are combing their efforts to give new artists international exposure
on their Youtube podcast, Coming Right at You with Albooby.
By Sylvia Dunnavant Hines
Texas Metro News Correspondent
Even though they might seem like an unlikely combination, paralegal, Bella Washington DuPlexis and hip-hop artist John Bouka Baptiste are combing their efforts to create an innovative podcast targeting the entertainment industry.
Baptiste, DuPlexis’ fiance, is a native of Congo-Brazzaville and resides in South Africa, and performs as a rapper under the name of Albooby. Although the two are over 9,000 miles apart, they have come together to produce their weekly podcast, Coming Right at You with Albooby Show, which can be streamed on YouTube.
“I decided to start the podcast when my friend, Mark Ayers Jr., who is a gospel artist released a new song. I thought the song was phenomenal, and I wanted the world to hear it. I made a clip and posted it on my personal Facebook page,,” said DuPlexis. “Then something miraculous happened. I continued to push the record with a Facebook live posting. After my postings, I began to get friend requests from around the world. In a few days my followers on Facebook went from around 1,000 to 5,000 people.”
Once DuPlexis realized her success, she joined forces with Baptiste who had already developed a large following among his hip-hop audience in South Africa.
“Originally our goal was to help independent artists that didn’t have a recording label to prompt their projects. As we are finishing our third season we are expanding our vision. We want to help people in the entertainment industry overall gain global exposure,” said DuPlexis.
As they have expanded their vision, they have also broadened their focus for the podcast to include actresses, authors, and models.
According to DuPlexis, the podcast, which can be streamed on YouTube on Wednesday evenings at 8:00 pm went from 200 subscribers to 180,000 viewers in its second season.
“We have worked with artists in Colmbia, Israel, and South Africa, said DuPlexis, adding that due to the fact that Albooby is from South Africa, the bulk of artists are from South Africa. “As a local hip-hop artist, it is easy for him to recruit other artists to participate in our podcast.”
Taking advantage of their international audience, DuPlexis and Baptiste are confident that their podcast platform will open international exposure opportunities for new artists that may not traditionally have that type of access.
As they are completing their third season they have had as many as 40,000 viewers for one episode. One of their seasons is equivalent to 10 episodes.
Their increased viewership has landed them national sponsorship with major companies which includes Frito Lay, Coca-Cola, and Chanel.
“Due to our large audience, we have a great opportunity to impact the careers of the artists that come on our show. We had two artists on our podcast Adrienne LaShe and Lashae Love, who were both nominated for independent artist of the year for the BET Music Awards,” said DuPlexis. “For us this was a huge success story because these artists did not have a large audience prior to being on our show.”
As their audience increases, DuPlexis said they are expanding their concept to include celebrity guests like Martin Emerson, a cornerback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League.
“As artists our platform is to help and support people in different ways by giving them global exposure. We are becoming a change agent in the industry. Once people have done one interview, they want to do a second interview,” said Baptiste.
As a team, Baptiste and DuPlexis are working to make an overall impact in the entertainment industry. They are not just a TV show, they have a distribution and global production company, BW Global productions. Albooby’s music can also be found on their independent music label, Hustle For Money, and all streaming platforms as well.
“As we expand, we want our artists to broaden their scope of impact as well. We currently have connections in America, South Africa, and China, “said DuPlexis.
Artists that are wanting to be featured on their upcoming podcasts can reach out to them on their YouTube Channel at @belladuplexiscomingrightat1366 and their website, www.albellamusic.com.
Sylvia Dunnavant Hines is a photographer, journalist and best-seling author, based in the D/FW Metroplex.
