Lil Macks - who was born in Holland and moved to Tottenham, North London, with his mother and four siblings, before settling in Milton Keynes—released his breakout track, “Protect Me”, at the top of 2021 during peak Covid pandemic. Luckily for him, it was the perfect opportunity to make his presence known in the game: the trap-wave banger caught a flame across social media and positioned him next to modern-day greats like M Huncho and Nafe Smallz. Demo versions of his follow-up singles, “Barbados” and “Oslo”, were mysteriously leaked before they saw the light of day, but this led to multiple fan pages popping up and only boosting his buzz and already cult-like following. He capitalised on the situation by flying out to both counties to shoot music videos for the final versions, and both songs are now sitting on millions of views and streams. Lil Macks has continued to churn out melodic street vignettes for his rapidly growing fanbase, and is expecting his sophomore mixtape, Leaked 2—which details the good, the bad, and the ugly in his life—to help position him as a future great, too.