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Leon Thomas III attends the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards at UBS Arena on September 07, 2025 in Elmont, New York
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Key Takeaways:
- PHOLKS showcases Leon Thomas’ genre-blending style, fusing funk, soul, and R&B.
- The EP draws on Black rock influences and features a standout collaboration with 4batz.
- Thomas might perform tracks from PHOLKS at ONE Musicfest and on tour this fall.
Leon Thomas is proving, once again, that he’s more than just the pen behind other people’s hits. After scoring one of the biggest hits of his career with “MUTT” and solidifying his star power through May’s HEEL, the songwriting polymath has returned with PHOLKS.
Preceded by “Just How You Are,” the ambitious offering explores psychedelic funk, while still carrying the R&B and soul that fans have come to expect from him. Across the seven-song effort, that experimentation pays off in full. On “My Muse,” Thomas sings, “‘Cause you’re not my girl, but you’re still my muse / Make me wanna get my money up and spend it on you.”
Elsewhere, the Grammy-winning artist croons about “gambling on love” over the lush array of drums and live instrumentation on “Baccarat.” The project’s only feature comes from 4batz, reuniting the two after their link-up on the Dallas native’s Still Shinin’ last month. Together, they make for a fascinating duo, and like always, Thomas really knows how to push his collaborators out of their comfort zones.
“It taps into a lot of the roots of why I make music,” Thomas told Spotify of PHOLKS. “I just wanted to make something that was fun to sing for anybody.”
“It’s about the things that inspire me and the fact that Black music, as you mentioned earlier, isn’t just attributed to R&B — it’s also attributed to rock and roll,” he continued. “Jimi Hendrix was a huge inspiration for me, and a lot of the records — outside of ‘My Muse’ and ‘Just How You Are’ — are really using that psychedelic influence and live instrumentation.”
Fans will get the chance to see PHOLKS performed live this weekend at Atlanta’s ONE Musicfest. After that, Thomas will begin his “Mutts Don’t Heel Tour” next Thursday (Oct. 30) at House of Blues Dallas. The North American leg runs through Dec. 22, with the “YES IT IS” hitmaker heading overseas to Europe in March 2026.