Dominic Fike: Your New Favorite Anti-Pop Star

One of my favorite past-times is to send my friends songs from smaller artists that I think are about to make it big - usually accompanied with a text to the tune of “listen to this before it blows up, thank me later.” Most recently, I’ve become a walking billboard for Dominic Fike - the 23-year old indie darling from Naples, FL.

If you’re familiar with him, it’s for one of three reasons.

A. You’re a close follower of hip-hop collective BROCKHAMPTON and you know Fike from the band’s constant promotion of him.

B. You live in the UK, where his debut single “3 Nights” hit #3 on the country’s Official Singles Chart.

C. You listen to alternative radio, where “3 Nights” is also currently one of the most played tracks on stations nationwide.

Although he’s already embarked on a world tour, captured the hearts of art school students across the country and designed clothing with Marc Jacobs, I still feel like Fike should be much bigger than he is right now. Hell, listen to the aforementioned “3 Nights” and tell me you can’t hear it sliding perfectly between Shawn Mendes songs on your local Top 40 radio station. But his rise to fame is quite an interesting and multi-faceted story - and it all started with him being carried away in handcuffs.

Dominic was arrested in October 2017 for battery of a police officer in his hometown of Naples. He was sentenced to house arrest, but was then sent to prison after violating said house arrest. While confined behind four walls, he started working on his debut EP - which would later come to be known as Don’t Forget About Me, Demos. But Fike didn’t decide to become a musician overnight - he had been trying to break into Florida’s SoundCloud rap scene for a hot minute.

I can only find 2 original songs that he made in this era before DFAM, both uploaded on an underground hip-hop archive channel called GHXSTDVPPY. All of his other tracks were completely scrubbed off the internet after he got signed. The first track, “Jada Pinkett”, is by far the more popular one among his day-one fans.

It’s also not very good.

On “Jada Pinkett” he wore his influences very clearly on his sleeve - his rapping voice sounded eerily similar to fellow Florida rapper wifisfuneral, he used choppy flows very reminiscent of those of the $uicideboy$ and the production sounds like a Lil Peep-type beat he ripped from YouTube for free. The DIY, run-and-gun music video layered with cheap after-effects is very indicative of the budget he had at this point in his career. The other song, simply credited under the name Dom, is called “Back in the City”. It’s barely over a minute long and the beat still has a “purchase your track today” watermark from the site he ripped it from. However, this track does see Dominic coming into some sort of trademark vocal style. Although the chorus is heavily autotuned, the verses do feature some multi-track harmonizing that you can still hear in Dom’s music to this day. The lyrical content is also much more mature here - in a way, he almost predicts and accepts his future success with a particularly bittersweet lyric:

“Flying out to LA soon, don’t forget me when you make it”.

Now we’ve arrived back at Don’t Forget About Me, Demos - the EP was originally self-released on SoundCloud shortly after Dominic was sent to jail in December 2017. Labels began to take notice of the project, and a bidding war shortly ensued. He ended up signing to Columbia Records for an (alleged) $4 million deal, and thus the world was introduced to Dominic Fike.

As I mentioned before, his internet slate was wiped almost entirely clean. The EP was taken off SoundCloud and re-released on streaming services in October 2018, and it almost immediately started gaining enormous amounts of traction. DFAM is a complete 180-degree shift from tracks like “Jada Pinkett” - the generic trap beats have been replaced with breezy guitars, the poorly mixed vocals have been plastered over by sun-tinged, sanguine melodies. The lyrical content mainly reflects on past relationships, but lots of references to his days spent under house arrest are also present. The haunting closer “King of Everything” details his daily activities while confined between four walls - watching movies on his phone, having dreams about other people’s secrets. Just the normal house arrest things.

The EP’s flagship single “3 Nights” became an international hit and got very, very close to charting in the US. It’s not hard to see why, considering the dangerously sticky hook, the sparse guitar chords and the adrenaline-pumping drum track. Although I’m thoroughly obsessed with all 6 tracks on the project, “She Wants My Money” is easily my favorite. It still has the charming intimacy of an indie pop track, but also sports the relaxed cadence and mellow guitar lines of a surf rock cut. There’s really something for everyone on DFAM, and you can’t deny that it can set a hell of a mood.

Dominic is currently gearing up to release a debut album after the success of DFAM, but no release timeframe or title has yet been revealed. He’s released 3 singles this year - the slick, nocturnal “Rollerblades”, the soulfully organic “Açaí Bowl” and the post-fame reflection track “Phone Numbers” which features production from hip-hop hitmaker Kenny Beats. The future is blindingly bright for Dominic Fike, so I advise you to invest in him now before his star power eclipses us all.