in eleventh grade. His debut single, Don’t Hit My Line, comes out in 2016, followed by more than 30 singles. He also releases a three-song debut EP, Living Facts, in 2018.

He writes and engineers all of his own songs, and works with producers including RedLightMuzik, J-Glad and 94skrt, who produces Roxanne.

Breakthrough with “Roxanne”

His first charting song, Roxanne, appears in October 2019 and becomes a viral hit on TikTok. It is also prominently featured in Spotify playlists, helping it reach number 1 on Spotify’s United States Top 50 chart and making it the first track by an unsigned, fully independent artist to top that chart since the beginning of 2017. The single debuts at number 35 on the US Billboard Hot 100, reaches number 24 in the UK, and reaches number 1 in New Zealand, becoming his first number-one single on any national chart. It also reaches number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and enters the top 40 in the UK and several other countries.

Later recognition

The success of Roxanne leads to a nationwide tour in 2019 and a record deal with Columbia Records in November of that year. Billboard reports that he performs more than 50 shows across the US, including at Webster Hall in New York. After the song’s success, his Spotify audience grows from just over 500,000 monthly listeners to nearly 15 million.