'Shadow Wizard Money Gang' Producers DJ Smokey And Louka Tessier Explain Their Viral 'Nuke Radio' Tags

Over the past few months, music producers and artists DJ Smokey and Louka Tessier have been setting off nukes across social media with their viral producer tags. Their outlandish, loud and absolutely confounding tags like Legalize Nuclear Bombs, I Just Shoved a Nuke and, most popularly, Shadow Wizard Money Gang, have found the two viral success both off and on TikTok as some of the most exciting names in music production today. Most recently, Shadow Wizard Money Gang inspired an art trend on Twitter where users depict what exactly a member of the shadow wizard money gang might look like.

We spoke with Tessier and Smokey over Zoom to learn all about their careers as music producers, their viral tags and how "Shadow Wizard Money Gang" came to be.

Q: When did you first get into music production?

Smokey: I've been doing this forever. Not forever, but a long time. I've been doing it for 10, 11 years. I started really during the beginning of the SoundCloud era back in 2011, 2012 when it first came around, the first wave of it. I just was dropping music on YouTube and I started connecting with artists organically. It was Raider Klan era when ASAP Mob was first around. Lil B era.

I started putting music out and it just organically grew over time. That's when I first found my sound. I was very influenced by Memphis music, trying to do our own version of it and bring back the aesthetic and just the lo-fi-- I hate the word lo-fi-- but the creepypasta sound of it. Louka is kind of continuing that now. So that's my origin story.

Louka: I grew up in the countryside of Quebec. There wasn't much to do, but I was always deep on the internet observing culture, music and all that. And so I started making beats when I was young, maybe I was 14, 15, just making beats on my computer. And low key in the beginning, it was inspired by that whole wave of even Smokey, DJ Yung Vamp. I didn't make that especially, but I liked that whole scene. Everything that was Memphis Revivalism related. But it sort of didn't really go anywhere for me.

I was just doing this in the middle of nowhere. I was doing other stuff like paintings and selling clothes. Then I started producing more for local artists, more hood stuff, just street rappers, gangsters. I just started making beats more seriously and when we made "Gout" which, I guess, we'll go into more details later about that, it just made me take it more seriously. Now I'm a professional producer, this is how I make my money, this is how I live.

Q: So where does the viral "Legalize Nuclear Bombs" sound come from?

S: The whole DJ tag thing is, I was just trying to bring back the… I don't know, Trapaholics, Evil Empire stuff, but do it even more messed up. I just loved listening to mix tapes back in 2008, 2009 and just hearing tags that are louder than the song and they just clip out and they're just, "Trapaholics," and it's like a jump scare. I love that. It's just so nostalgic for me. So I've always done that. I've always had tags, "Kush Alienz" tags and all types of weird stuff.

But the Nuke thing started a year and a half ago and it was inspired by my two buddies, Shaq France and Coach Vic. They just gave me the name and they also created the idea of it, Nuke loud, explosive music. They used to take Detroit music, mix it and speed it up and make it more explosive. The Nuke stuff is loud, explosive music. I was trying to ring back that DJ aesthetic.

I ordered six tags from a secret source. I'm not gonna give away my source, but one of them was "legalize nuclear bombs" and the "Nuke radio" one. This is where Louka comes in. I was working with new artists like Joeyy. I met these guys around the same time.

I've only known Louka for a bit over a year and I met them at this big festival out here. He was wearing two pairs of True Religions and four belts and was just looking crazy. I was like, "I need to know who this guy is. He's just looking too fresh," you know what I mean? Then I ended up talking to him and I was like, "Oh, okay, this guy's not just looking fresh. He is fresh, he's smart. He's a visionary." So we planned a meeting and then he put me on the whole Shadow Wizard Gang, Money Gang stuff.

So I co-signed it, sent him the link where he'll get his tags. I'm Nuke, he's Shadow Wizard Money Gang. We're family, it's one big thing, but it's two separate entities as well, you know what I mean? So yeah, the Nuke thing came about a year ago and is just about making crazy DJ tags that are like make the songs even more interesting to listen to. Yeah. It wasn't on some meme level, it was really just like, nostalgic DJ hosting, you know what I mean? I had no idea it would take off.

Q: So how did the whole 'Shadow Wizard Money Gang' collective come to be?

L: It's sort of a long story, but I'll try to keep it short. I come from another city. Now we're located in Montreal, Canada. But before, I was located elsewhere and I decided to come here to get more attention and grow my career. I met a bunch of guys here who are my closest friends.

We started making different projects. We made a fashion runway, we made a bunch of pop-ups, we made a magazine. We never had a group name, but we did everything together. We had our own fan base in Montreal. It was sort of confusing that we didn't have a name, so we were trying to figure out a name for the magazine and that's when I came up with Shadow Wizard Money Gang. It just came up in my mind. I knew it sounded like some deep web stuff. I'm deep on the internet, I know everything. I watched the whole 17-hour Chris-Chan documentary.

So the guys didn't necessarily feel it at first. 'Cause it has sort of a hip-hop feeling to it, the fact it's "Money Gang," it sounds like something you'd see on SoundCloud. Not the vibe. So we just stepped down to Shadow Wizard, but I'm against just being the Shadow Wizards. We started doing events under that name. Our magazine was named "Shadow Wizard Goblin Insanity." We just started making lore behind Shadow Wizard. Then I started to make more music myself and Smokey sort of helped me out. I figured if I get some tags I might as well do something with Shadow Wizard Money Gang 'cause it's been in my head for months.

So when the tag came back from our mysterious shadow source, it just sounded so crispy. It sounded perfect. Then Smokey was, "Oh, you mess with Joeyy?" I was like, "Yes, of course. I love Joeyy." Back then still, he was an unknown individual. Smokey asked me if he could put the Shadow Wizard tag on it and the "shadow government" tag on it. I was hyped about it, but I didn't think anything special would come out of it. I thought it was just an honor to be part of that.

When it came out, it didn't kick off immediately, but when it did it brought everything to the next level for all of us. When it really went off with TikTok, it was with the "masturbation is a form of witchcraft" meme. That was the first time that really went crazy. Then it sort of went up, went slightly down, then Hogwarts's Legacy came out and now it's going off.

Q: What kind of communities do you think are most attracted to the "shadow wizard money gang" tag?

L: It was sort of a wizard season, I feel like. It came out at the time when everybody was in a wizard mood.

S: Wizards never go outta style. That's a fact. Same with Nuke. Let's be real.

L: I even get people in the dark magic community, the Wiccan community, they all mess with us 'cause they think they do this real magic, you know?

S: Furries too. Furries be messing with us hard. We're not furries, but we love the confidence. I know there's some bad apples out there in the furry community. We don't like that side of the community. We respect the confidence to go to a furry con, smoke some weed, those kind of furries, the cool furry.

Q: What do you think it is about these tags that make them so meme-able?

S: They're ear catching, they're fun. You could have a serious song, but it adds a little bit of [fun]. People take themselves too seriously. You gotta have a little bit of fun with it. You don't have to be like, "Oh, I'm an artist." You know what I mean? There's gotta be some fun in it. It's kind of a Trojan horse to getting people to hear the tag, then they'll listen to the music.

Q: How has the success of these viral tags changed things for you?

S: I've been in this game for years and I've never had something like [this] happen. TikTok is different. I was never locked in with TikTok. I don't even have TikTok. People's attention spans are shorter than ever and things are going more viral than ever, quicker than ever. I had to get used to that.

L: Since TikTok is formatted to be only a few seconds long and to be watched on repeat, if you really like a TikTok, you'll watch it multiple times. The producer tags are short and sweet and they catch your attention immediately. Especially if it's something outrageous sounding like "Legalize Nuclear Bombs."

Q: Since the tags went viral, have you leaned into that success going forward? Have you tried to make tags that might also go viral?

S: I know not everything can last forever and I'm not relying on this, but I wanna go deeper into it. I wanna create deeper lore and stop just doing tags. I want to create concept albums with running themes and a narrator. It can go a lot farther than it has. This is just the beginning of it. You know what I mean? I'm not gonna just be the tag guy forever. It's all about the music, you know what I mean? It's not about the tags. The tags are just a part of it.

I hope it doesn't get too corny. With the Shadow Wizard stuff, they need to know that Louka invented that and that it's a real thing. It's not just some stupid meme. It's such a good thing for everybody, but it can also bite you.

Q: Lately, the "Shadow Wizard Money Gang" tag has inspired an art trend on Twitter. When did you first notice that going viral?

S: I just saw it trending and I was like, "What?" Someone sent me a picture of that and I'm like, I don't get it still, but okay. The cool part is though that there are seven of them [wizards] and there are seven Shadow Wizard members. So in a way it works because there are actually seven real members of Shadow Wizard Money Gang.

L: There's some real magic at work somewhere here. This is not coincidence. I feel the whole Twitter stuff is linked in with some stuff we don't know as much about. It's more of a deeper down, gamer, Discord universe. We're not as deep into that now, but we appreciate it and we see all our brothers who participate more heavily on the internet and stuff like that. It's a blessing.

At the end of the day, it just brings more attention to us. I feel like to spit on this opportunity and to be negative about it is not an option for us. It's just blessed. Nothing bad came out of it. You never know, sometimes people run with it, people you don't like. It could have been some KKK members. You never know. Right now it's all good. It's Gucci, it's blessing.

Q: Have you thought about incorporating any of this artwork, or the depictions of the Shadow Wizards into your art in any way?

S: I don't know personally, I don't think that's a good call. I think let them do their thing. It's organic. It would be weird if we made it un-organic by doing that.

L: Definitely. No matter how funny [it is], it's a whole meme movement. The stuff we do has a lot of fun stuff and we joke in it and all that stuff, but what we do is serious art still. I feel like if we lean too heavily on the meme, it'll burn quicker. But right now, the way we're moving, we're making bigger connections in the industry, making more movements and we're using that attention to promote ourselves, to bring us to the next level as artists. That's the smartest move we can do.

Q: Do you have any upcoming tags that you think might reach viral status?

S: I have one that gives a backstory to the guy who does the drops. It's gonna be like his life's leaking out in tapes. One of the tags, Louka came up with it, is, "I have three DUIs and I haven't talked to my children in months." Stuff like that, where it's just his life starts leaking into the music. We're gonna do stuff like that. We have probably 100 tags in between both of us.

L: Right now I have another one that's blowing up which is, "I'm being gangstalked by the CIA. They put a chip in my brain." If you look it up on TikTok, that's going up as we speak today.

Q: Are you worried in any way about the tags losing their virality?

S: Oh, we are not worried. We gotta keep it evolving. For me, the nuke stuff's turning into puke, so we're gonna go very pukey. I'm doing this music with David Shawty, it's "puke radio." It's like you're in the club, you're on hella steroids, you're puking, everyone's puking, you know what I mean? We're gonna go very pukey with it 'cause once you nuke too hard, you end up puking.

L: As far as the Shadow Wizard Money Gang stuff, I thought we were sort of done with the memes with it, but it just keeps coming back. It's the gift that keeps on giving. So, we never know. Maybe it'll die down and maybe it'll blow back up again. Who knows.

L: We're smart people, so we're not relying on this. It's gonna continue to evolve. This guy [Louka] can create a movie in his head in two seconds. I give him a subject and this guy can just go. We're not dumb. We're not relying on it, but it's still dear to us 'cause this is what started everything.

L: This is the beginning, the stuff we do now is niche, but I can see it getting less and less niche and more and more open. I can see us working with bigger and bigger artists. It's starting to happen. So I think there are some good surprises in the vault for everybody who's keeping an eye out for what we're doing.

You can follow DJ Smokey on Twitter @nukepapi and on Instagram at kirbymane666. You can follow Louka on Instagram at loukatessierartiste. You can also listen to his music on Spotify under Shadow Wizard Money Gang.