Part 2 of a monthly TNAM series exploring the current sounds and sub-genres of UK rap music: Jerk, Rage, Cloud Rap and ‘UK Underground’.
The “underground” in the title refers to both the status of the artist across multiple UK rap styles and to the emerging UK underground sub-genre spearheaded by artists such as Fakemink, Feng, and Jim Lxgacy. This series functions as a curated snapshot, a macroscopic view of standout tracks shaping the current moment.
Since the last mix, the UK Underground scene has rapidly approached mainstream visibility, rendering the label ‘underground’ almost antithetical. Masked rapper EsDeeKid in particular has reached new levels of notoriety. At the time of writing, he ranks among Spotify’s most-streamed rappers globally, bolstered by industry co-signs and a now put-to-rest online conspiracy claiming his true identity to be that of the actor Timothée Chalamet.
EsDeeKid’s rise feels inseparable from both his Scouse accent and the sleek, futuristic production of the PHANTOM AUDIO collective – more on them later. His success highlights the importance of regional accents in rap music and underscores the need for broader mainstream representation of differing vocal identities in the UK. American rap has long embraced regional variation as a strength, so why not the UK?
PHANTOM AUDIO operates with deliberate opacity. For producers Wraith9 and Lancer, anonymity is inseparable from the project’s aesthetic, even as both maintain visible stakes across a broader creative network, including the brand No Fear and Virus London events. Wraith, in particular, obscures his face with an array of head coverings across visuals and live appearances, reinforcing the collective’s spectral branding. Both producers’ solo releases prove just as compelling as their collaborative production work.
Standout tracks, and words on which below:
1. Lancer: White Stag
I came to Lancer’s ‘White Stag’ before registering his affiliations, which in hindsight make the sonic connection unmistakable. His solo releases pull from alternative, footwork, and modern rap styles, resisting easy categorisation.
On White Stag, Lancer is personal, vulnerable, and introspective. He talks about a misalignment in a relationship and in action, frozen like a deer in headlights, yet whipping through red lights.
Where Jerk production defined much of Summer 2025, with ‘LV Sandals’ by EsDeeKid, Rico Ace and Fakemink emerging as a defining anthem of the UK underground. White Stag demonstrates the breadth of PHANTOM AUDIO’s sonic palette. A glassy, rompler-style digital piano anchors the track, invoking the spirit of pluggnb’s melodic haze, while skittering percussion draws from footwork’s restless rhythmic language. Interjections of vocal samples act like call and response and play off Lancer’s musings.
“Slackjawed lost my keys on the 202, why the fuck am I in Blackheath?”
As a South London native who was often dragged here, I can relate. It speaks to the anguish in my heart.
2. Jaxzun: oneofone interlude
Little information is known so far about rapper Jaxzun, including where he is based. According to Genius, his debut track ‘Speakerz’ appeared in May 2025, though from his output he doesn’t sound like a novice.
Much like earlier algorithmic finds such as TheAdult and LedByHer, his music appeared unprompted and demanded attention. Instagram Reels remains an unexpectedly fertile space for discovery, even through the noise of endless “reels music.” His listener base has grown rapidly, reportedly surpassing 20,000 streams within a week on his ‘Ursa Major (Behave)’ release.
The discourse surrounding Jaxzun online is intriguing: equal parts admiration and confusion, with listeners debating possible influences and production techniques. Sstepteam? Does he use tremolo, ring modulation, or sidechaining? What is clear however, is that he produces his own material. On ‘oneofone interlude’, the sonic palette is unstable; the 808 erodes the instrumental around his voice, collapsing the sense of spatial depth as he explains why he is “oneofone.”
3. Trellion: Fresh Paint
In a conversation about underrated UK rappers I was reminded of Trellion, the Sheffield rapper whose work occupies a singular space within UK Hip Hop. Active since the mid 2000s and closely affiliated with cult label Blah Records, co-run by Lee Scott, Trellion has long operated outside mainstream visibility, despite reported collaborations with heavyweight producer The Alchemist.
His sound and approach feel increasingly rare in today’s landscape: ‘boom-bap’ built on skillful sampling and steeped in a moody atmosphere. Online discussions about Trellion hold a mythic quality. The r/ukhiphopheads thread ‘Anybody know what happened to Trellion?’ had users speculating about his disappearance during a lengthy absence from solo releases, with rumours placing him either working or running an Italian restaurant somewhere in Sheffield.
After roughly a decade without a solo project, Trellion resurfaced in 2025 with a trio of releases, Ok, the fire, Big Sur and The Man Who Couldn’t Die, reasserting a presence that never faded among devoted listeners.
‘Fresh Paint’ exemplifies his return. Built around a dust-covered piano sample reminiscent of a vintage horror soundtrack, the sparse production leaves deliberate space for Trellion’s laid-back delivery and introspective bars. Themes of renewal, identity and surreal rebirth run throughout:
“Yes, he’s returned. We’re so back etched in the hearse.
I guess this is Earth from the mist he emerged.”
4. LONESTAR: PERFECT TIMING
‘PERFECT TIMING’ is a single from West London rapper LONESTAR’s upcoming January album, LIFE IN COLOUR. A release he told me to watch out for when I interviewed him with Sleepy C after their performance at Antivision Vol 3 in November. Rooted in the UK rage sound, with hard-hitting, confrontational production, LONESTAR nonchalantly raps about his position in the scene, a mix of braggadocious musing and flashes of vulnerability:
“I was never meant to get this far. I am an anomaly.” He also keeps the mood light with quips like “sending that boy back to the lobby.”
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.
