MC's Music Lounge: Dominic Fike's "Pangea" is the musical equivalent of a summer breeze

Dominic Fike is one week away from the release of his third studio album How to Quit Smoking, and he’s released the second single ahead of the street date. “Pangea” arrives just as one of his older hits enters the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the first time, 8 years after becoming a “sleeper hit”.

The “sleeper hit” is a term for a song that takes longer than usual to rise to the top of the charts. Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” is an example of this as it took that song more than five months to get to the top. Nowadays, the window of time that classifies a “sleeper hit” is far wider. This is thanks in part to the TikTok generation that has made it so that no matter when a song was released, it can still have a moment in the sun if renewed interest occurs. Artists like Kate Bush, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Mac Miller, and Oasis have all experienced this type of success in recent years. Kesha even just this week released a new music video to her 2010 song “Backstabber” after the resurgence it gained from TikTok.

Dominic is now on that list as his 2018 demo “Babydoll” has just made the top 10. Earlier this year, “Babydoll” started making noise on TikTok. The song was used for lip-syncs and as cover for emotional fan-edits of movies and TV shows. It became so big that Columbia Records decided to re-release the single, send it to radio, and now here we are in October of 2026, and the song has just reached a new chart peak in the USA and it’s showing no signs of slowing down.

For many years, Dominic Fike was your quintessential SoundCloud musician. He would write and produce his own tracks and upload them onto the service for users to enjoy for free and like many artists in the mid-2010s, this turned into a major record deal. He remained underground until he was cast in Euphoria in 2022 and started dating Hunter Schafer. Suddenly, his name was in the mouths of celebrity gossips everywhere. Pretty much the entire cast of Euphoria had some kind of pop culture arrival, whether they were prepared for it or not. Dominic used the opportunity to turn his attention back to his music. He did not return for a third season of the show and today, in 2026, we are watching it pay off in a bigger way than he could have ever imagined.

Next week will be the release of the full 25^th anniversary re-issue of Mariah Carey’s Glitter including the original 1997 recording of “Lead the Way”. Mariah had written that song four years before its eventual 2001 release and re-working. The lambily has been wanting to hear the original for years, so this is a big one for the us. This week, along with Dominic’s new track we have a dance remix of a Brandy classic, plus new songs from Yung Miami with Summer Walker, Anderson .Paak with Cordae and an unearthed Amy Winehouse deep cut. Finally, keeping up with this week’s trend of “sleeper hits”, JADE’s 2024 debut solo single is finally gaining its angel wings.

Listen on…

MC’s PICKS OF THE WEEK

“Pangea” by Dominic Fike

There’s a raw acoustic feel on this song during the opening portion that initially leads you to think you’re about to hear a more melancholic track. That isn’t the case. “Pangea” is such a freeing song, like the musical equivalent of a summer breeze, it instantly brings you to the days of emo mid-tempos jams from the 2000s. Dominic’s rap flow in the verses and the eventual transition into the melodic chorus are very reminiscent of that time. It’s laidback but still an earworm. I couldn’t help but hear a resemblance to Mac Miller’s voice when listening. Those two would have made something special together, I could even hear it on “Pangea”. Dominic is releasing this single one week before the full album, and in the same week that his catalogue hit “Babydoll” has cracked the top 10. Surely, it’s an interesting predicament to be in when you are releasing something new into the world, just as something from your past is at its commercial peak. Regardless, Dominic is forging forward with this new sound that is more upbeat and bright than those early recordings. He has built a devoted fanbase that is chronically online, so I expect some big things from this next era of his career. He at least has the support from people on socials.

“My Best Friend” by Matt Sassari, Brandy, GIACOBBI

Brandy has had an awesome 2026, complete with two new films, a series of new concerts both solo and with Monica, and now she’s adding an updated dance remix of one of her classic hits to that list. “Best Friend” was from her debut album and was written as a dedication to her brother Ray J. He even was supposed to be featured on the song but for one reason or another his verse didn’t make the original. He did appear in the video though. In recent years, the song has been popular on social media and used as a soundtrack to different trends. French DJ Matt Sassari has remixed the song in this raving techno house remix that has been sending live audiences into a frenzy when he started including it in his set. It made so much of an impact that now, Brandy herself has come into the picture. She re-recorded her vocals for this studio version that is now available for all of us to have a rave of our very own in the comfort of our living rooms. Brandy has given us a few dance gems over the years – GIACOBBI adds in his Italian dance flair to the remix, making it a true blend of multiple worlds of dance.

“Ride for You” by Yung Miami, Summer Walker

She had a summer smash with “Spend Dat” and she’s hoping to do it again with the help of Summer Walker. This is a far more R&B track than her previous hit which has become something of a scammers anthem, LOL. “Ride for You” appropriately samples the Jodeci classic “Cry for You”. Yes, the same “Cry for You” that Drake references in “Controlla”. The song is a part of her debut solo album WATCH DIS which was just released this week. The album is filled with all-star features from artists like Travis Scott, Bryson Tiller, Shenseea and more. Majority of the songs are your straight-forward rap songs, but “Ride for You” goes a little bit left and does something different. Plus, I’m a sucker for a ‘90s sample always. Summer knows her way around a sample since her entire first album is filled with them on basically every other song. It’s a solid R&B track, and an enjoyable listen if you’re trying to create a sexy vibe. Will it become a hit like “Spend Day”? That remains to be seen, but it will be interesting to see how the album holds up now that she has moved on from that song. Before the success of “Spend Dat” she wasn’t really on the mainstream market’s radar. Now, just looking at this impressive list of features, we know that the conversation is shifting.

“Airbender” by Anderson .Paak, Cordae

The collaboration album between Andy and Cordae is out after a fire leading single made the column last month. “Airbender” jumped out at me from the first note. My only issue: it’s too damn short. But since those 1 minute and 51 seconds hit so hard, it gets a spot on the playlist this week. Andy is in his rap bag on this track, a territory that he hasn’t visited in a minute. Both artists on the song bounce off each other so seamlessly, it’s the most delicious ear candy. My favourite rap songs are the ones that have that bouncy beat, they make for the perfect cardio soundtrack. Kendrick Lamar does these types of songs well, it’s a West Coast sound. These are also the types of jams that go hard live and I could get used to more of these types of tunes from Andy. As much as I love his R&B and soul-infused songs, this feels so fresh and well-suited for him. Now, if we can just get the extended version… I’ll report back to you all when that inevitably becomes available. Tinashe finally released the extended version of “Too Easy” for free on her SoundCloud, and it’s now double the length. Not that I’m necessarily saying I caused this, BUT I am saying I wrote about wanting it. Manifestation is a real thing, folks.

“Do Me Good” by Amy Winehouse

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 20 years since Amy Winehouse released her career-defining album Back to Black. The album that brought us the hits “Rehab” and “Tears Dry on Their Own” (among many others) and is getting a facelift in honour of its very special birthday. “Do Me Good” was one of the B-sides to the commercial CD single of “Rehab” back in 2006 but was never available on streaming services until now. It was one of those lost treasures for Amy Winehouse fans, and now it can be enjoyed properly and on demand. “Do Me Good” has a smooth, intimate neo-soul driven production that serves as a crossover between the sound of her debut album Frank and what would eventually become the jazz-forward sonics of Back to Black. The soft-electric piano and keyboard textures in the song help paint a romantic atmosphere, like a jazz club with dimmed light and some fire espresso martinis. The song was recorded with Spice Girls hitmaker Matt Rowe in the earlier sessions of the creative process, before she ever got together with Mark Ronson who would eventually aid in crafting the jazz sound and aesthetic that would follow the rest of her career. Matt and Amy had worked on her debut together, so they did continue their working relationship for the sophomore album even though none of their works ended up on the final project. Having these songs come out is a treat especially since I hadn’t heard any of the songs that weren’t on the original standard edition of the album. It’s fascinating to me to see this glimpse into the creative journey she went on before getting to the sound that was decided. What a special way to celebrate both the album and the legacy of the great Amy.

MC’s VIRAL PICK

“Angel of My Dreams” by JADE

Every now and then, a viral trend comes around to help boost a song that deserved its shine the first time around. I have been a big fan of JADE’s for years now since she was a member of Little Mix and have been especially loud since she launched her solo career with the electro-pop masterpiece “Angel of My Dreams” in the summer of 2024. I’ve mentioned her music in this column multiple times, and all but accepted that she would be forever known as an underrated British pop girl like when she was in Little Mix. The girls were huge yes, but never quite got the recognition they deserved over in North America. “Angel” is one of the more daring pop releases of the decade. The lyrics follow her love-hate relationship with the music industry. Given her history as an employee of Simon Cowell’s SYCO Music company, the lyric “selling my soul to a psy-cho” is especially telling.

The song performed modestly a few years back and peaked in the UK top 10, but it seems that JADE is finally getting her flowers on a global scale because two years after its initial release, “Angel Of My Dreams” has gone viral, and it’s thanks to Kylie Jenner’s fantasy bra walk at the 2026 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. “Angel of My Dreams” is the perfect song for an “angel walk” so to speak and the greater public has unanimously agreed as the song is earning upwards of 1.5 million streams a day, a major spike from the 30,000 it was earning before.

Kylie’s walk made so much of a splash that an entire social media trend has erupted surrounding it and JADE’s song is at the center of it all. Whatever your thoughts on the Kardashian/Jenner dynasty are, the fact that JADE is getting to benefit from this is enough for me to be on board. In a new interview, she talked about the viral success of the song and how she plans to re-release the single to give it the shine and attention it so rightfully deserved when it was first released. Sometimes we really do get justice for our favourite songs.