RAIZHELL

Dark and gritty, pulsing and cinematic, as hard as it is mysterious and certainly untamed. This is the sound of RAIZHELL, a leader of the phonk music phenomenon that’s caught listeners like wildfire with its infectious rhythms and DIY ethos.

The genre that blends hard Memphis rap vocals with heavy bass thumps, pounding drums and electric 808 cowbell beats has taken over the internet. Its fast-paced and high-energy sound trends all over TikTok, surging phonk songs on streaming platforms where they garner tens of millions of plays on Spotify, Youtube and more.

But where other phonk producers are content to simply churn out tune after tune, RAIZHELL is on a mission to take the web-based movement offline into clubs and festival lineups around the world.

The Italian producer first discovered phonk like anyone else—via an online playlist. Having grown up playing in punk and hardcore metal bands, he was immediately drawn to the genre’s aggressive attitudes and DIY approach. Even the scene’s visual aesthetics, which center around anime and demonic images in purples, fed into his heavily tatted, rock’n’roll look. He soon developed his own style and approach to the phonk sound, as well as a menacing, pink skull-like mask that forms the RAIZHELL identity.

Sonically, RAIZHELL stands out from the pack, mixing the classic phonk signatures with house hits, techno aesthetics, dubstep attitude and even pop anthems. His DJ sets are full of original edits and phonk covers, mixing top lines from Lady Gaga and Travis Scott with massive phonk beats. He often reimagines classic melodies, like Alice Deejay’s “Better Off Alone” or the Crookers’ remix of “Day’N’Nite,” as phonked-up synth explosions.

You’re as likely to hear nods to Avicii and the Black Eyes Peas as you are the Eurythmics or Lil Pump. It’s a trick RAIZHELL employs to capture and electrify crowds, whether they’ve ever heard of “phonk” or not. He’s proven the method not only with DJ sets published online but in venues around the world, from a riotous ADE showcase at Paradiso, to the phonk-crazed crowds in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

It’s also earned him inroads with the EDM elite. David Guetta tapped his unruly sound for an official remix of the Grammy-nominated Bebe Rexha collaboration “I’m Good (Blue).” So, too, did Öwnboss, who released RAIZHELL’s remix of “Move Your Body” on Tiesto’s label Musical Freedom.