mvm.

The rise of “death bed” from unknown and out-of-nowhere artist, Powfu, represents a new model on how songs circulate through the twists and turns of social media, and are churned out of the other side as mega hits. And a multi-platinum single.

With a record deal signing often being the last step, musicians right now are making their own success, their own way. And Powfu is a fine example of that. With the song considered as lo-fi hip hop – a term that usually states unpolished beats and samples from unknown producers – it is not exactly expertly made with musical expertise at the helm. But, the catchy samples (which was sampled from “Coffee” by Beabadoobee), the alluring percussion beats and the mumble of the rapping allows the song to flow and melt within one another, creating a melancholic song – a song that was perfect at the time of its release – when we were amidst a worldwide pandemic.

The song took many meanings and was interpreted by many different people across social media. It peaked when it hit the videos of TikTok. With the song used by many users to confess their love to one another, the song soon became a number one hit, accumulating 800 million streams on Spotify alone.

With its simple production, melancholic sounds and a story where literally everyone can relate to, it amassed a huge following that brought this lo-fi hip hop style in the limelight.

And, many artists soon followed.

Guccihighwaters, Iain dorr, Sarcastic sounds, iamjakehill, Lil revive, Aries, Guardin. They all had the same formula, too. This lo-fi hip hop cup-of-tea melancholic freeform of progressive beats, uncooked samples and incoherent vocals, This was often matched with a name that was neither conjoined throughout or host neither a capital or a name that made sense.

But hey, it’s annoyingly catchy, highly addictive to keep listening and above all else, they’re popular. So why stop?