From SoundCloud to TikTok: The internet-fuelled explosion of phonk music

If you haven’t heard of phonk, you’re about to – this internet-born subgenre of hip hop and trap has gone from obscure SoundCloud corners to TikTok-driven global culture, blending ‘90s Memphis rap, cowbell-heavy drift beats, and hypnotic, high-speed visuals.

In recent years, drift phonk – a faster, more aggressive offshoot from Russia – has become synonymous with the genre. While phonk first thrived on SoundCloud, its explosion into mainstream awareness didn’t come from charts, festivals, or superstar co-signs. Instead, it spread organically through TikTok, attaching itself to high-speed visuals, dark-mode internet culture, anime edits, gaming content, and the drift community.

Phonk’s rise highlights how online communities are shaping the culture. Tracks grow not through traditional radio or editorial, but through creator adoption, algorithmic loops, and global remixing. Think of it as the digital evolution of old-school dancefloor culture: DJs once tested white labels in clubs, and now TikTok is the online stage where creators and audiences collectively crown which tracks hit – and which fade into obscurity.

Labels like Purple Crunch Records, Liquid Ritual, Tribal Trap, which boast the biggest phonk stars (MXZI, ATLXS, DJ Samir, Sma$her, Ariis, Yb Wasg’ood, Scythermane, and Sayfalse), and platforms like SoundOn have helped structure the genre’s organic growth, enabling pre-release experimentation, collaborative A&R, and data-driven release strategies – and all while keeping the DIY, underground ethos intact.

Headliner speaks with key label representatives driving phonk’s growth, and explores how platforms like SoundOn are helping the genre evolve from an internet-native subculture into a globally recognised movement.

Johannes Lotter, founder, Purple Crunch Records

Phonk stems from ’90s Memphis rap and chopped-and-screwed techniques, yet today’s drift phonk has become faster, cleaner, and more aggressive. How have you seen this evolution shape the artists you work with?

We’ve seen artists move from simply referencing the past to actively reinterpreting it. The Memphis DNA is still there – the cowbells, the darkness, the raw textures, but drift phonk has sharpened everything. It’s faster, cleaner, and built for immediate impact. 

At the same time, you can clearly hear global influences coming in, especially from Brazil. Phonk is no longer tied to one region; it’s become a melting pot of internet music, where Brazilian funk, phonk, and other global sounds blend.

Phonk didn’t break through traditional channels; there were no big co-signs or festival moments. Its rise came from visuals, aesthetics, and creator culture. How did you first notice this organic TikTok momentum, and how did your label respond?

We didn’t notice it through charts or press; we noticed it through repetition. The same sounds kept surfacing across completely different videos: drift clips, anime edits, gaming montages. That’s when it became clear this wasn’t just a trend, but a culture forming. 

Our response was never to over-manage it. We want artists to fully express their creativity when they work with us. Our role is to support what’s already happening, not to repackage it, and in many cases, to genuinely change the lives of young, ambitious people and artists through music.

Was there a specific moment – maybe a viral trend or creator push – when you realised phonk had crossed into a global phenomenon?

Yes, the moment it really became clear was when phonk suddenly appeared everywhere, far beyond niche creator circles. We started seeing mainstream TikTok accounts – like the Champions League, FC Bayern, and other major football clubs – using our music. 

That was the turning point. It showed us that phonk had moved beyond a single scene or subculture and become a global, high-energy language that even the most mainstream platforms were tapping into.

Phonk began as a SoundCloud-driven genre, with #phonk among the most-trending tags for years. How has that early DIY culture influenced how your label develops talent today?

DIY culture is at the core of how we work. We don’t look for artists who are already polished — we look for artists who are self-driven and culturally aware. We work with the artists and directly in the music itself, because even at the development stage, there can and should already be a clear vision of what the content around a song will look like. 

SoundCloud taught an entire generation that authenticity beats perfection, and we still operate with that mindset: flexible structures, fast feedback, and a strong focus on creative independence.

SoundOn works with almost every major phonk label and has helped deliver multiple hits this year. What benefits have you seen from SoundOn’s ability to tap directly into the TikTok creator ecosystem?

SoundOn understands that music today is meant to be used, not just released. Direct access to the creator ecosystem removes friction and shortens the path between a track and its audience. For our artists, that means faster discovery and more organic adoption, without sacrificing ownership or creative control. Speed and context are everything. 

When a track appears early in the right visual environments, it can grow naturally. SoundOn helps place music where it actually functions – inside trends, edits, and creator workflows – rather than relying solely on traditional promotion.

Phonk doesn’t always receive mainstream editorial visibility. How does SoundOn help overcome that challenge through its marketing tools, promotion, or analytics?

Phonk actually proves that editorial visibility isn’t static. When we first started working with the genre, the official phonk editorial playlist on Spotify had around 40,000 likes – today it’s close to 12 million. That growth didn’t come from top-down editorial decisions, but because the music was already performing organically on platforms like TikTok. 

SoundOn helps by shifting the focus away from relying solely on editorial placements and instead looking at real usage data: where tracks are being used, by whom, and in what context. Today, TikTok is the most important platform for music discovery, and those insights often matter far more than playlist visibility when it comes to long-term growth. 

Data doesn’t replace intuition, but it sharpens it. Today, around 90% of music marketing and discovery happens through social networks. Platforms like TikTok aren’t just distribution channels anymore; they’re where culture forms and where sounds break first. SoundOn and TikTok aren’t just amplifying trends; they’re actively creating the environment where new genres emerge.

Oskar Barczak, co-founder, Liquid Ritual

Phonk’s rise came from visuals and creator culture rather than co-signs or festivals. When did you first spot its TikTok momentum?

We first noticed the shift when fans began pairing phonk with edits of JDM cars on TikTok. The relationship between car modification culture and the sound felt immediate and natural, and those visuals gave fans a sense of ownership of being part of a culture or movement rather than being told what to consume by a major label. That sense of agency is a key reason the genre scaled as quickly as it did.

In response, we leaned into that organic momentum by working directly with creators and influencers to develop more content within that visual language, while also exploring adjacent scenes such as anime, video games, and broader lifestyle content. 

By blending these worlds, we were able to reflect what phonk already represented online: a smorgasbord of internet culture that resonates strongly with how this generation discovers, engages with, and defines music.

From drift clips to dark-mode edits, anime visuals, and gaming content, phonk has become the soundtrack of online motion. How have these communities contributed to the success of your roster?

They have contributed massively. Without these communities actively engaging with our artists and their records, we simply would not be where we are today. 

These communities have all provided natural, high-energy environments where phonk feels at home, allowing fans to integrate the music into their own creative output. That level of participation turns listeners into collaborators, amplifying reach, longevity, and cultural relevance for our roster in a way traditional marketing never could.

Did a specific trend or viral moment make it clear that phonk had reached global audiences?

For us, the turning point was seeing microtrends that originated in Eastern Europe spill over organically into the US, the UK, and Western Europe, without any active promotion in those regions. 

That level of cross-border adoption signalled that phonk had moved beyond isolated scenes into a shared global language. The moment was reinforced when we started seeing records picked up by audiences and entities you would not traditionally associate with the sound, such as celebrities and football clubs. That unexpected crossover made it clear the genre had entered a much broader cultural conversation.

Phonk grew outside traditional channels. Will its future growth stay online or move into the mainstream?

We have already seen attempts by the mainstream industry to break into the genre that ultimately failed, largely due to a misunderstanding of the culture and the communities that have driven phonk’s growth from the beginning. 

Our view is that the genre’s future will continue to be led by these communities; first by coming together to organise their own shows, and eventually by developing those into larger, community-led festival experiences. There is certainly a possibility that mainstream industry resources and expertise will be leveraged along the way, but we believe long-term success will depend on creative vision and direction remaining firmly in the hands of the people who genuinely understand the culture.

How do SoundOn’s data insights shape your release strategies for phonk?

SoundOn’s data insights play a significant role in shaping how we release and promote phonk. What makes the genre especially engaging for us is that every record demands a bespoke strategy; no two songs behave the same way in the ecosystem. 

We have learned that applying a one-size-fits-all or cookie-cutter release template often limits a track’s potential. By closely leveraging SoundOn’s insights on emerging trends, content performance, and audience behaviour, we can tailor each release individually and stay ahead of the curve, often identifying and amplifying trends within hours rather than days or weeks. This agility is critical to maximising impact in such a fast-moving genre.

Stan Wittenberg, founder, Tribal Trap

Phonk grew through visuals and creator culture, not traditional channels. When did you first spot its momentum, and how did your label respond?

We originally started as a trap label. Many of the same signals that drew us to trap are what first pulled us towards phonk: It felt exciting and raw, there was a lot of experimentation, and it was already showing clear traction on social platforms like TikTok. 

Because phonk’s aesthetic and experimental, raw energy is closely aligned with the trap scene, the transition felt natural. Within a year, we moved from our first experiments with drift phonk to becoming a label that primarily released phonk. The shift fundamentally changed how we approached marketing, from traditional advertising toward a model built around influencers and creators.

Did a particular trend or viral moment signal that phonk had gone global?

Rather than one specific moment, it was a pattern we could see clearly in the numbers. Each new phonk hit was outperforming the last. 

When we released Tuca Donka in 2023, it became one of the biggest phonk records at the time, peaking at around 800,000 daily Spotify streams. In 2024, we released Funk Do Bounce, which pushed that ceiling further, reaching 2.5 million daily streams. 

Shortly after, other artists in the scene like MXZI and ATLXS surpassed those figures with even larger records. Phonk was scaling globally in real time; the ceiling for a phone hit just kept moving higher.

Phonk grew outside radio and festivals. Will its growth continue online, or could we see it break through to live spaces?

Phonk is an internet native genre, and it’s clearly optimised for online consumption by relatively young users. It’s built for edits, fast-paced environments and needs to grab your attention immediately. It’s not necessarily built for long, live listening experiences. 

There are a lot of different subgenres, and frankly, a lot of originality and experimentation from the producers, which doesn’t make it ideal for the live scene. It’s almost the complete opposite of genres like techno, which are designed to mix and flow seamlessly in a live environment, but for those same reasons don’t thrive online as much. 

Those characteristics make Phonk a tough fit for radio, because of its older audience, and festivals. I expect Phonk to keep evolving largely outside of traditional mainstream industry structures.

How has the evolution of phonk shaped the artists you work with?

More than in any other genre I’ve worked with, phonk artists are largely unconcerned with fitting neatly into predefined categories. While early Drift Phonk traces back to Memphis rap, modern Brazilian Phonk has already become almost completely unrecognisable from the Memphis rap roots of Drift Phonk and is instead much more inspired by Funk. 

The genre isn’t anchored to any traditional live scene. Live audiences expect a recognisable flow, tempo, and aesthetic throughout a set. Online, those expectations don’t really exist. Trends develop much more freely and rapidly. This environment very directly shapes the artists we work with because staying relevant often means staying flexible.

James Cattermole, head of label services EMEA, SoundOn

Phonk doesn’t always receive major editorial visibility in traditional music spaces. How does SoundOn help level the playing field for niche or emerging genres that thrive online but aren’t yet industry-centred?

I’d slightly challenge the premise of that question, at least in 2026. If you’d asked me two years ago, I would have completely agreed. At that point, phonk was still very much an underground, internet-native sub-genre, operating outside of traditional editorial and industry frameworks.

What’s changed is the scale. Today, the phonk playlist on Spotify sits at around 11 million followers, double the size of Spotify’s flagship dance and electronic playlist, ‘mint’. That’s a clear signal that what was once counterculture is now becoming culture. 

We’re also seeing phonk tracks increasingly surface in more traditional commercial environments: major dance playlists, gym playlists, viral and hit playlists, and beyond. On the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic chart, seven of the top 25 tracks are currently phonk, and multiple records have entered Spotify’s Global Top 200 based purely on consumption.

That shift fundamentally changes the power dynamic. Phonk artists and labels now have real leverage; they’re able to generate meaningful heat and traction without being dependent on traditional gatekeepers or tastemakers. Editorial support becomes an accelerant, not a prerequisite.

SoundOn’s role in this ecosystem is to lean into that reality. We work closely with artists, labels, and partners to build social-first strategies that give records the best possible chance of rising organically. Rather than forcing tracks into legacy industry pathways, we focus on mobilising fandoms, creator communities, and online networks to drive genuine demand. 

Where traditional marketing makes sense, we absolutely factor it in, but increasingly, we’re seeing charting outcomes achieved through community-led momentum alone.

In that sense, SoundOn isn’t trying to “level the playing field” by compensating for a lack of industry attention. It’s helping artists fully capitalise on the influence and scale they already command online, and that’s where the balance of power is continuing to shift.

Phonk became one of SoundCloud’s most-listened genres years before mainstream media caught on. How is SoundOn helping the genre evolve from an underground community into a commercially sustainable space for artists?

Phonk’s rise didn’t start in the industry; it started online. Long before mainstream media took notice, the genre had already built a huge audience on platforms like SoundCloud, driven by anonymous producers, bedroom setups, and deeply engaged communities. A lot of what SoundOn does builds directly on that foundation, rather than trying to replace it.

On one level, that means formalising what was already working. SoundOn helps artists turn organic social momentum into predictable release cycles and real revenue, without forcing them into traditional industry moulds. 

But beyond that, we’re increasingly leaning into a more active A&R role, helping the genre creatively expand while staying true to its roots. That includes pairing phonk producers with artists from adjacent worlds like rap and drill, creating new crossover moments and even entirely new sub-genres.

Tracks like Mad About Funk or Tkandz’s NOW OR NEVER are good examples of how those collaborations can instantly unlock new audiences without diluting the core sound. It’s about creative chemistry, not commercial compromise.

We’re also deliberately taking what has traditionally been an online-only genre offline. Last year, we worked with Tribal Trap on a writing camp in Mykonos, bringing together around 20 of the biggest phonk artists globally for a week of collaboration. 

I think that Villa had a combined 200m monthly listeners, which is mind-boggling! Many of these artists had never worked in the same room before; they’d existed in parallel silos, connected only through the internet. That environment directly led to ACELERADA by Sma$her and MXZI, which became a global breakout record. Those kinds of moments are about building culture at source, not just chasing metrics.

Another important layer is collaboration at a label level. We’re actively encouraging shared A&R and promotional projects between labels, opening up new creative and discovery pathways that wouldn’t exist if everyone operated independently.

Finally, we’re helping phonk travel beyond purely music-native spaces. SoundOn works directly with major brands and cultural institutions on TikTok, securing prominent usage for phonk tracks with organisations like Paris Saint‑Germain, Real Madrid and Chelsea, as well as brands such as BMW and Red Bull. 

That pushes the genre into more traditional sync-adjacent and lifestyle contexts, introducing it to audiences who may never have encountered it through playlists alone. The result is a genre that’s no longer geographically or culturally siloed.

Where Brazil was once the dominant consumption territory for many phonk records, we’re now seeing hits where the US, Germany, France, the UK and India all sit within the top five markets. That kind of global spread is what turns an underground movement into a sustainable ecosystem.

At its core, SoundOn’s role is about pushing culture forward at the source, while also widening the net for where and how that culture can be discovered. That balance is what allows phonk artists to build long-term careers, not just viral moments.

SoundOn allows artists to pre-release clips on TikTok before the official launch. How has this feature shaped the lifecycle of phonk tracks, which often go viral informally before labels even get involved?

Pre-release clips on TikTok are an incredibly powerful tool for phonk, largely because they align naturally with how the genre has always worked. Phonk artists rarely operate on a “single finished song” mindset, constantly testing multiple ideas, alternate speeds, clip timestamps, and mix variations.

SoundOn enables a structured version of that experimentation, letting artists work pre-release sounds collaboratively with their network, label, and promotional team. This creates a live feedback loop where audience behaviour – usage, intent, retention – helps decide which track becomes a single. Once that decision is made, the strategy shifts to pre-promotion: scaling the track across creator networks and building anticipation.

In many ways, this mirrors old Dance music culture: DJs used to test white labels and unfinished records in clubs, and the strongest reactions determined which tracks got released. TikTok’s For You page plays a similar role for phonk today. SoundOn formalises this process for a social-first era, helping phonk artists move from instinct-led experimentation to sustainable release cycles without losing the culture that made the genre resonate.