This article is partly taken from the winter 2025 issue of Dazed. Buy a copy of the magazine here.

I’m sitting with Thornton Heath artist Zukovstheworld in a fast food restaurant near Farringdon station when the opening notes of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” come screeching over the radio. That song always takes me back to Unknown T, I tell him. “Nah, I prefer the original,” Zuko responds, shrugging. Moments later, he tells me that the biggest inspiration on his debut album, The End of the World, was none other than Taylor Swift (“I fuck with her heavy” were his exact words). Neither Spears nor Swift were references I expected from an underground rapper from south London, but I soon realised that both struck to the heart of the currently thriving UK Ug scene that 22-year-old Zuko himself helped pioneer.

You see, Zuko was UK Ug before UK Ug. He gave man-of-the-moment fakemink some of his first features back when he was known as 9090gate, hopped on Wraith9 beats long before Timothée Chalamet had ever heard of EsDeeKid, and has been fusing DIY punk and indie sensibilities with trap and rage beats as far back as 2022. In recent months, however, the scene has blown wide open. “Things are getting quite exciting in London,” Zuko comments on this recent growth. “The world’s bare shit but, if you listen to some of the music, sonically it sounds like you’re in another world. It’s escapism. It’s modern pop music.” 

Zuko describes his album, however, as ‘avant-pop’. “I used to make very much indie music – guitar stuff with elements of electronic music and modern rap nuances,” he reflects. “In some of my previous stuff, people said it’s hard to understand the words – and I understand why they’d say that. But my new stuff is pop, not ‘pop by accident’. I want it to sit in the middle ground between what people think underground is and high-end pop.” 

This tension runs throughout The End of the World. On standout track “Dirty Denim”, vocal clippings feature Addison Rae espousing her love for “high fashion”, while Zuko croons train-of-thought lyrics about rocking “dirty denim”, “strobe lights and dark nights”, and having “stars on his feet”. Elsewhere, choruses oscillate between chart-ready melodies and virtually unintelligible, and production flirts the line between underground rap distortion and glittery EDM clarity. 

Much like how fakemink’s name manifests the idea of ‘dirty luxury’, these dichotomies reveal the magic at work in Zuko’s music, as well as the UK Ug scene as a whole. It’s the language of Gen Z outsiders grasping at the mainstream, of an upbringing surrounded by Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and Addison Rae colliding with rudimentary bedroom production, and of the last dregs of early 2000s monoculture reverberating through fragmented digital echo chambers of the post-Covid world. Zuko’s music truly is where “High Fashion” meets “Dirty Denim”. 

Below, Zukovstheworld dives deeper into the experiences that gave rise to his genre-colliding ‘avant-pop’ sound, from the origins of his name, his first encounter with fakemink, and who his dream collab would be. 

Where did your name come from? 

Zukovstheworld: I was probably frassed somewhere looking for new names on my phone. People think it comes from Avatar: The Last Airbender – which it does – but I just found it hard. Like, there’s no connection.

Is there any relationship between that name and the title of your latest project, The End of the World? 

Zukovstheworld: It was meant to be the start of a new character, Max Castles, kind of like an alter-ego. He’s very sleek. Imagine a Prada Cortex with smart pants and a penthouse with horror-core paintings. Top floor swimming pool, dark lights. That was going to be the energy from which the new project was coming out. So, The End of the World was edging into Max Castles. That’s why [the project] sounds so different to the other stuff. The avant-pop, horror-core part. It was going to be the end of Zukovstheworld, but I’m not going to change the name anymore. Mentally, I am Max Castles right now, though.

There is a very distinct sound to this new project. 

Zukovstheworld: I think there are two sides to the project. The first half is very intense, raw and gritty – kind of my take on how I see the world. And then the second is more glittery, like stars or silk – anything that glitters. 

I saw an interview where you mentioned that you would write down your emotions at afterparties to find inspiration for your songs. Is that still the case? 

Zukovstheworld: I’m always trying to capture how I felt the night before. You know that feeling when you don’t want to leave the party? The sun’s coming up and you’re trying to fit magic in a glass – that’s what goes into my notebook. I actually lost my last one, though. Hopefully someone isn’t holding onto it…

Music is meant to dramatise people’s lives

Sounds like you’ve got quite a rich inner world.   

Zukovstheworld: Yeah, I live in my head quite a lot, that escapism type shit. The world can be boring, that’s why people listen to music – so they can have their own cinematic take on how their fucking day is going. Music is meant to dramatise people’s lives.

So, when you step out of here, what’s the first thing you’re listening to?

Zukovstheworld: I was just listening to Brent Faiyaz, I’m going to be real. 

How did you and fakemink first link up?

Zukovstheworld: I met Enzo [fakemink] online. I heard his songs on Soundcloud, and then he just messaged me on Instagram. We just connected on a mutual one, we like the same things. We started collaborating and hanging out. 

What attracted you to him? 

Zukovstheworld: It reminded me of the stuff my older brother used to listen to. Drake, Lil Wayne, Big Sean, early A$AP Rocky – all the guys from that time. But I went on my own musical journey. 

I was also surprised to see some guest production by Nine8 producer Mac Wetha on the mixtape, too.

Zukovstheworld: Man like Mac. Shout out Mac. He was a very early believer in what I was doing, and it’s sick that we’re still working together after all this time. 

Who would be the dream collab? 

Zukovstheworld: Corbin, from the US. A lot of dark and great moments. Mourn sat with me quite heavily. I know that album inside out, every single lyric. It means so, so much to me. 

The End of the World is out now.