“There’s nothing quick about my rise,” insists fakemink in our Between Takes video released earlier this week, and it turns out that he isn’t wrong. Despite the 22-year-old seeming like the viral rapper du jour, exploding onto everyone’s feeds last summer, fakemink – and his previous alias 9090gate – has long been putting in the work behind the scenes. 

This is particularly apparent in exclusive new data provided to Dazed by Spotify, which reveals that fakemink’s rise over the past year is mostly down to international audiences. While monthly streams in the UK have increased by 696 per cent over the past 12 months, for example, his global listenership has increased by a staggering 3830 per cent, with the US now being his biggest audience. This is a trend which is reflected in the wider UK Ug scene, with EsDeeKid’s monthly listeners in the US skyrocketing by 87,000 per cent over the same period, Feng’s increasing by 45,000 per cent, and Ceebo’s by 4,000 per cent. As famed Instagram page @margielamang0 would say: newgens, all of ‘em.

Below, we break down the exponential rise of recent Dazed cover star fakemink.

MAY 1, 2024: 175 MONTHLY LISTENERS 

Changing his name from 9090gate to fakemink in April 2024, this is the first date for which fakemink’s monthly listeners are available. What’s notable here is, despite the cult status that debut album London’s Saviour would later achieve, it had been out for four months at this point and was still struggling to gain traction. All of that, of course, would soon change.

JANUARY 17, 2025: 76,159 MONTHLY LISTENERS 

Up until this point, fakemink’s fandom had been confined to niche online forums, but with the release of breakout single “Easter Pink”, mink starts to breach containment. “Easter Pink” now has over 30 million streams on Spotify, while EsDeeKid’s single “LV Sandals feat. fakemink and Rico Ace”, released a couple weeks later on February 6, now stands as 140 million – fakemink’s most-streamed song to date. From here on out, incoming fans are dubbed ‘newgens’ online for being latecomers to the movement. 

JULY 13, 2025: 840,499 MONTHLY LISTENERS 

As the sun set on London’s Finsbury Park and Wireless Festival 2025 wound to a close, fakemink experienced another jump in streams. The increase was partly due to the swelling virality “LV Sandals” was experiencing, and also due to festival headliner Drake bringing fakemink for a surprise performance of the song on the festival’s second day. Once Drake gets involved, you know you’re about to go mainstream.

AUGUST 28, 2025: 1,394,109 MONTHLY LISTENERS

The biggest growth in fakemink’s streams, however, takes place from August 2025 onwards, following the young star’s debut mini-tour across the UK and North America between August and November. The show was launched with mink’s now-legendary boxing gym show in London, at which none other than Timothée Chalamet and Aidan Zamiri made an appearance. On September 2, mink received 1 million daily streams, and it was only up from there.

JANUARY 29, 2026: 8,828,896 MONTHLY LISTENERS

It seems fakemink’s rise is far from over yet. By far his biggest day for streaming to date arrived with the release of his latest EP The Boy Who Cried Terrified on January 29, his first project in over a year and the first landmark release since his virality. The project appears to mark a more mature chapter in the artist’s career, with a striking move towards clear melody lines, along with a sample of Burial and even a bit of singing. It’s just a taste of what listeners can expect from mink’s still-upcoming album Terrified and leaves room for him to continue rising.