Part 3 of a monthly TNAM series exploring the current sounds and sub-genres of UK rap music: Jerk, Rage, Cloud Rap and ‘UK Underground’. Here are my notable artists and song picks:
1. W0nderthug: #KNIFEWORK
South London rapper W0nderthug is emerging as a new forerunner of the ever-evolving metal influenced rap sound, merging UK drill flows with the blown-out abrasiveness of rage production. Appearing on underground line-ups from Post-Party to Antivision, a live circuit that favours the cutting-edge and confrontational, which W0nderthug leans into. His debut project METAL GANGSTER RAP, released February 2026, leaves little ambiguity about where W0nderthug is positioning himself sonically.
‘#KNIFEWORK’, built around a barrage of distorted 808s and blown-out textures which create a deliberate sensory overload. The bars feel knowingly exaggerated, tongue-in-cheek, threatening and ironic in equal breath, channeling Gen-Z surrealism and internet-age absurdity.
2. Magnus Brandt: Selfie
London-based artist Magnus Brandt first built an underground following through releases under the aliases ‘Mag’ (2017-21) and ‘Magthegod’ on SoundCloud, where his DIY aesthetic gained a cult following. Moving fluidly across genres from trap and alternative pop to slacker indie, Brandt has developed a reputation as something of a sonic chameleon.
From Genius user ‘@mungorse’ (suspected to be a Brandt burner account), the change of artist name is framed as a kind of “Jungian integration of the whole” – multiple approaches consolidated into a single identity and under a single name. The Smile EP (July 2025), his most recent project, feels like the outcome of this process, an extensive hodgepodge of influences siphoned through Brandt’s particular lens.
‘Selfie’ exemplifies this integration. The production is sparse yet intricately detailed, punctuated by digital chirps and camera snaps that mirror its title and thematic concerns. The lyrics are earnest and confessional, circling questions of self-identity and the uneasy act of comparison with another.
3. Mnwa Echs – bullets
At just 20 years old, Mnwa Echs (pronounced “Man Wa Ex”) is an artist whose trajectory feels difficult to ignore. Echs has steadily built a catalogue defined by consistency, experimentation, and a clear sense of authorship. Regularly releasing new material and collaborating across the underground UK rap scene, including work alongside ‘Llondon Actress’, he occupies a space within the loose lineage of post-emo SoundCloud rap, drawing on its emotional directness while pushing its sonic palette somewhere stranger and more individual.
His ‘Emergence EP’, released in January 2026, crystallises much of what makes his work compelling. A fully self-contained project, Echs takes on every role himself: artist, producer and engineer, resulting in a record that feels both diaristic and meticulously assembled. Hazy melodic fragments, brittle percussion and sudden ruptures of distortion pair emo rap’s confessional impulse with a sharp ear for texture and atmosphere.
‘bullets’ stands out as the EP’s emotional centre. Over a sparse instrumental, Echs delivers the line: “Music is the only thing I really love”, a fervent sentiment, heard within the context of a project he has built entirely himself; it reads as a statement of intent.
4. iamawakesorry: Making It Out
With little publicly documented about iamawakesorry beyond his Kent roots (noted on his SoundCloud profile) and online presence, his aesthetic and sound take precedence. His productions covers a wide terrain of underground sounds from breaks to cloud rap, to those more synonymous with the wider UK underground scene he’s a part of.
‘Making it Out’ is a hazier cut from his wider discography. The subject matter, an earnest one – making it and making it out. Over a Seraphic beat which periodically changes playback speed (a notable UK Ug production technique), it invokes the feeling of moving between states of consciousness.
