Play That Phonky Music
KORDHELL STUMBLED upon the YouTube channel Evil Aesthetic while digitally cratedigging in 2020. The U.K.-born, Los Angeles-based producer had a background in black metal; Evil Aesthetic specializes in phonk — a style indebted to ’90s Memphis hip-hop. Kordhell heard a kinship. “Phonk sounded similar to what I was already doing,” he says. “It was super dark, with almost a horror vibe, but in a hip-hop way.”
The producer decided to try his hand at phonk, and since then, the genre’s profile and Kordhell’s have risen together. Phonk fandom had primarily been underground, but starting in 2020, it became increasingly popular on TikTok, soundtracking clips of car racing, weight lifting and more. That same year, Kordhell scored a record deal with independent label and music incubator Black 17 Media. He now has two of the most commercially successful singles associated with the genre and has landed a spot on the upcoming mixtape to the 10th Fast and Furious movie — much of which is phonk-based.
While phonk encompasses a slew of subgenres, one macho variant known as drift phonk has become most popular. Drift phonk hits like Pharmacist’s “North Memphis” and Kaito Shoma’s “Scary Garry” are icy, volatile songs that incorporate samples from Memphis rappers like DJ Paul, founder of Three 6 Mafia. Tyler Blatchley, who founded Black 17 in 2015, first discovered “Scary Garry” on TikTok, where it was soundtracking adrenalized automotive videos. His label had previously distributed some of DJ Paul’s solo releases, making Blatchley ideally positioned to clear the sample and officially release the track, which started to gain attention on Spotify. After that, he says, “I found more of these phonk songs and just started playing middleman, clearing the samples and putting them on Spotify.” Black 17 now works with more than 300 phonk acts.
Now, the biggest threat to drift phonk’s growth is geopolitical: Many of its most popular artists are from Russia and Ukraine, two countries at war. A number of acts on Black 17’s roster have tried to flee their homes since fighting broke out in February. But this tumultuous backdrop hasn’t slowed phonk’s rise. There’s the Artist Partner Group-commissioned Fast and Furious mixtape and the launch of Spotify’s official phonk playlist in May. By the end of 2022, Black 17’s roster of phonk signings alone is on track to earn over 4 billion Spotify streams. As for Kordhell, he recently became one of the 500 most popular artists on the platform, a first for a phonk producer. “I want to ride the wave,” he says.