What the PHONK is this? (RFI, C/D, S&D)

My son Theo (nearly 11) makes youtube shorts (currently sports cars, previously fifa mobile clips) and soundtracks them with music called "Phonk" - in fact all the shots he watches seem to be soundtracked with this music, and while it sounds extremely fucked the videos have massive amounts of views. I am not sure how to describe it or whether I have anything good to say about it, but it's certainly a thing to start a thread about.

Here are the first two examples that came up.

I LOVE YOU SO JUMPSTYLE ( Slowed) by HUSSVRX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h-5SkNtyHU

Nakama, Imaro, MC Gil Do Andaraí - MONTAGEM MARE GRANA (Ultra Slowed)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrrzRT-Wamg

witch house vs 2025.

nb : this is not a diss, i f^cking love(d) witch house.

Yeah I can hear that, also chopped & screwed, some dubstep, lots of the tracks also seem to be remixes of Spanish language music which I know nothing about.

Hey hip-hop nerds. What kind-of hip-hop is this?

It's got an NYT feature, so guess it's over

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/arts/music/phonk-youtube-tiktok-music.html

Lefsetz weighs in:

They seem to have no problem making bread, and they don’t have to play live to do it!

Walking down a neighbouring street in suburban Kent about 18 months ago and hearing someone playing a DJ Brunin XM ft Bibi Babydoll track at full volume with the windows open was a surreal experience.

Someone from a label that releases phonk acts just did a followup email to Lefsetz

It was a little surreal to see you reference the NYT write-up on Phonk, our label, Black 17, and one of our artists, Hensonn.

Yes, the vertical video play counts are outrageous. And yes, many of our artists have generated substantial wealth from their music. I want to give you a little more context -
We have over 1,500 frontline recording artists and have built organically a catalog comprising more than 25,000 tracks. Most of these artists are under 25, and roughly half are either Eastern European or South American—meaning much of this music is born amid political and socioeconomic conflict.

To your point, the music speaks for itself. It has to. Many of our artists prefer anonymity and aren't terribly social. Phonk is outsider music. And what the NYT article didn't elucidate is that Phonk has a rabid and deeply connected fanbase, not just a passive vertical video audience. The Spotify PHONK playlist has 11.4M followers. We collect revenue in 250 countries.

Black 17 was founded in 2015 in the Sony RED office. Tyler and Bryan were product managers fresh from the mailroom, Jake was in client services, and I was lower-mid-level finance (and not officially on the B17 team until years later). Safe to say we weren't especially pedigreed. We dreamed of being important in the office, part of the crew that would take top labels out for drinks with Alan Becker and Bob Morelli. The thesis was to imitate the distribution models David Macias and Missi Callazzo had mastered: find great artists en masse, ensure artists maintain ownership, and fight like hell for them. Black 17 cut its teeth on SoundCloud rap and then meme rap, learning the game. It was obvious that music tailor made for the current distribution channels had a greater chance of being heard, and social media was as important a distributor, if not more so, than the streamers. It was also obvious that transparency, a monthly royalty payment cadence, and not recouping superfluous marketing/promo expenses would earn strong word-of-mouth endorsement.

Fast forward to the present. We have an incredible team. INCREDIBLE TEAM!...