That mindset has now helped Masked Wolf bag his first-charting hit with the electric rap single “Astronaut within the Ocean,” which presently sits at No. 3 on the Billboard World 200 and No. 12 on the Billboard Sizzling 100. And though the tune arrives in a social gathering-centric kit, courtesy of digital producer Tyron Hapi, it centers round Wolf’s battles with mental health and sad. “What you learn about rollin’ down within the deep? When your mind goes numb, you can most in all probability well name that mental freeze,” Wolf spits, alluding to holding his head above water all over tricky instances.
Masked Wolf first launched “Astronaut within the Ocean” in June 2019 after jotting down lyrics and scatting to rhythms in his automobile. As Jae Butt, Masked Wolf’s supervisor, remembers: “He mentioned, ‘I deem I purchased a title: ‘Astronaut within the Ocean,’ and I used to be esteem, ‘What the f–ample is that?’ It used to be the most bizarre title you can most in all probability ever imagine, however he used to be esteem, ‘Nah, this is it.’”
But when the word arrived via Teamwrk Files, it failed to score off. “I by no blueprint felt esteem ‘Astronaut’ used to be going to be a success esteem it’s some distance now,” Wolf admits. “I 100% knew it used to be a banger and would slap slightly arduous, however I didn’t know if of us would resolve and favor to know the meaning within the lend a hand of it.”
Alternatively, Masked Wolf doesn’t mind of us bumping the tune without pertaining to to its meaning. “I’m no longer the form of artist that could perhaps most in all probability well explain, ‘It is vitally principal to listen to this and word it be about sad and feeling [out of] situation,’” he says. “In impart for you to set ‘Astronaut within the Ocean’ on on your automobile even as you’re utilizing because it makes you can most in all probability very neatly be feeling enticing, I’m no longer going to reach to a decision your happiness.”
As the pandemic forced the arena into isolation in 2020, the tune began to be triumphant in traction — and Elektra Files noticed the hit used to be making a necessary dent on world market knowledge. It has now garnered 368.8 million on-quiz streams, in response to MRC Files, thanks to a TikTok craze whereby customers — 304,500 and counting — legend feats of energy to the tune’s intro.
“We straight away leaned into that because TikTok is fickle and it’s brief-lived,” Jacob Fain, Elektra Files SVP of A&R, explains about his group’s strategy. “So even as you bag that window, you if truth be told favor to reposition and then superb capitalize on it for thus long as TikTok will enable you.” In December, Wolf signed a world recording contract with Elektra/Warner Song Neighborhood (excluding Australia and Unique Zealand, the set he retains his deal below Teamwrk Files in partnership with ADA/Warner Song Australia). By the open of 2021, Elektra rereleased the word.
