{"id":2100769,"date":"2026-08-19T10:50:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T07:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2100769"},"modified":"2026-08-19T10:50:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T07:50:00","slug":"what-does-it-mean-to-be-underground-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2100769","title":{"rendered":"What does it mean to be \u2018underground\u2019 in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/157-0-1620-1080\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/0\/1450880.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article longread\">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/music\/article\/70766\/1\/what-does-it-mean-to-be-underground-uk-ug-esdeekid-fake-mink\" data-article-id=\"70766\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.78\" data-template=\"Longread Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Untitled design (3)\" class=\"img\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1400\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/0\/1450880.jpg\" width=\"1920\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">Photography left to right: GK; Christopher Polk\/Billboard via Getty Images; press image; Victor Virgile; <span class=\"nowrap\">press image<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-08-19T10:50:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"19 August 2026\"><span class=\"month\">DateInMeta<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"19\">19,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical vertical - music\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\">Music<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/feature\">Feature<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>What does it mean to be \u2018underground\u2019 <span class=\"nowrap\">in 2026?<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>As Ug artists become some of the biggest names around and labels increasingly haunt Reddit forums in search of new markets, we investigate how the digital age has transformed one of music\u2019s oldest debates: the underground vs <span class=\"nowrap\">the mainstream<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-08-19T10:50:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"19 August 2026\"><span class=\"month\">August<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"19\">19,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - music\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\">Music<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/feature\">Feature<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-08-19T10:50:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"19 August 2026\"><span class=\"month\">August<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"19\">19,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/solomonpacemccarrick\"><br \/>\nSolomon PM<br \/>\n<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Underground music is pretty popular right now. Not long after reportedly signing a \u00a330 million record deal, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/uk-ug\">UK Ug<\/a> star EsDeeKid has just announced a headline show at London\u2019s Wembley Arena, having played there as a support act (for Yung Lean) less than a year ago. Over in the states, meanwhile, rage rappers like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/70740\/1\/meet-che-the-metallic-gothic-future-of-rage-music\">Che<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/68951\/1\/rage-star-osamason-psykotic-album-interview-2025-rage-rap\">Osamason<\/a> \u2013 longtime favourites of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/ug_music\/\">\/r\/ug_music<\/a> subreddit \u2013 are accruing streams in the hundreds of millions. Even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69195\/1\/nirvana-geese-gen-z-first-great-rock-band-brooklyn-cameron-winter\">Geese<\/a>,<\/span> today one of the hottest bands around, are downstream from the original counter-culture movements of the 1960s, with their crooning, experimental rock ballads.<\/p>\n<p><span>But if <\/span><span>underground artists are getting <\/span><em><span>this <\/span><\/em><span>popular, are they even underground anymore? This is the question raised by UK Ug godfather <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lancey\/?hl=en\">Lancey Foux<\/a>, who prefers the term \u2018overground\u2019 when referring to emerging British acts like Jim Legxacy and EsDeeKid. \u201cThat\u2019s simply what it is,\u201d he told me in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/70692\/1\/lancey-foux-godfather-of-uk-ug-interview-the-time-of-our-lives\">an interview last month<\/a>. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve known as underground, as fully non-conformist and not mainstream, is just not really the case anymore. The shit we think is mainstream isn\u2019t even mainstream nowadays. These kids are the biggest ones we have right now. But the reason why we can\u2019t call it a certain kind of rap music is because they\u2019re doing so many different sounds.\u201d While genres like grime and garage were underpinned by easily-distinguished sounds, Lancey said, today\u2019s young artists are picking and choosing from a variety of different sonic palettes. So, he concluded: \u201cwe\u2019ve got to call it overground.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s a fair point, and one that nods to an even deeper shift: that \u2018Ug\u2019 refers to something beyond just not being mainstream. \u201cI think Ug music is no longer just another way of saying underground music,\u201d says \/u\/aimanhakim249, who moderates the \/r\/ug_music subreddit and first saw the term used on Twitter and Discord around 2021. \u201cOver time, it\u2019s become its own thing. It\u2019s more like an internet subculture around artists, aesthetics, and communities that grew through social media. A lot of it is rage, plugg, jerk, and such, but it\u2019s also about the fashion, arts, memes and fan culture.\u201d In this sense, \u2018Ug music\u2019 has practically become a genre in and itself, albeit a diffuse one, which captures the range of sounds and influences underpinning internet-native artists today.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html-embed\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">UNDERGROUND CURRENT MONTHLY LISTENERS (AUGUST 2026) \ud83d\udcca<\/p>\n<p>fakemink: 7.9 million<br \/>Molly Santana: 5.8 million<br \/>Buckshot: 3.6 million<br \/>sosocamo: 3.5 million<br \/>Lex Amarni: 3.3 million<br \/>2muchmotion: 2.9 million<br \/>twentythree: 2.5 million<br \/>Fimiguerrero: 2.2 million<br \/>OsamaSon: 1.8 million\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nSPsYddaJm\">pic.twitter.com\/nSPsYddaJm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 For the Speakers (@forthespeakers) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/forthespeakers\/status\/2084682614309302452?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 4, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html-embed\">\n<p>This shift is particularly important because the \u2018underground\u2019 versus \u2018mainstream\u2019 divide looks very different in the digital age. Just this month, the UK\u2019s top-performing single of the year, Olivia Dean and Sam Fender\u2019s \u201cRein Me In\u201d, faced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2026\/aug\/05\/demise-monoculture-why-have-so-many-never-heard-uk-record-breaking-no-1-single-sam-fender-olivia-dean\"><span class=\"s2\">perplexing problem<\/span><\/a>: virtually no one, it seems, has actually heard it. This paradox speaks to the cultural fragmentation that underpins online existence today. Before the 21st century, it was easy to identify so-called mainstream artists simply because they were unavoidable: they were backed by major labels, performed at places like Wembley Arena, did collabs with luxury brandsand enjoyed constant airtime. But nowadays the lines are far more blurred: \u201cUg\u201d artists can enjoy many of these hallmarks without having achieved anything close to monocultural saturation.<\/p>\n<p>Fans of so-called \u2018underground\u2019 artists, meanwhile, now find themselves immersed in a digital ecosystem that runs entirely in parallel to mainstream currents, inhabiting underground music forums and generally being able to avoid artists like Olivia Dean and Sam Fender altogether. This development hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed by the major labels: it\u2019s now an open secret that industry figures increasingly stalk these online underground haunts in the hopes of capturing the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>This commercialisation of alternative and underground music scenes has been a long time coming. As Mark Fisher writes in <\/span><em><span>Capitalist Realism<\/span><\/em><span>: \u201cIn the 1960s and 1970s, capitalism had to face the problem of how to contain and absorb energies from outside&#8230; [Today] \u2018alternative\u2019 and \u2018independent\u2019 don\u2019t designate something outside mainstream culture; rather, they are styles, in fact the dominant styles, within the mainstream.\u201d By the 90s, Fisher argues, the possibility of underground musicians existing outside of, and in opposition to, capitalism had been crushed \u2013 and this sense of alternative-without-anti-commercialism is writ large across so-called \u2018Ug\u2019 music today. If nothing else, EsDeeKid\u2019s (reported) signing for \u00a330 million just six months after dropping his debut album suggests that the dreams of \u2018Ug\u2019 artists now very much exist inside commercial structures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>Being underground in 2026 isn\u2019t really about having low streams or being unsigned anymore. It\u2019s more about having a loyal community, creative freedom, and your own identity before the mainstream catches on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u2013 \/u\/aimanhakim249, \/r\/ug_music moderator<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>Tellingly, for both \/u\/aimanhakim249 and his fellow \/r\/ug_music moderator \/u\/Subject-Property-343, the presence of major labels in online underground spaces is a \u201cnet positive\u201d. \u201cThe fact that you have these labels and industry execs looking on [our forum] for the next big thing means that, for these kids who have a passion for making music, their dreams aren\u2019t far out of reach,\u201d the latter tells me. \u201cI think it\u2019s good for major labels to see what has potential in real time. Nowadays, the only thing separating artists from a major label is the click of a mouse.\u201d With the alternative channels that online underground spaces open up, artists no longer need to conform to mainstream standards to be successful, and fans, it seems, don\u2019t hold it against them when they do succeed. Where they draw the line, however, is when artists appear to sacrifice their authenticity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI think being underground in 2026 isn\u2019t really about having low streams or being unsigned anymore,\u201d \/u\/aimanhakim249 tells me. \u201cIt\u2019s more about having a loyal community, creative freedom, and your own identity before the mainstream catches on.\u201d \/u\/Subject-Property-343 agrees: \u201cNowadays, the internet has become pretty good at sniffing out who\u2019s an industry plant and who genuinely has a real life fanbase, so these labels have to work harder at finding genuine talent that has longevity. People value authenticity above everything.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html-embed\">\n<blockquote class=\"reddit-embed-bq\" data-embed-height=\"316\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/sleazepop\/comments\/1uczhjy\/is_this_sub_a_marketing_psyop_genuine_question\/\">is this sub a marketing psyop? genuine question<\/a><br \/> by<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/Standard_Show_874\/\">u\/Standard_Show_874<\/a> in<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/sleazepop\/\">sleazepop<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>While authenticity is a notoriously difficult quality to define, underground spaces are policing it in ever more advanced ways. Fakemink\u2019s rise in 2025, for example, was accompanied by the introduction of the term \u2018newgen\u2019 \u2013 a pejorative for anyone perceived as hopping on the bandwagon. Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/sleazepop\/\">\/r\/sleazepop<\/a> has been gripped by a near-Red Scare level of paranoia in recent months as users have accused each other (and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/70442\/1\/sleazepop-favourite-new-genre-hyperpop-2hollis-underscores-ninjirachi-fakemink\">reporters like myself<\/a>) of being part of a major label psy-op, aimed at profiting from the fans who gather there. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Perhaps the most recognisable example of this struggle for authenticity, however, is this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/70102\/1\/geese-psy-op-wired-chaotic-good-good-music-marketing-manipulated-for\">Geese-gate<\/a>. While fans generally seemed sanguine about the band achieving commercial success, controversy arose when it emerged that they had hired manipulative digital marketing agency Chaotic Good to get there. It\u2019s fine to go commercial, it seems, as long as you didn\u2019t compromise on your authenticity to get there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>These efforts to avoid the total commercialisation of the underground pipeline run deep. Logging onto forums like \/r\/fakemink or \/r\/Ug_music can almost feel like reading <em>A Clockwork Orange<\/em>, as lurkers are met with a futuristic vocabulary of abbreviations (\u2018Ug\u2019), phrases (\u2018newgens\u2019), and in-jokes (e.g. the sleazepop psy-op). It\u2019s a practice that pushes slang to the point of steganography \u2013 a mode of online encryption that takes place in plain sight. In a world where the click of a mouse can take you anywhere, forum slang acts as a way of reclaiming exclusivity, and of preventing laymen, newgens and label A&amp;Rs from participating in the conversation too early on in an artist\u2019s career.<\/p>\n<p><span>Recently, I\u2019ve been listening to an artist called <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/xxffcyuvcui\/?hl=en\"><span>xxffcyuvcui<\/span><\/a><span> \u2013 a sort of midwest-emo adjacent rapper whose name is so convoluted it requires me to literally copy and paste it from my notes app to find him. While the so-called \u2018overground\u2019 Ug has virtually become a genre in and of itself, divorced from the counter-culture\u2019s original anti-commercial values, perhaps this meaningless string of letters is what <\/span><em><span>real<\/span><\/em><span> underground music looks like in the digital age. Un-Googleable, in-describable, un-signable; at least, until someone hyperlinks his music in an article and the majors sniff him out&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<footer class=\"article-footer\">\n<div class=\"article-series header tags\"><span class=\"heading\">More on these topics:<\/span><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\">Music<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/feature\">Feature<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/uk-ug\">UK Ug<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/rap\">rap<\/a><\/div>\n<\/footer>\n<div class=\"grid split-list__header\">\n<div class=\"section-header\">\n<div class=\"section-header__link\">\n<h2 class=\"section-header__title\">Trending<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"split-list-scene\" data-split-scene>\n<section class=\"split-list\" id=\"trending\" data-split>\n<div class=\"split-list__layout\" aria-label=\"Trending\">\n<div class=\"split-list__feature\"><a class=\"split-hero\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/article\/70812\/1\/vincent-wechselberger-berlin-photography-summer-photo-series\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-hero__media\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"catching up on missing time noam&amp;vincent-1\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/0-968-2011-1341\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/1\/1451347.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-hero__panel\">\n<div class=\"split-hero__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"split-hero__title\">Blissful photos of friends reuniting amid a steamy Berlin summer<\/h3>\n<p class=\"split-hero__summary\">After living in different cities for two years, photographer Vincent Wechselberger and multidisciplinary artist Noam Yarik Gil Shuster capture an idyllic 24 hours spent together in Berlin<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"split-hero__category\">Art &amp; 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Culture<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"split-rail-card__title card-latest__title\">Is the grid dead? How young people are changing the feed<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"split-rail-card card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69689\/1\/singles-wrestling-alternative-to-dating-apps-hinge-brooklyn-grownkid\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__img-wrapper card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Grownkids \" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/0-0-3000-2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/8\/1438063.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__content card-latest__content\"><span class=\"split-rail-card__ribbon card-latest__ribbon\">Life &amp; Culture<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"split-rail-card__title card-latest__title\">Could singles wrestling be an alternative to dating apps?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"split-rail-card card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/70335\/1\/olivia-rodrigo-dazed-summer-2026-action-issue-album-interview\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__img-wrapper card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Olivia Rodrigo\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/0-578-2301-1534\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/5\/1445966.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__content card-latest__content\"><span class=\"split-rail-card__ribbon card-latest__ribbon\">Music<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"split-rail-card__title card-latest__title\">Olivia Rodrigo: \u2018A breakup can be an opportunity to redirect your life\u2019<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"split-rail-card card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/61666\/1\/rage-against-the-machine-how-incel-culture-went-mainstream-in-2023\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__img-wrapper card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"incels end of yea1r\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/29-0-1690-1127\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1360\/3\/1363490.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__content card-latest__content\"><span class=\"split-rail-card__ribbon card-latest__ribbon\">Life &amp; Culture<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"split-rail-card__title card-latest__title\">Rage against the machine: how incel culture went mainstream in 2023<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"split-rail-card card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/fashion\/article\/70780\/1\/punketo-meet-the-gen-z-punks-of-mexico-city-maxwell-vice\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__img-wrapper card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Punketos by Maxwell Vice\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/0-0-1418-945\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/0\/1450961.jpeg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"split-rail-card__content card-latest__content\"><span class=\"split-rail-card__ribbon card-latest__ribbon\">Fashion<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"split-rail-card__title card-latest__title\">Punketos: Meet the Gen-Z punks of Mexico City<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-navigation\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/news\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img one\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">News<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/fashion\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img two\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Fashion<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img three\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Music<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img four\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Film &amp; TV<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/70766\/1\/what-does-it-mean-to-be-underground-uk-ug-esdeekid-fake-mink#features\" class=\"image-navigation__img five\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Features<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img six\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Beauty<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img seven\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Life &amp; Culture<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img eight\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Art &amp; Photography<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Underground music is pretty popular right now. Not long after reportedly signing a \u00a330 million record deal, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/uk-ug\">UK Ug<\/a> star EsDeeKid has just announced a headline show at London\u2019s Wembley Arena, having played there as a support act (for Yung Lean) less than a year ago. Over in the states, meanwhile, rage rappers like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/70740\/1\/meet-che-the-metallic-gothic-future-of-rage-music\">Che<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/68951\/1\/rage-star-osamason-psykotic-album-interview-2025-rage-rap\">Osamason<\/a> \u2013 longtime favourites of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/ug_music\/\">\/r\/ug_music<\/a> subreddit \u2013 are accruing streams in the hundreds of millions. Even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69195\/1\/nirvana-geese-gen-z-first-great-rock-band-brooklyn-cameron-winter\">Geese<\/a>,<\/span> today one of the hottest bands around, are downstream from the original counter-culture movements of the 1960s, with their crooning, experimental rock ballads.<\/p>\n<p><span>But if <\/span><span>underground artists are getting <\/span><em><span>this <\/span><\/em><span>popular, are they even underground anymore? This is the question raised by UK Ug godfather <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lancey\/?hl=en\">Lancey Foux<\/a>, who prefers the term \u2018overground\u2019 when referring to emerging British acts like Jim Legxacy and EsDeeKid. \u201cThat\u2019s simply what it is,\u201d he told me in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/70692\/1\/lancey-foux-godfather-of-uk-ug-interview-the-time-of-our-lives\">an interview last month<\/a>. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve known as underground, as fully non-conformist and not mainstream, is just not really the case anymore. The shit we think is mainstream isn\u2019t even mainstream nowadays. These kids are the biggest ones we have right now. But the reason why we can\u2019t call it a certain kind of rap music is because they\u2019re doing so many different sounds.\u201d While genres like grime and garage were underpinned by easily-distinguished sounds, Lancey said, today\u2019s young artists are picking and choosing from a variety of different sonic palettes. So, he concluded: \u201cwe\u2019ve got to call it overground.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s a fair point, and one that nods to an even deeper shift: that \u2018Ug\u2019 refers to something beyond just not being mainstream. \u201cI think Ug music is no longer just another way of saying underground music,\u201d says \/u\/aimanhakim249, who moderates the \/r\/ug_music subreddit and first saw the term used on Twitter and Discord around 2021. \u201cOver time, it\u2019s become its own thing. It\u2019s more like an internet subculture around artists, aesthetics, and communities that grew through social media. A lot of it is rage, plugg, jerk, and such, but it\u2019s also about the fashion, arts, memes and fan culture.\u201d In this sense, \u2018Ug music\u2019 has practically become a genre in and itself, albeit a diffuse one, which captures the range of sounds and influences underpinning internet-native artists today.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html-embed\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">UNDERGROUND CURRENT MONTHLY LISTENERS (AUGUST 2026) \ud83d\udcca<\/p>\n<p>fakemink: 7.9 million<br \/>Molly Santana: 5.8 million<br \/>Buckshot: 3.6 million<br \/>sosocamo: 3.5 million<br \/>Lex Amarni: 3.3 million<br \/>2muchmotion: 2.9 million<br \/>twentythree: 2.5 million<br \/>Fimiguerrero: 2.2 million<br \/>OsamaSon: 1.8 million\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nSPsYddaJm\">pic.twitter.com\/nSPsYddaJm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 For the Speakers (@forthespeakers) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/forthespeakers\/status\/2084682614309302452?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 4, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html-embed\">\n<p>This shift is particularly important because the \u2018underground\u2019 versus \u2018mainstream\u2019 divide looks very different in the digital age. Just this month, the UK\u2019s top-performing single of the year, Olivia Dean and Sam Fender\u2019s \u201cRein Me In\u201d, faced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2026\/aug\/05\/demise-monoculture-why-have-so-many-never-heard-uk-record-breaking-no-1-single-sam-fender-olivia-dean\"><span class=\"s2\">perplexing problem<\/span><\/a>: virtually no one, it seems, has actually heard it. This paradox speaks to the cultural fragmentation that underpins online existence today. Before the 21st century, it was easy to identify so-called mainstream artists simply because they were unavoidable: they were backed by major labels, performed at places like Wembley Arena, did collabs with luxury brandsand enjoyed constant airtime. But nowadays the lines are far more blurred: \u201cUg\u201d artists can enjoy many of these hallmarks without having achieved anything close to monocultural saturation.<\/p>\n<p>Fans of so-called \u2018underground\u2019 artists, meanwhile, now find themselves immersed in a digital ecosystem that runs entirely in parallel to mainstream currents, inhabiting underground music forums and generally being able to avoid artists like Olivia Dean and Sam Fender altogether. This development hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed by the major labels: it\u2019s now an open secret that industry figures increasingly stalk these online underground haunts in the hopes of capturing the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>This commercialisation of alternative and underground music scenes has been a long time coming. As Mark Fisher writes in <\/span><em><span>Capitalist Realism<\/span><\/em><span>: \u201cIn the 1960s and 1970s, capitalism had to face the problem of how to contain and absorb energies from outside&#8230; [Today] \u2018alternative\u2019 and \u2018independent\u2019 don\u2019t designate something outside mainstream culture; rather, they are styles, in fact the dominant styles, within the mainstream.\u201d By the 90s, Fisher argues, the possibility of underground musicians existing outside of, and in opposition to, capitalism had been crushed \u2013 and this sense of alternative-without-anti-commercialism is writ large across so-called \u2018Ug\u2019 music today. If nothing else, EsDeeKid\u2019s (reported) signing for \u00a330 million just six months after dropping his debut album suggests that the dreams of \u2018Ug\u2019 artists now very much exist inside commercial structures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>Being underground in 2026 isn\u2019t really about having low streams or being unsigned anymore. It\u2019s more about having a loyal community, creative freedom, and your own identity before the mainstream catches on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u2013 \/u\/aimanhakim249, \/r\/ug_music moderator<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>Tellingly, for both \/u\/aimanhakim249 and his fellow \/r\/ug_music moderator \/u\/Subject-Property-343, the presence of major labels in online underground spaces is a \u201cnet positive\u201d. \u201cThe fact that you have these labels and industry execs looking on [our forum] for the next big thing means that, for these kids who have a passion for making music, their dreams aren\u2019t far out of reach,\u201d the latter tells me. \u201cI think it\u2019s good for major labels to see what has potential in real time. Nowadays, the only thing separating artists from a major label is the click of a mouse.\u201d With the alternative channels that online underground spaces open up, artists no longer need to conform to mainstream standards to be successful, and fans, it seems, don\u2019t hold it against them when they do succeed. Where they draw the line, however, is when artists appear to sacrifice their authenticity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI think being underground in 2026 isn\u2019t really about having low streams or being unsigned anymore,\u201d \/u\/aimanhakim249 tells me. \u201cIt\u2019s more about having a loyal community, creative freedom, and your own identity before the mainstream catches on.\u201d \/u\/Subject-Property-343 agrees: \u201cNowadays, the internet has become pretty good at sniffing out who\u2019s an industry plant and who genuinely has a real life fanbase, so these labels have to work harder at finding genuine talent that has longevity. People value authenticity above everything.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html-embed\">\n<blockquote class=\"reddit-embed-bq\" data-embed-height=\"316\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/sleazepop\/comments\/1uczhjy\/is_this_sub_a_marketing_psyop_genuine_question\/\">is this sub a marketing psyop? genuine question<\/a><br \/> by<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/Standard_Show_874\/\">u\/Standard_Show_874<\/a> in<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/sleazepop\/\">sleazepop<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>While authenticity is a notoriously difficult quality to define, underground spaces are policing it in ever more advanced ways. Fakemink\u2019s rise in 2025, for example, was accompanied by the introduction of the term \u2018newgen\u2019 \u2013 a pejorative for anyone perceived as hopping on the bandwagon. Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/sleazepop\/\">\/r\/sleazepop<\/a> has been gripped by a near-Red Scare level of paranoia in recent months as users have accused each other (and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/70442\/1\/sleazepop-favourite-new-genre-hyperpop-2hollis-underscores-ninjirachi-fakemink\">reporters like myself<\/a>) of being part of a major label psy-op, aimed at profiting from the fans who gather there. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Perhaps the most recognisable example of this struggle for authenticity, however, is this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/70102\/1\/geese-psy-op-wired-chaotic-good-good-music-marketing-manipulated-for\">Geese-gate<\/a>. While fans generally seemed sanguine about the band achieving commercial success, controversy arose when it emerged that they had hired manipulative digital marketing agency Chaotic Good to get there. It\u2019s fine to go commercial, it seems, as long as you didn\u2019t compromise on your authenticity to get there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>These efforts to avoid the total commercialisation of the underground pipeline run deep. Logging onto forums like \/r\/fakemink or \/r\/Ug_music can almost feel like reading <em>A Clockwork Orange<\/em>, as lurkers are met with a futuristic vocabulary of abbreviations (\u2018Ug\u2019), phrases (\u2018newgens\u2019), and in-jokes (e.g. the sleazepop psy-op). It\u2019s a practice that pushes slang to the point of steganography \u2013 a mode of online encryption that takes place in plain sight. In a world where the click of a mouse can take you anywhere, forum slang acts as a way of reclaiming exclusivity, and of preventing laymen, newgens and label A&amp;Rs from participating in the conversation too early on in an artist\u2019s career.<\/p>\n<p><span>Recently, I\u2019ve been listening to an artist called <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/xxffcyuvcui\/?hl=en\"><span>xxffcyuvcui<\/span><\/a><span> \u2013 a sort of midwest-emo adjacent rapper whose name is so convoluted it requires me to literally copy and paste it from my notes app to find him. While the so-called \u2018overground\u2019 Ug has virtually become a genre in and of itself, divorced from the counter-culture\u2019s original anti-commercial values, perhaps this meaningless string of letters is what <\/span><em><span>real<\/span><\/em><span> underground music looks like in the digital age. Un-Googleable, in-describable, un-signable; at least, until someone hyperlinks his music in an article and the majors sniff him out&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/70766\/1\/what-does-it-mean-to-be-underground-uk-ug-esdeekid-fake-mink&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/157-0-1620-1080\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1450\/0\/1450880.jpg&#8221;] Photography left to right: GK; Christopher Polk\/Billboard via Getty Images; press image; Victor Virgile; press image DateInMeta\u00a0 19,\u00a0 2026 Music \/ Feature What does it mean to be \u2018underground\u2019 in 2026? As Ug artists become some of the biggest names around and labels increasingly haunt Reddit forums in search of new markets, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-2100769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2100769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2100769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2100769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2100769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}