Since the start of 2026 Isaiah Turner – better known as Thatkidzay, or just Zay – has been diving head-first into a field of musical rabbit holes, and filming the process.
In doing so, he stirs up pure delight across a variety of subcultures – breathing new life into underground classics, cult favourites, and widely accepted masterpieces.
The format couldn’t be more simple, or relatable: A wide-eyed youth hearing something brand new in the humble setting of his bedroom – riding the rollercoaster of feelings that any new sound could elicit. It could be a new favourite, open the door to a new genre, or leave him staring at the screen trying to figure out what he’s just heard. It’s a feeling that can’t be manufactured.
And of course, one joyous listen is never enough – but it’s an addiction that won’t ever cause harm.
Decades ago you might have spent all of Saturday rifling through records, taking recommendations from an expert behind the counter. Millennials will hark back to the days of YouTube (that glorious green or blue UKF logo), forums, and other digital means to pour hours into. Today, discovery is increasingly mediated by commercially driven algorithms – and without a human element, the chance of being challenged with a wild new tangent gets stripped away in favour of homogeneity and safety.
But for his discovery, Zay rejects the robots. At the end of every video he asks: ‘Who’s next?’ Hundreds of suggestions roll in from real people armed with the context, history and nuance. They were there. The result is a wonderful comments section – like a virtual smokers’ area – artists and fans all conversing about what this track, artist, or genre means to them, swapping stories.
He does play the Instagram algorithm, though – and to great effect. There’s a familiar hook; a piece of music worth either hearing for the first time or revisiting for the hundredth; an unfiltered reaction; and an irresistible invitation to get involved. It’s social media, used for good.
We caught up with Zay to discuss growing up on pop and R&B, discovering bass music for the first time, the unlikely rabbit holes he’s fallen down – and what happens when someone who’s never been to a gig discovers music made for a soundsystem.
I’m interested to hear about your background in music. What did you grow up listening to? Were you always really into it?
Yeah, I was really into music. I danced all the time – I love music. Growing up, it was more pop and R&B: Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Prince, along those lines.
A lot of people say in the comments, ‘how have you not heard this?’ And I feel like some people don’t realise there’s just so much music. I can’t hear everything! I just didn’t grow up on some of these bands.
A lot of the dancing comes from that background, though. Mainly pop and R&B.
Does that feel like the typical music diet for someone your age in America?
No. I’d say it’s more rap here. A lot of Drake, Kendrick Lamar, NBA YoungBoy, J. Cole – the big hip-hop names. Rod Wave has a lot of fans out here too.
But I don’t really listen to a lot of newer music, honestly. It sounds the same to me. Obviously some stuff sounds different, but a lot of it feels kind of played out.
When did you realise you were listening to much more throwback music than everyone around you?
I have a lot of playlists on Spotify, and you know when it does your year in review and tells you your Spotify age? Mine was 62. When I compare my Spotify with my friends, they say I’m different.
I don’t know. Older music, you can feel it more. That’s what I like about it. You can feel it.
So when did all this more underground music start coming to you? There’s old pop, which is obviously pretty accessible, but now you seem to be discovering this whole other world.
I want to say middle-to-late July. Somebody in the comments requested a tune and that was the first time I really got into electronic music. From there, the comments just got flooded with underground stuff and drum & bass, and it just kind of led to where we are now.
When did you first start posting the reaction videos?
The first one I ever posted was late January – I think January 22 – and it was Slipknot.
So it actually started with rock bands. We went from Slipknot to Tool, Heart, Fleetwood Mac, Cocteau Twins… I don’t even know how to explain how we got from Slipknot to where we are now. We’ve been through so much music.
It’s almost like one long recommendation algorithm, except instead of a robot sending you down different paths, it’s thousands of people pointing you in different directions.
Exactly. For me, I look at it like I’m a DJ in a giant nightclub and everybody’s coming up to me like, ‘Play this! Play this!’ It’s fun. And it’s bringing a lot of people together.
It’s crazy that you eventually landed in dubstep and drum & bass, because as you’re probably discovering, these genres have incredibly passionate communities.
I didn’t even know D&B was a genre until the first reaction! Then you go into the comments and there are hundreds, thousands of comments. I’m realising this is huge.
And like I said, it brings a lot of people together. That’s what I like about it.
That’s what drew me to your videos too. Social media can be quite draining and negative, but then a tune you love suddenly comes back into your feed and everyone is in the comments talking about it again.
Even the artists are in the comments, which is crazy. And everybody’s so positive. Like, there’s really no negativity in the community.
Overwhelmingly positive, which is pretty unusual for social media. When did you realise you were bringing people together like that? Doing something bigger than just making videos?
I’d say August. There was one day where I posted my videos and one of them got over a thousand comments.
I sit there and scroll through them, and I realised I wasn’t seeing any negativity. Everybody was just talking to each other, replying to each other, giving song recommendations, talking about how they felt when they first heard something. Again, it was like one giant club.
I was scrolling through thinking, ‘wow, this is crazy.’ The fact that me posting a video can do that for other people… I don’t even know how to explain it.
And the concept itself is incredibly simple.
Yeah, it’s super basic really. But from what I hear, people say it feels genuine and authentic, so they can connect to it easily.
What’s your relationship with social media generally? Because in some ways your page feels like an antidote to some of the more negative stuff happening online.
Yeah, I’d say I am a small little antidote! I’ve heard people say stuff like ‘the positive corner of social media’, and I’ll take that.
Social media is full of negativity, but I’m 50/50 on whether it’s a problem. Sometimes it can help people build a career, connect with people – it can be really helpful. But I’ve also seen it be the complete opposite.
Years ago I barely used Instagram. I wanted to stream at one point and that got me into it a bit more. I’d scroll TikTok and eventually started posting my own clips, but then I stopped again.
Social media is weird. The people who push positivity are the good part of it. But then there are content creators, streamers, YouTubers who push negativity, and that’s the other side of it.
And you’re 22, so unlike someone my age, social media has basically existed for your entire conscious life.
Yeah. Even since sixth grade it’s been a thing. Before Instagram there were other things – there was an app called Kik, for example.
It’s always been around while I’ve been alive, but I wasn’t really on it properly until COVID. I had nothing to do, so that’s when I started getting more into it.
Okay, music. What tune has blown you away the most so far in this journey?
Yes. This is one of my favourite questions. ‘Pandora’ by Cocteau Twins is one of my all-time favourites that I’ve reacted to. Recently there was Plastikman. Bicep too – they were very good.
There’s a lot. Frank Zappa, Inca Roads. ‘Magic Man’ by Heart. DJ Rolando, ‘Knights of the Jaguar’. ‘Hypnotized’ by Fleetwood Mac. ‘Breathe’ by Ministry…
And it’s crazy because every song I just named sounds completely different. You never know what you’re going to get.
I have to ask because I’m sure you get asked constantly: is it genuinely always the first time you’re hearing the track?
Yes – and you can publish this!
A lot of people are confused about that, but it is. I purposely don’t react to songs that I’ve heard for that exact reason. There have been songs I’ve been recommended before that I can’t do.
I have shared some videos before where I have already heard it – but the title would just be ‘listening to…’, meaning I’ve heard this already and it’s one of my favourites. There’s no point in faking a reaction. It takes away from the whole thing. The magic of it.
So yes, it is always the first time.
I’ll admit, when I first saw the videos I wondered how you hadn’t heard some of this stuff. I think I assumed you were already into drum & bass. Then the more I watched, the more obvious it became that you really are discovering all of it for the first time.
There have been times where I’ve titled something ‘first time listening to…’ and then I’ll hear it and think hold up, that sounds familiar…
Sometimes I’ve heard a song in a movie or a commercial without knowing the artist or name of it. And that becomes a moment too, because in the comments they’re like, “It’s so funny when he realises he’s heard it before.”
That happened with Tame Impala. But I don’t cheat my videos and I never will.
So within drum & bass and dubstep specifically, what has blown you away the most?
Got to be Konflict, ‘Messiah’. That song is insane.
In terms of drum & bass styles, are you naturally gravitating towards that heavier, grander sound?
Every drum & bass artist seems to have their own flair on it. You might be right, though, because Bad Company UK – the songs I heard from them were more like that, and I liked those a lot too.
But I also like the soulful ones – liquid drum & bass I think it’s called. Liquid is just a vibe. I can sit there and just… I don’t know. It’s between those two for me: liquid and the heavy stuff.
My favourite video of yours is actually you listening to ‘Be True’ by Commix – that’s what made me want to connect for this interview.
Yeah! I think that might have been the one that started the liquid stuff for me, if I’m not mistaken.
I find that some days music just sounds better. I can put my headphones on and absolutely love everything, then another day I’d rather listen to a podcast. Are you conscious that your mood might change how you react to a track?
That’s a good question. I am aware of that, because I know that feeling.
That’s why I like putting lots of different genres into one recording session. I’ve got a Japanese song coming up from a soulful singer – no English at all. I’ll throw songs like that into the recommendations that are completely different from whatever genre I’m really heavy into at that moment.
It refreshes everybody’s palate – and my palate.
Then when I go back to the other music it’s feels more fresh. Tame Impala has been in rotation. The Doors. I just try to switch it up. In one recording session I might do three or four completely different genres.
I’ll still make sure I do a lot of drum & bass because, one, I’m enjoying it and, two, there’s just so much of it. There are so many layers. There’s so much music.
I always say I haven’t even scratched the surface yet. Somebody counted for me – shout out to Billy – and I’ve done over 1,900 videos.
That is way more than I would have guessed.
Yeah, 1,900 posts. But that’s barely anything. There’s so much more to come…
What’s been your favourite musical rabbit hole overall? I’ve seen you get to a fourth, fifth reaction with certain artists.
Overall, I’d say Ween. They have the most posts on my page – I think 15. Then Tool has 14, Cocteau Twins have around 10 or 11, and Ministry has nine. Those are the ones where I just got lost and went on a really deep dive.
I wonder who’s going to be the D&B artist that makes me do that.
I have a few ideas, but I’ll let you do the discovery.
You can tell me!
Alex Perez has such a wide variety of music and a huge catalogue. Break, Noisia… there are loads.
Oh yeah, Noisia! Actually, I kind of want to change my answer from before. When you asked what drum & bass tune blew me away, Noisia is up there with Konflict.
They make sense together. That leads you into neurofunk – another subgenre subgenre. Noisia were real innovators in that sound.
That makes sense. You know, that’s another thing. I react to some people and then find out afterwards that either they’ve passed away or they’ve split up. And I’m like, ‘Wow, I’m super late.’
That’s happening more in drum & bass now. It’s quite an old genre, which is strange because the music itself can still sound so futuristic.
Yeah, was it Lenzman who recently passed? People told me he’d passed away in the comments after my video. Marcus Intalex as well.
I am learning. People might think I just do these videos for whatever reason, but I actually take this stuff in.
When I find out somebody has passed away, it sucks. I’m hearing them as if they’re completely new, and then I find out afterwards.
Have you listened to DJ Rashad yet?
Yeah I have! I didn’t know he’d passed away either.
Another one gone way too soon – and definitely a massive rabbit hole for you to explore.
Looking ahead, for you, how do you see all of this evolving? Do you want it to evolve?
Yeah, I have a few ideas. One thing I want to start doing is making appearances at shows. I have some stuff in the works – I can’t say too much right now, but I’ve been chatting to Alix Perez, and Skream & Benga. There are various things happening, and I really want to go to live shows.
When you say live shows, are you thinking about reaction videos? Getting into DJing yourself?
I don’t think I’ll DJ. Maybe I could with all these songs I know now! But I’d like to see things from the artists’ point of view. Be up there where they’re DJing and see how they do what they do, and then see the crowd.
I react to music, so I want to see how people react to it.
I think it would also be cool to do reactions with artists across all the different genres. I have some stuff in the works there too. I want this to go however far it can.
I want to start doing YouTube as well – full-length reaction videos to albums and full-length songs. Some of these songs are nine minutes long and Reels can only be so long.
I’d also like to work with some record labels, however that may work. I’ve been in contact with a few.
Music brings people together. I always say it’s a universal language. Maybe one day I’ll even host an event. That’s a big maybe, because that’s a lot of work. But I think that would be cool too.
Hearing this music live feels like a good next step. Because there are almost two completely different ways to experience it – listening through headphones, and then there’s hearing it the way a lot of dance music was designed to be heard – through a massive soundsystem. Do you go to much live music?
I’ve never actually been to a concert. Ever.
Wow. That’s an entire new category of reaction videos waiting to happen…
Yeah! A lot of people say I need to hear this track on a speaker system, and I’m like, ‘don’t worry. It’s coming soon.’
I’m in Los Angeles and a lot of these artists are in the UK, so I either have to wait until they come here or I have to go out to them – which I’d do too.
You’ve got to come to the UK. There’s something happening here almost every day.
It’s in the works. Seriously. I might be there soon.
One thing I’m really curious about is – I looked through my analytics to see where people watching me are from, and a lot were from London. And I guess now I’m reacting to a lot of music from the UK, so I wonder if people would know me?
I give it five seconds before someone’s buying you a pint.
I want to finish with a quick-fire round – first thing that comes to your head. Ready?
Let’s do it.
Best bassline?
Benga – ‘26 Basslines’
Most emotional tune?
Cocteau Twins – ‘Pandora’
Tune that made you get out of your chair?
They all do! But I’ll say Jeff Mills – ‘The Bells’.
Song you’ve replayed the most after filming the first reaction?
Heart – ‘Magic Man’. I played that song for an entire day. That song is perfection.
It was between that and ‘Hypnotized’ by Fleetwood Mac. I was going back and forth between those two.
Is there a genre or artist you’re still struggling to understand?
Throbbing Gristle. I’ve reacted to them twice. I probably need to do more and by no means do I think they’re bad at all. I just find them hard to understand.
Biggest surprise – something where what you heard was completely different from what you expected?
Bicep. Not what I expected at all. But so good!
