Fakemink drops hints: secret feature, drill roots, Terrified

fakemink Terrified – Ahead of his highly anticipated album Terrified, fakemink revisited a two-and-a-half-hour Dazed cover story and shared five new, never-before-printed hints from January this year—ranging from a “secret feature” to his growing obsession with 2018–2020 UK drill

He paused halfway through a melodic cloud rap song, right in the middle of laying out early sounds for a reporter through AirPods. Then he stopped—gesturing across the table to his manager—and said the quiet part without explaining it.

“This one has a secret feature that I can’t share yet.”

He added that even his manager hadn’t heard it.

That moment—abrupt, almost teasing—captures the tension around Terrified. The album is due after months of anticipation, with cryptic hints showing up in fakemink’s Instagram captions toward the end of last year. Even two days before the release date, though, “very little is known” publicly.

The last time fakemink opened up in depth was in March of this year. when MISRYOUM published his first-ever Dazed cover story. The conversation ran for two and a half hours: it began in a high-end sushi restaurant meeting the UK “Ug paragon. ” and ended with him greeting fans in the doorway of Selfridges. In that long chat, he played early demos of Terrified and described its themes. But because of print constraints, much of the conversation stayed buried on the interviewer’s hard drive—until now.

Terrified follows London’s Saviour, fakemink’s first full-length project since the slow-burn album released in 2023. Back then, popularity built gradually. This time. the lead-up has felt sharper: he’s been exploding in popularity at the start of 2025. and the new album has been anticipated ever since the hints began.

Below are five previously unpublished hints fakemink shared back in January of this year.

The secret feature remains a mystery, even to his own team
During the January run-through, fakemink interrupted the flow of tracks mid-playback. The cloud rap song with bassline-influenced production didn’t finish its thought. What came next was a simple statement with a hard boundary.

“This one has a secret feature that I can’t share yet.”

When he gestured to his manager across the table, it landed like a stop sign. “Even he hasn’t heard it.”

In the same early session, fakemink also described the way he builds sound and melody—especially now, when his tastes have tightened around UK drill.

From grime to drill: nostalgia, melodies, and the “catchy” pull
When asked about vocals and how his music sits in relation to drill, he pushed back on the idea that he’s simply borrowing styles. His connection runs deeper.

He said that during the London’s Saviour era he listened to a lot of grime—“like a lot of Skepta and JME”—but that now “it’s just been drill.” He described the 2018–2020 era drill as nostalgic, linking it to his secondary school years.

“I love UK drill. Some songs are just undeniably catchy; the melodies are like a pop song,” he said, emphasizing that the melodies carry their own identity. “It’s just their own melodies.”

He pointed to a specific example: “PCD On The Mains” by 67. In his words. that track feels like “the peak time.” He also talked about how he believes some UK drill gets boxed into a specific “New York drill sound. ” and he worries that melodies get missed if someone only listens to artists like Zuko or himself.

For him, the best drill doesn’t only slide 808s. “There’s a lot of UK drill that isn’t just the standard sliding 808s,” he said, calling out the difference between what drill fans already know and what new listeners might never hear.

He then named Sinn6r as someone doing this well. Even though Sinn6r’s subject matter isn’t what drill rappers usually talk about. fakemink said Sinn6r keeps the same cadences and flows—adjusted for an “underground ear.” People respond by calling it catchy. he said. but he believes longtime drill listeners recognize the rhythm immediately.

He ties Terrified to life on the road—and insists the concept took time
Fakemink described how his life has changed since becoming famous, but he didn’t present it as a clean break. He said he still “sleep[s] hella” and still leaves things to the last minute.

Then he brought it back to the album.

He said the concept of Terrified has been “two years in the making,” but that production and recording didn’t follow that timeline neatly. From August, he did a mini tour—Toronto, New York and LA—and he said he didn’t get home until 25th of November.

“All that time, I was in LA and New York and I wasn’t recording much music,” he said, adding that none of it was for Terrified.

But Terrified, he said, is about that period.

He explained that he had to come back to England to write about the time properly—because he needed to escape the LA environment in order to “be able to write about it.”

“With my music, I care more about world building than anything else,” he said. He described the idea as something he couldn’t do while living inside it.

“If I could have been in LA, recording songs about LA, but I felt like I had to be home so I could be bored and then try to remember like, ‘Oh, what was LA like?’ and rebuild it in my head.”

That rebuild matters to how the album sounds—and how it tells its story. He described the LA it portrays as neither documentary nor literal.

“It’s not a true depiction of LA. It’s more like an exaggerated version, like a really crude caricature of LA.”

He also said what he’s talking about can’t be fully explained without listening, framing it as something he’s choosing not to overexplain.

He trusted GhostInnaFurCoat with more than support—titles included
When asked about how he trusted his close friend and fellow artist GhostInnaFurCoat to help express personal experiences, fakemink didn’t treat the relationship as a casual collaboration.

He said he’s known GhostInnaFurCoat since 2016. He credited him with giving the name for London’s Saviour. He also said GhostInnaFurCoat “did a lot of the song titles on Terrified.”

On his phone, fakemink pulled up the tracklist and described the split.

“I chose ‘Terrified’, ‘Playlist’, ‘Creep’ and ‘Like A Virgin’, but the rest are him.”

He also talked about an approach to titling that he clearly enjoys—putting out titles of already existing songs.

“Music And Me” is named after a Michael Jackson song of the same name, he said.

On timing and competition in the UK underground, he says execution comes first
Fakemink also spoke directly about competition in the UK underground and how he tries to stay ahead.

When it comes to making music ahead of trends, he said, “you just really have to trust your creative intuition.” He described the feeling of being first—not just inspired, but certain.

“Have you ever seen a piece of clothing or a song and you’re like, ‘I thought of that first’?”

His answer suggested that he believes ideas arrive broadly, but only one or two people execute.

“Ideas are given to everybody; it’s just whoever executes it first gets to claim it.”

He referenced a nostalgia wave happening in real time, pointing to artists like Feng. He said that “before Feng was even a thing,” he knew an artist would do a “2010 nostalgia thing.” He admitted he did it “for a bit at the beginning of 2024,” but said that cycle has ended.

“So, when I see people like Feng doing what they’re doing, I’m like, ‘Damn, I knew that was going to happen’.”

For him, the lesson is patience and faith—because weirdness doesn’t always land instantly.

“[For] the stuff that I’m gonna put out for Terrified, it’s gonna sound super weird to people, but it will take time,” he said.

He compared it to London’s Saviour. He said people are still finding that project today—even though to him it’s “dated” now—and for someone else, it’s still “brand new.”

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