The Allure of Underground Music and Fakemink’s Takeover

Music is a quick, unforgiving, and ruthless game. Artists fall in and out of the limelight faster than you can even believe. New artists hail from every corner of the world and fight over every inch of your screen. 

To combat the fall, we see a lot of artists “sell out”. They sacrifice their original sound and appeal for a mass appeal and unoriginal sound. My friends call me dumb for this, but whenever I find out about a new artist, I must start with their oldest work. In most cases, that first album is their untouched, uninfluenced, most true sound that they wanted to put out. 

Your song, painting, movie, clothing, whatever art it is, should have a piece of you pasted in there for all of us to see/experience. I want to hear your corner of your world, your version, your perspective. I feel that most first albums are that exactly. There are no millions of expected streams to cloud up the intent and filter their true ideas. At least not yet.  

This way of looking at music, and just art in general, is why I gravitate towards the underground scenes of said genres. It’s a constant and competitive revolving door of artists. The genre is truly boundless-a pure blend of countless other styles into one. It’s so authentic. Uncooked and rough around the edges sound that challenges my ear. A taste that is unmatched by anything else. In energy, community, passion, culture, and sheer art creation. You just don’t find this kind of pure unapologetic artistry in many other avenues of art, and especially one that is so accessible and fun. 

And as of the last 7-8 months, UK underground has been my sonic addition with fakemink supplying the biggest fix. 

“For the most part, it’s kinda like a UK renaissance” – fakemink 

Fakemink is London’s newest bright grey cloud. 

Originally under the producer name 9090, fakemink is the newest underground rap phenom. Breaking out from the UK at only 20 years of age, he has spearheaded the movement. With co-signs from Drake, Frank Ocean, Clairo, and even Ecco2k, fakemink is looking to take over your speakers.  

The first time I ever heard of fakemink was around 8 months ago. I was using the Spotify song radio feature where I pick one of my favorite songs and it gives me a bunch of similar ones.  

But like everything I end up getting obsessed with, I didn’t think he was all that good. It wasn’t until a month or two later that I saw that he had some songs made by OK, the producer, that I really started to listen to him.  

“Pillowfight” and “Crush” were the songs that hooked me. 

A lot of the time with underground rappers, you can very easily see where they are getting influenced by. But with fakemink, it is lightning in a bottle for his sound. Obviously, he is influenced by artists like Lucki, Asap Rocky, Drake, MIA, Kanye, etc., but he handpicks the influences and applies them back to his own style. Application and not fabrication. 

He takes certain parts-like Lucki’s early messy and emotional rapping style from albums such as Watch My Back, Drake’s nostalgic early 2000s prom sound, and MIA’s early rebellious opulent grime aesthetic, and makes them his own. 

Nostalgic, gritty, emotional, sample heavy, earthly, heavenly, soft, dirty, enigmatic, piercing, unsettling, heartfelt, intimate, uncut = Luxury Rap (as he himself calls it). There really isn’t any one word you can use to describe fakemink. 

His sound is really irreplicable. The energy isn’t found elsewhere. A cold December night, alone, with flashing streetlights in a small suburb with a brown filter over the world. That’s how some of these songs make me feel. Cozy and at peace with solitary life, with a holiday spirit lurking in the wind.  

We as fans gravitate to an artist like fakemink because even if they are enigmatic and feel so far away, their music still hits close to home. Fakemink being both undefined and defined allows us to define him ourselves. Define the lyrics, the beat, cover art, the aesthetic-back to our own life in our own way. He is DIY. In a genre-less genre, you can really be who you want to be.  

An excerpt from the article, ‘Meet fakemink, the UK Underground’s Next Big Thing’ written by Jazmine Kylene, captures his allure beautifully. 

“Everything about fakemink feels far away, a pixelated outline of a person with no tangibility. His visuals are quickly cut, never still long enough to take him completely in.”  

Here are some of my favorite songs!  

“Same Mistakes”, “Can’t Let Go”, “Baklava”, “Chinchilla”, “Trust Issues”, “Truffle”, “Mink”, “Colder”, and “Under Your Skin”.  

I know the UK accent can be a bit off-putting and on top of that, fakemink’s vocals can come off as harsh and annoying at first, so I would say it is a bit of an acquired taste. But that’s usually the case with content that isn’t widely consumed— it requires some effort on your part to step out of your comfort zone to really try and like it. And if you don’t then you don’t, not a big deal. Just some songs at the end of the day.  

“For 8 years I performed to an audience of none, my biggest fan was my laptop screen. Believe in yourself for 10 years and see where it takes you.” – fakemink 

Believe in yourself. Do it yourself. Take life by the horns. 

Extra Thoughts

The thing about listening to underground acts that’s fun is their ‘secret menu’ songs. They all have a couple of different accounts on Spotify and Apple Music that isn’t their main one.  

In fakemink’s case, he has 9090, fakemink archive, and then an assortment of songs out there with producers that you got to go find. It’s a great feeling to find a song that isn’t from his main account. Almost like an easter egg hunt. These songs don’t even have them listed as an artist on them so it’s always a pleasant surprise.  

The leaking music culture is also very big in rap music, and these artists make so many, I mean so many songs, so it’s inevitable. To counteract this, we see a lot of these artists just drop so much music, but usually just in singles. Full length albums are a bit rare. Fishing through a discography like fakemink’s can be a bit of work but that’s also the fun in it. 

I always tell my friends that music such as this, that is released mainly through singles, and is about 1-2 minutes long, is like candy. The songs hit, are a bit of a high, like sugar, in the sound. Glittery, glitchy, distorted, high pitched, loud, in your face, but can get a bit brain numbing and maybe isn’t the best for your ears in the long term. Like candy for your teeth.  

If it turns out you are really enjoying the underground UK sound and feel, here are some other artists in similar vein to fakemink that I would recommend checking out.  

Feng, snoa, Llondon Actress, Zukovstheworld, EsdeeKid, GhostinaFurCoat, Fimiguerrero, and phreshboyswag.  

If there are any other artists you feel I am missing out on or didn’t mention in this wave please let me know!