fakemink Deserves the Hype

"fakemink came as a tip from my very tapped-in cousin. I used to play Mario Kart DS with him at family functions and now he's making beats for yuke and Ja66 and keeping me apprised of what's happening in the German SoundCloud scene. He sent me some fakemink links in the middle of last year. The Londoner's voice, pitched up so it's somewhere between sped-up Lucki and a Galaxy Gas freestyle, sounded slick over every weird ass beat."

"A few months later, I edited his first written interview. After flaking on the writer several times, he finally hopped on a call and rambled about sharing a life philosophy with Alexander McQueen and how his jerky snare patterns come not from SoundCloud wizards but Drake's "Headlines." When we titled it "fakemink wants to save London rap," it felt like wishful thinking. How is this random kid with 10,000 monthly listeners supposed to take over?"

A younger relative tipped off listeners to fakemink, whose pitched-up, bright voice and experimental beats combined melted funk and glitchy textures with poignant, bittersweet delivery. Early interviews revealed eclectic influences, from Alexander McQueen aesthetics to Drake's "Headlines" impacting jerky snare patterns, and ambitions framed around reshaping London rap. Major exposure arrived when Drake brought the 20-year-old onstage at Wireless, triggering high-profile cosigns from artists and celebrities. The rapid surge in visibility produced both fervent support and backlash, with accusations of losing authenticity and being an industry plant as fakemink joins other emerging British upstarts.

Read at Pitchfork