How Partiboi69 Flipped Viral Fame Into Music Success
Only a few short years ago, Partiboi69 was a YouTube content creator whose quirky videos occasionally made their rounds in The Worst Techno Memes Ever Group Page. Now, he’s a full-fledged touring act.
So far in 2022 alone, he’s performed at Spybar and Movement Electronic Music Festival in the U.S., Printworks in London, and a sold-out show at Sydney venue Roundhouse. Hector Oaks, DJ Godfather, and Jensen Interceptor have remixed his tunes. And artists as famous as Skream have appeared in the live DJ sets he’s affectionately dubbed “the STINGZONE.”
It wasn’t always this way. When he started uploading videos to his YouTube in 2016, Partiboi69 was simply a Detroit ghetto house-inspired artist from Australia with a flair for viral video content who went by Stingray.
As a matter of fact, the music synced in his earliest videos never even saw an official release. His first upload was “DANK,” whose pitched-down vocals and 808 rolls paid homage to a bygone dance music era. He followed it up with an acid-drenched ode to illicit substances titled “Dip on the Dancefloor.”
Only one video later, Partiboi69 proved his comedic genius couldn’t be confined to ghetto house. “Unprotected Love” was an ‘80s-style synth ballad over which the memelord gave a sloppy recorder performance. The instrument would make countless other appearances in his videos — like “Papa Sting - Last Resort,” a recorder cover of “Last Resort” by nu metal band Papa Roach.
Partiboi69’s introduction of the STINGZONE marked an inflection point after which his career began to gain significant momentum. The term first appeared in the title of “Welcome to the Stingzone,” his 2018 collaboration with DJ $EX. He dubbed his first YouTube live stream “a thumping set of Detroit techno and ghetto tech classics live from the Stingzone,” and after that the name stuck.
Each installment of STINGZONE sees Partiboi69, and various guests spin ghetto house, ghetto tech, and electro tracks with lo-fi visuals appearing behind them via green screen. Among the artists who have appeared in these live streams are Sally C, UNIIQU3, KETTAMA, MCR-T, Tañ, and Nite Fleit.
If his trajectory so far is any indication, the potential of Partiboi69’s debaucherous empire is limited only by his bizarre imagination. What on earth could come next? You’ll simply have to wait and see.
