TWENTYTHREE IS NEXT UP WITH 583,900 TIKTOK VIDEOS

Twentythree is next up. A year ago he was an unhappy college student in Toronto with 1,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, so anxious in a crowd that he skipped concerts rather than stand in one instead of on a stage. Now 583,900 TikToks carry clips of his song Queen St, Drake follows his Instagram account, and Welcome.jpeg just published a mini documentary asking the question its own audience started typing into search bars: who is twentythree.

The math does not run through a normal A&R deck. No radio add, no label single, no manufactured challenge. A self produced record spread inside TikTok's comment section until the platform could not ignore it, and the artist behind it still does not particularly enjoy standing in a crowd.

1,000 Monthly Listeners, One Year Ago

A year ago, twentythree's entire audience on Spotify would not have filled a small venue. He was a college student making beats alone, staying home from shows because being packed into a crowd made him depressed rather than excited, a strange admission for someone whose whole plan was to eventually stand on a stage instead. Public bio listings tie his stage name to his birthday, February 23, not an age, and he has been producing music since his teens.

That gap between the bedroom and the stage is the actual story here. He did not build an audience by performing live. He built it by posting a beat he produced himself and letting Toronto's underground rap scene, currently built around club oriented, bass heavy production, carry it for him.

Queen St Turned a Toronto Sound Into a Movement

Queen St is the song responsible for the jump, and it is entirely his own production, not a placement from an outside beatmaker. The track leans into the same low end, club adjacent sound that a wave of Toronto producers, including Fakemink and the scene building around platforms like GashFM, has been pushing all year.

Toronto's underground has needed a defining sound since the Drake and Weeknd era matured into a legacy phase instead of an insurgent one. Twentythree's rollout mirrors what Atlanta's rage scene did around Opium, where a single self contained sound built the audience first and the label deals came second. That is the same pattern behind Ken Carson's Destroy Lonely album confirmation, just playing out a genre and a country over, inside Toronto's club rap scene instead of Atlanta's rage scene.

Drake Followed the Account Before Any Label Called

Drake began following twentythree's Instagram account before any label signed him, and Fakemink brought him onstage during a Toronto show specifically to perform Queen St live. Neither of those is a contract. Both are the kind of proof of concept that used to require a radio add and now only requires one clip that will not stop spreading.

Drake is treating the genre around him very differently this month. The same artist quietly following an unsigned Toronto producer was also the target of Playboi Carti's one bar response to Drake's Iceman diss, a reminder that one artist can be an industry gatekeeper and an active combatant in rap discourse inside the same news cycle.

583,900 TikToks Are Not the Same as a Deal

583,900 TikToks have now been made using twentythree's top song, according to the same post that traces his rise from 1,000 monthly Spotify listeners. That number measures reach, not revenue, and nothing in the public record shows a publishing deal, a distribution deal, or a label signature behind it yet.

Welcome.jpeg turning his rise into a produced YouTube documentary instead of a single post is the more telling business decision. A documentary is a durable, searchable asset that keeps answering the who is twentythree question long after a TikTok trend cycle moves on, which is exactly the kind of infrastructure an unsigned artist needs before a label conversation even starts. It is a cross vertical move as much as a music one, the same playbook streetwear brands use when they fund a short film instead of an ad, betting that a story outlasts a post.

Twentythree is next up in the same sense any unsigned artist with a viral song is next up: undeniable online, unproven in a boardroom. The receipts so far are 1,000 monthly listeners a year ago, 583,900 TikToks now, one unsolicited Drake follow, and one live bring out from Fakemink. That is enough momentum to get a documentary made. The label conversation is the next test, and Toronto's underground scene will be watching whether it happens on his terms.