Phonk

Phonk is a subgenre of hip hop built from 1990s Memphis rap: lo-fi cassette samples, cowbell and 808 drum programming, chopped and screwed vocal fragments and dark funk, soul and horror-film sources. The term was popularised around 2011 by *SpaceGhostPurrp*, founder of the *Raider Klan* collective, whose "Mysterious Phonk: The Chronicles of SpaceGhostPurrp" (2012) carried the sound from Florida's underground to a wider audience on #4AD#. A second generation including *Denzel Curry* and *Freddie Dredd* kept the Memphis template while sharpening its fidelity, and the later drift phonk offshoot took its cowbell leads to global chart success.