On a wet and miserable January afternoon in west London, Feng is sheltering in front of a TV blasting Stranger Things. Dressed in a pair of grey joggers, offset by bright yellow socks, he looks out of the window at the puffer-jacketed masses walking the streets, going about their daily business. “Everyone’s wearing black or they’re doing a gothic theme,” he says. “Let me be the complete opposite. Because that’s who I am.”
Feng describes himself as a “colorful rebel” who likes to wear pink whenever he can. The 19-year-old, who’s usually quietly laid back, grows animated as he discusses two recent purchases: a 2016 Hedi Slimane-era YSL camo jacket and a pair of pink Vans that he customized with the words “teenage dreamer.” It’s a phrase that suits an artist whose optimism and self-assured bars have put him on the fast track to becoming a key figure in the U.K. underground scene. Where peers like fakemink and EsDeeKid whip up dystopian atmospheres in their dark-hued music, Feng sees his role as delivering a can-do message to a generation that has adopted a nihilist way of thinking as a means of protection.
“I want to spread positivity and create a different type of environment,” he says. “That’s different from a lot of the scene right now.”
I want to spread positivity
and create a different type of environment.
Though he’s keen to stand out from the masses, that is who Feng makes his music for. He wants to encourage people to express themselves and do what they’re passionate about. “People don’t need to be told what to do,” he argues. “They need to be inspired.” His own music taste was defined by his two older brothers who introduced him to Kid Cudi and A$AP Rocky, alongside ‘00s indie artists M.I.A. and Crystal Castles. In the same way songs like “Day ‘n’ Nite” and “Peso” inspired him to take up music, Feng says he wants to become the same kind of role model to his generation.
Feng’s conviction in the power of chasing your dreams is understandable when you look at his rapid ascent. Just two years ago he was still at college and producing beats on a copy of FL Studio given to him by one of his brothers. Despite showing early promise — “People make shitty beats at the start; my beats were hard” — he wasn’t making the kind of progress he wanted, so he decided to cut out the middle man and put his own vocals on the tracks.
His debut album, What The Feng?, dropped in summer 2025 and captures an adolescent blur of falling in and out of love, raucous parties, and visions of an uninhibited future. Lines like “This is your life so make yourself proud” (“Who do u wanna be”) sit alongside songs about raving in London’s west end and the Mediterranean town Ayia Napa. The feeling of being young and unstoppable permeates the project, as does the teenage sense that living a good life is as simple as being the best-dressed person at the party. It’s genuinely charming when you realize Feng might be the first person in a decade to title a song “YOLO” without a hint of irony.
The breakout success of the project brought Feng a deal with Universal Music Group, who will be releasing his major-label debut on Friday, Weekend Rockstar. Produced by Feng alongside Bilal Hamdi, a Paris-based producer Feng discovered on YouTube, it’s a snapshot of Feng’s new life since his music started blowing up. In it, he disses a shitty day job he quit in late 2025 (“I was sending emails and wasting my time,” he says of the unnamed office role) and writes about going on multiple trips to Los Angeles. It was there that Feng was recognized outside a Cold Stone Creamery and, thousands of miles from home, realized he might be famous.
“This kid in uniform came over with a huge sack of garbage and as he threw it in the bin he looked to his right and saw me,” he remembers. “He ran over to me and we hugged each other. He was, like, ‘Let me get you some ice cream, bro.’ The store was already closed but he turned on all the lights and gave me some ice cream.”
People don’t need to
be told what to do.
They need to be inspired.
It was these people that Feng went to L.A. to meet and not the “fucking A&Rs and executives and all these weirdos doing weird devilish dumb shit,” he says. His feelings about the traps of the industry are more prominent on “Cali Crazy,” where he frets about “losing my own face” when confronted with “guns, money, drugs, sex” that remind him of playing Grand Theft Auto in real life. As his reality has shifted in the past year, staying sane has become Feng’s utmost priority.
Feng says that the U.K. underground scene hasn’t peaked yet but has reached “maturity” as its key figures have broken out and major label money now floods the scene. He says he agonized over whether to stay independent or sign his deal with Universal, but ultimately his creative ambition won out. With his expensive video treatments (Feng directs his own visuals) and big plans for Regularisperfect, the label subsidiary he established alongside OsamaSon affiliate Stan Smith, a cash injection was needed. Plus, the signing has allowed him to begin working with artists across the U.S. underground scene, too, like Salem Ann and Nomad The Moron. It’s all in service to his vision of motivating others that Feng wants to bring to life.
“I can be someone that inspires people to not give a fuck about what anybody else thinks and just do what they’re passionate about,” he says. “That’s the world I am trying to build.”
Feng’s ‘Weekend Rockstar’ is out on 2/13.