In July 1858, a miasma of faecal matter swallowed London. Inadequate sewage systems had left the River Thames saturated with human waste, and by the end of the month, the ‘Great Stink’ had become so powerful that sessions in the nearby Houses of Parliament had to be suspended. On some level, it was symbolic: no matter where you sat in the British class system, you couldn’t – and cannot – escape the realities of human existence. Now, 168 years later, almost to the day, that same truth has re-emerged at the steaming centre of a new music trend clogging up our internet feeds: UK Poo.

The ‘genre’ first popped up (or, rather, out) in a Twitter/X post that has since been viewed more than 15 million times. “There’s a genre of music growing on TikTok that I like to call UK Poo,” wrote user Cashyams earlier this month, reposting a clumsy melodic-trap snippet filmed against cheap neon strip lighting. In the days that followed, Poofessor Yams codified his thesis through a string of additional low-budget rap videos, each embodying caricatures of Britishness that would feel at home in mockumentaries such as People Just Do Nothing or Fonejacker. The unifying themes seem to be awkward flows, blunt or barely rhyming lyrics, DIY visuals and an unmistakably British aesthetic. In one video, an aspiring rapper urges, “Come slap me, slap me again,” as she waltzes out of a corner shop and mimes gunshots with her hands. Another depicts an artist rapping for a full 30 seconds without rhyming inside a kitschy London souvenir shop, its miniature red buses and telephone boxes matching his head-to-toe red Nike Tech tracksuit.

“There’s a very specific British charm to it,” Poofessor Yams tells Dazed over video call, who himself raps as part of the group SG! “Me and my uni housemates kept seeing these types of videos while scrolling on TikTok. They were so hilarious that we thought there’s no way that the people posting them didn’t find it funny themselves.” 

So, what exactly defines UK Poo? “To make a UK Poo video, it should scream ‘British’ straight away,” Cashyams explains. “It needs to be filmed on an iPhone, preferably outside of a corner shop or your local pub, and if you can get a lime bike or a Nike Tech fleece in there, too – great! There also needs to be a microaggressive aesthetic to the whole video and the topic you’re singing about has to be a little outrageous.” 

But while Poofessor Yams initially discovered UK Poo in the bowels of TikTok, he also acknowledges that the lineage of meme-worthy UK rap goes much deeper. “I feel like you can trace UK Poo back to when Central Cee first started blowing up,” he continues, arguing that Cee’s “watered-down version of UK drill” paved the way for the hyper-British aesthetics embodied by UK Poo today. Elsewhere, online commenters have further excavated the genre’s roots, identifying everything from Marleek’s 2021 gem “Birth of a Winner” – which includes the now-iconic “balls, batty and dick” line – to the viral Blackpool Grime movement of 2015 as poo-decessors to today’s breakthrough.

Much like Blackpool Grime, however, it’s hard to ignore the class dimensions at play in UK Poo. “There’s definitely classist and racial undertones to the joke,” Poofessor Yams admits. “But, because I made the joke as a fairly lower-class Black person, I think it’s different. It’s self-deprecating humour. Still, I see some people laughing at the joke in a way that needs to be unpacked. Like, how are you laughing at this in the same way that I am?” The line between laughing with and laughing at, seems to be blurry at best.

Still, Cashyams believes that, overall, UK Poo is a positive and uplifting trend. “I do think it’s nice that it’s something we can all laugh at together,” he continues. “Ever since Elon [Musk] took over Twitter, it’s been so crazy on there; things are so divided. I think UK Poo is a net positive because, honestly, the alternative is people being called racist, classist and sexist slurs. I’d rather this. My whole timeline right now is full of British people of all different backgrounds coming together and laughing at the same thing. Meanwhile, I’m seeing people from other countries tweeting like, ‘What the fuck is UK Poo?!’ It’s really funny to see.”  

Crucially, this affectionate humour hasn’t been lost on the UK Poo-stars themselves. “I spoke to some of their friends and the main ones – Slap Me Again, Shake It and Rich Life/Broke Life – are all planning to do a show together,” Poofessor Yams says, referring to the artists by their now-viral lyrics. “It feels like they’re all in on the joke and can benefit from it. They seem pretty excited to be in the trend. I don’t think any of them are trying to be Queen or Michael Jackson, you know? Maybe they’re just enjoying making music.” 

In an age where artists have to endlessly self-market themselves on social media, where political divides thrive in algorithmic echo chambers, and where every other post online seems like a psy-op trying to coerce us, perhaps all it takes is a poo joke to remind us of the shared humanity – and, particularly, the shared Britishness – behind our phone screens. After all, if there’s one thing we all have in common, it’s pooing.