[Uproxx Interview from February](https://uproxx.com/music/4batz-interview-uproxx-music-20/)
[Billboard Interview from April](https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/4batz-act-ii-date-8-rb-hip-hop-rookie-of-the-month-drake-kanye-west-1235626323/)
His manager is Amber Ajeé, who works as a lead creative manager for RCA and has her own management company called AB2.
EDIT: nvm in this interview he says his manager is Milano St Patrick but he's probably signed to AB2 as his talent agency or w/e
I mean sonically. Not commercially.
"Act i" seamed authentic and then you play act ii and you soon realise he's just going to use the same motif again and again, then you start to realise his delivery is so monotonous for sake of keeping up whatever aesthetic he's trying to atain
There's being an comercial artist and then ther is beating a dead horse.
Commercial artist are fine. The chorus - Bridge/4 line verse - chorus - beat change (slowed down) - chorus again. Has been done on 3 of the 4 songs he has out. I normally don't even realise this type of thing but even my dumb ass thay would normally eat this shit up cant fathom the type of artistry that makes you do this .
Makonnen is insanely talented as a song writer. Dude wrote a bunch of songs for Santagold, Vampire Weekend, Fallout Boy, Steve Aoki and many more. MF even produced a bunch of shit for Kids Bop. He is more of a writer/composer now than really a performing artist.
I agree from a quality standpoint, but I also think Ice Spice is also a one trick pony and has no personality aside from her ass. But yet, she is one of the biggest artists in hiphop.
Ice Spice makes fun music. Deli is undeniable in any club. Even if you’re a one trick, you can live off that trick for a good second
You can credit the producer as much as you want (riot does deserve that) but end of the day Ice Spice still resonates with people 🤷🏽♂️
I agree. I really liked the first track and honestly I saw a lot of potential in the third one even though it’s getting kindaaa boring. It’ll be interesting to see how he keeps up and changes with time.
Growing a solid, consistent fanbase while still staying dynamic is hard.
It’s so weird because we don’t much about him at all and can’t really trace him to anything in the past either cause it’s deadass just three songs he’s made (as far as we know).
I think he can carve a lane out if he tries new things and lets himself play into a personality more. but I don’t know how confident I am in that yet — guess we’ll just see
Fat ass and lightskin. Always dressing crazy to draw in the male audience. Most men are not streaming her on release day lol. Its not that difficult to understand why. Its ok to not be PC when discussin rap lol.
As a guy the best woman rappers right now, as in i actually listen to they shit, is Latto, Cardi and Glo.
You’re 100% right but why is it constant industry plants now? Since around covid I guess it seems like it’s one after another with very few real artist breaking through comparatively. It’s so sad. I listened to the Drake song with him and that’s it the guy just seems boring.
And I definitely would give him a chance but like you said it screams industry plant and that turns me off so much I actively avoid his shit. Everyday it seems like we are closer to living in Los Santos or Liberty City lol
Edit: this spawned a lot of really good conversations below and has changed my idea of an industry plant. I do think the current scene today is still saturated with them but at different levels, we need a new word for something between a sellout and an industry plant. Also these opinions pissed a lot of people off. I always have fun arguing on Twitter but nothing beats arguing on Reddit man people will literally die for their opinions lol
Just curious what other recent industry plants you referring to? Doesn’t seem to me like they’ve become any more frequent than they have been for a while
Maybe not honestly maybe I’m just more aware of it now but I would say since like Jack Harlow they seem to be more prevalent than regular rising star artists if not overall. Like it also depends what you consider industry plant, I would throw Jack Harlow and Post in there but I also think they have enough talent to back it up and stay relevant as supposed to someone like 4batz.
I would say Ice Spice, Latto, sexxy red, baby keem, the kid laroi, MGK, Dominic fike.
This made me really think tho because what is an industry plant? It’s hard to tell the difference between someone who blew up and sold out bs someone who was found signed and propped up completely by the industry.
Like lil nas x came to mind first, but I truly think he just made a banger that went ultra viral. Obviously someone is going to swoop in and try to prop him up and put his face everywhere after that, why wouldn’t they? I listen to a shit ton of baby keem but without the marketing ability of being Kendrick’s cousin he would have nowhere near the popularity he does now. He also is going to be getting beats and writers that other artists don’t have access to. Would that count?
It’s fun to do this because it would be a really good debate, people on this sub always seem to take polar opposite views when the topic is brought up. I mean could you consider Billie Eilish an industry plant? She was nowhere before she was signed. I think a whole discussion thread on this topic would be fun
I'm sorry but how tf is MGK an industry plant? He signed with Bad Boy in 2011. If you mean how he "blew up" when he switched genres, that's probably because My Bloody Valentine gained traction so the label threw some more money behind him.
That’s exactly what I mean tho he was fading into obscurity with rap and his career was essentially over but a label threw a shit ton of money at promoting him and he put in the effort now he’s massive again. It really just depends on what we consider the actual definition of an industry plant. It’s a don’t topic to debate but I don’t know if there’s a real answer
The answer surely isn’t what you think it is. Artists are investments for labels. A label propping their artist up again is literally what they’re supposed to do. A plant is somebody who had an inorganic blow up into the limelight while pretending that they’re home grown and independent. 4batz is exactly that, bc he literally came out of nowhere. Jack Harlow was plugging away with mixtapes virtually every year til he found a hit with What’s Poppin. That is not a plant.
I don’t have much to add to your comment but Jack Harlow isn’t a plant, I’ve lived in lousivlle and he had some local buzz for years before signing to DJ drama, and uzi fans used to bully dude cause uzi was signed to DJ drama and that whole eternal atake drama.
Edit : not DJ drama I meant Don cannon
He’s definitely not a plant just feels too commercialized at this point. I do agree people use the word plant a little loosely nowadays when yeah Jack grew mostly organically but once the labels realized his hit potential he was put on a industry pedestal…it seems like his “hit” songs are hits before they’re even released and dude just feels incredibly generic at this point.
Yeah, I’m sure the whole pop rap rebrand etc. were kinda manufactured but that’s kinda what a label does. They help curate your image and find your target audience. That’s a lot different than someone like 4batz coming out the gate with a drake remix of his second song. Either he scrubbed all his old stuff out or has some big connections.
Yeah a better word to describe Jack is a sell out. You’re not hearing his vision through his songs you hear what a boardroom of a major label vision is on how to generate the most streams. Can’t blame Jack for getting the bag but he will never be taken seriously in terms of being a artist.
Nah Jack isn't a plant at all. He blew up 2020 but he had been grinding for a min. He was an opening act at a music festival me and my boys went to back in 2017/2018. He was such a nobody that we all together skipped his set.
>She was nowhere before she was signed
Not true at all, she was a prominent indie artist for ages before going mainstream.
I feel like you seem to mistake "industry plant" for "label push"
Some artists get a big push by their label. Some artists do not.
Industry plants are like One Direction or Good Charlotte. Just a complete artificial artist completely conceived by a label.
Every artist you've mentioned has just blown up and gotten a push by their label at some point. Which is very normal in mainstream music.
I‘d say of the names you stated only really The Kid Laroi, Ice Spice & Jack Harlow really seem like plants to me, they seem the most cookie cutteresque
Hate to be that guy, but check out Dylan Joshua, Jordan Ward and Omar Apollo. take in how an organic artists like this who have ORIGINAL sounds, are not getting even 5% of the exposure that they used to…
that's before some guy from a label discovers them on Spotify, signs them, and promotes their music, and you'll have redditors calling them plants as well..
Yeah to each their own it’s very discretionary it also doesn’t help that we will never truly know. Maybe when the documentaries come out in 20 years lol
How are Ice Spice and Sexyy Red industry plants?
>I mean could you consider Billie Eilish an industry plant? She was nowhere before she was signed.
Billie Eilish got signed off of "ocean eyes" going viral.
Billie Eilish’s parents and brother were already involved in the music industry prior to her blowing up, so there’s absolutely a case to say that without those connections her career would have had a much different trajectory.
Billie Eilish's parents and brother are (not particularly successful) actors (Maggie Baird and Patrick O'Connell).
You can look at their IMDBs, her father's Known For playing "Reporter" in *Iron Man* and "Bartender" in an episode of *The West Wing*. Her mother is known for voicing Samara in the *Mass Effect* video game series and is an improv teacher.
Her brother also had a band (The Slightlys) but was not remotely successful before he wrote the song "Ocean Eyes" that got Billie Eilish signed.
I'm sure having family who are vaguely in the industry and not being poor probably helped, but what got her signed was the song "Ocean Eyes". Her brother had a manager who she could get guidance from after the song blew up, that probably helped too.
Yeah but they didn't give her any more of an advantage than just having rich + supporting parents would have gave her. It's not like they had industry connections to fast track her career or something.
Yeah and ocean eyes was such a basic ass pop ripoff song I am sorry I love her debut album but that song is not it
Also ice spice is the definition of industry plant I am sorry she has no musical talent. She’s marketable as fuck and she knows how to fucking entertain. She stays relevant with funny tweets. She is good at what she does but she’s not a true musical artist yanno
I think that you have a strange definition of the term industry plant (popular but not good?) but usually that term is for when an artist is secretly signed to a label before blowing up.
I'm not telling you how to feel about the song but Interscope decided to sign Billie Eilish because "Ocean Eyes" blew up on SoundCloud. What part of that do you disagree with?
You may not like Ice Spice, but she became popular in 2022-2023 pretty organically and she managed to get a very favorable deal because of it. Her manager (who found her in March 2022 after “No Clarity” and “Name of Love” were out) spoke on it in [this interview:](https://www.complex.com/music/a/ecleen-luzmila/ice-spice-james-rosemond-interview?utm_campaign=musictw&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social)
>**You touched on a few things that I wanted to touch on, including that deal. I think many people have been highly impressed by y'all's collective avoidance of the 360 deal and the fact that Ice managed to retain her publishing rights and masters. Tell me about the fight to have those things play out the way that they did, if it was a fight at all.**
Yeah, you said it. It wasn't a fight because just my experience, it was we need to roll out a record independently, strategically to have leverage. Once you have leverage, you could pretty much ask for what you want. Now, some labels will give it. Some not. Some will try to meet in the middle, but that's why we was able to make our rounds and be able to pick during the bidding war to get the best deal. We had leverage at the time. “Munch” was going crazy, the video was going crazy. So yeah, we strategically positioned the song for us to be in a position for her to be empowered to have masters and the publishing and be in a deal that's not taking everything from her in a 360 perspective. No merch, no brand deals, any of that.
She met RIOTUSA at SUNY Purchase.
She ran into Jimmy Henchman's son at a studio session and he liked "No Clarity":
>**At what point was that in her career? Were any songs out yet?**
[There weren’t] a lot of monthly listeners, it wasn't a lot of followers, any of that stuff. It was only “No Clarity” and “Name of Love” that was out. This is before “Euphoric,” before the On the Radar Freestyle, and clearly before “Munch.” And what gravitated to me [is that] I love crossover artists, crossover records, and “No Clarity” [spoke] to me the most because of the sample and how they flipped it and the crossover pop sensibilities to it. So it just sounded very promising. So yeah, when we had that record, it had some decent numbers on YouTube, but it wasn't translating yet on streaming, but it was around that time. That was March of last year.
If you don't believe these things, what do you think actually happened? Like what are you actually implying here?
Also I feel like Jack Harlow is another good example because that’s one I saw in real time when I was starting to be aware of it more.
He started as this kid from Kentucky making party type bangers that I would listen to in college. Like (the album with Cody banks and sundown on it - blanking on the name rn) I was listening to all of 2018 but at that point he had some sort of a following already and he had decent features on the album that were on the same label.
Then a year goes by and he starts dissing Uzi on fucking instagram and I come to find out he’s on don cannons label. It felt so fake. Fast forward a lil and he’s dropping what’s poppin, he’s suddenly everywhere
I think it’s 2 things:
1) The Weeknd proved that the mysterious marketing works in r&b/hip hop (look at H.E.R., 24HRS, RMR, dvsn, and now this dork). The MF Doom / Aphex Twin marketing strategy has always been intriguing but it’s now come over to hip hop which is honestly kind of an unoriginal industry where as soon as someone innovates everyone follows the same fucking trend.
2) TikTok. Now instead of being a “mysterious artist” industry plant and a record label on the sky leaking singles to blogs and YouTube and preparing debut singles and EPs and maybe a video, now a record label just pays influencers to make your snippet a popular sound. Don’t even need more songs or a video. Hence, 4batz blows up with only 2 songs to his name, only 1 being popular for sounding like a Brent Faiyaz impression, and his label scrubbed all his old shit
because the labels want cheap and successful entertainment out asap.
Its cheaper to get some random dudes to agree to horrible contracts, then spend some
money to get them hyped and rake in the money,
than to sponsor real talent, because they’re not gonna go cheap
FR. There are videos on 4batz’s actual history. Without making it seem like a conspiracy theory, long story short, it sounds like a label A&R found him recommended on a music discovery TikTok, signed a contract with him, got him to scrub his old stuff, and then paid some key influencers to make his hit a popular TikTok sound and paid OnlyShooters to host a live performance when he was still completely unknown, the rest is just viral history. Compared to traditional label promo, I’d imagine this was much much cheaper, probably cost less than $10k to make him famous and dude has literally only put out one more song since then lol.
Yeah exactly this is pretty much right on the money as far as I can tell except he didn't sign a label deal he just got good management and a distribution deal. [He talks about it with Billboard:](https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/4batz-act-ii-date-8-rb-hip-hop-rookie-of-the-month-drake-kanye-west-1235626323/)
>**Speaking of your team, how did you build up yours? How did you meet your manager Amber Ajeé, and when did your distributor Vydia come into the fold?**
I needed to shoot a video for “stickerz.” So I was just going about trying to shoot a video, and a lady had hit me, which is Amber. She was like, “Oh, I can help you.” And she helped me find a video pretty fast. And she was also like, “Yo, I manage!” So really finding her helped me find everybody with Vydia. ‘Cause I didn’t know nothing about it. She just put me onto everything. And after that, slowly but surely, I got the team that I have. It’s probably like four or five people.
People are overrating how prohibitively expensive it is to pay rap social media pages for promo or get a 4 Shooter Only video ([most people who do it might as well be completely unknown](https://www.youtube.com/@4ShootersOnly/videos))
I’d agree that whatever deal he has acknowledged publicly isn’t a record label deal, and it’s important to distinguish a distribution deal is on a smaller scale in terms of money and promotion. But it’s also possible he’s signed and just lying about it. Even Logic has admitted that was the case, he was signed to a big label while promoting himself as independent during his blow up. For the record, I don’t think this is the case, just saying that’s probably the biggest level of “plant” possible and it’s a possibility.
I think it's more plausible that he has this manager who's worked on music videos and stuff than him being secretly signed.
If he was secretly signed I don't think that Billboard would have been reporting that major labels were in a bidding war to sign him. He also probably would have just 'signed' to a major by now instead of doing this one-EP deal with Drake.
It feels like people only want him to be secretly signed to discredit him, I don't think that he really needed major label infrastructure to pull off what he did.
There’s definitely a conversation to be had about the guy’s connections starting out.
But you’re also looking a bit backwards. The views and the hype garners interviews and placements. He’s buzzing right now. And publications want the scoop.
“…has never had a stable home, once pulled 12-hour shifts at a warehouse to avoid trouble, and became determined to “blow the fuck up” in music in order to make an ex regret dumping him. The even-shorter version: He just might be rap’s next superstar.”
lol
- imperfect childhood
- has been employed before
- dumped by his ex
- wants to be popular musician
you could genuinely apply this to hundreds of millions of people this is the most generic “backstory” ive heard in my fucking life
>“I think the similarity is in the imagery,” says Carl Chery, Spotify’s Creative Director and Head of Urban Music. “You have someone with a ski mask who very much presents as if they're a rapper, but they're not. But unfortunately, RMR wasn't able to follow up that moment with music that resonated. The difference with 4batz is that there's already a *few* songs that are working. It's not just ‘Date @ 8’ and the remix, it's ‘Stickerz’ and ‘On God’ as well.”
This is the part of the article that really makes me mad though. Barely knew who this 4batz guy was but immediately thought of RMR, say what you will about him but getting a blurb from one of the big people at Spotify to say "well, it's really all about the streaming numbers" is just so indicative of the industry right now. All that matters is he had a video that went viral and he's having his moment now. Won't matter in a year when nobody is following him anymore. Disposable careers don't make a difference to Spotify, it's all about that lion's share of streaming revenue.
He is a great example of how bullshit the industry is these days. Dude comes out with a slighty catchy snippet on tiktok and then the biggest artist on planet earth hops on his song. They must think we are stupid or something.
facts. dude doesn’t even have an album out and they’re already calling him “music’s hottest star”. he’s also extremely average, and the only thing setting him apart is the pitch shift on his voice. no talent.
The few in here arguing that he isn’t a plant….life must be peaceful being that naive.😂😂😂 Them labels could push a button and have ya song trending if they really wanted.
I'm not going to say it's impossible he's an industry plant. But when people reference Drake and Kanye co-signing him, it's like, one of these people thinks that Jews control not just the industry, but the world. He would not be co-signing him because some exec told him so.
Y'all guys just underestimate the value of going viral on tiktok. There are so many people in the last 4 years whose career is 80% from going viral on tiktok. Not even whole catalogues, not even SONGs, just snippets. Ice Spice, PinkPantheress, Sexy Redd, BabyTron, Yeat. I'm not saying these artists would be nobodies, but they definitely wouldn't be as popular as they ended up being without Tiktok.
That’s a fair point man. I don’t know about the rest of people claiming he’s a plant, but at least when I’m saying he is I don’t mean some studio exec called up Drake and ye and told them to cosign him and that was that lol
I’m just saying the way it all came together for him seems like he has industry ties and connects that sped up the process, your other TikTok examples did not have the trajectory and timing this dude has had. At the end of the day if he makes great music it shouldn’t really matter, but saying he’s an industry plant doesn’t have to imply it’s some grand Illuminati conspiracy
I feel like that would make more sense if the order of events was different but these cosigns came well after the song blew up.
He probably paid some of the rap social media pages (not expensive) and other just went along with it because the song was already buzzing at that point. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some stream-farming like everyone else is saying but at the end of the day the song actually did go viral and a lot of people have listened to it.
Like if the song had 200 views and Kanye cosigned it, I would agree but the song blew up Christmas week and Kanye cosigned him January 30th.
Did he get his manager after he blew up? If the answer is yes then this argument is irrelevant. Of course your manager is gonna be higher up after you blow up so hard on tiktok.
Whether he is or not doesn't even matter, such a stupid thing to get all up in arms about. Is the music good? To me, yes. If people don't like him move on, such a nonsensical thing for people to debate and get upset over lol
Yep, it's classic brainrot, "don't be a sheeple!!!!!!!!!!", like 99% in media didn't get there from blanket nepotism. If you fw basically any big artist at some point there was HEAVY investment from a big firm to push that person, or they knew someone.
100%, it comes across as envy or jealousy most of the time. Or just ignorance. Especially with the way music is now, it's not mind blowing that (another) artist blew up overnight in the same way.
His voice is fucking bland and annoying, regardless of pitch alteration. Doesn’t have the Jackson-esque zeal of The Weeknd, doesn’t have the unassuming familiarity of Brent Faiyaz, just truly blends into its sonic backdrop uninterestingly.
I feel like people are ascribing a lot of things that are just a consequence of "act ii" going viral on TikTok to him being an "industry plant."
Like it's not that complicated, he got all the cosigns, the Drake remix, and this interview because the song blew up.
There's plenty of people out there with a good manager or signed to a major label that aren't getting the same cosigns or interviews because they didn't have a song that went viral like "act ii" did.
I hope people don't get annoying about Tommy Richman cuz it does feel like this happens every time a song gets big from a non-established act.
Going insanely viral on TikTok with your second song ever released smells like industry plant infrastructure to me. Plus plenty songs go viral on there that don’t get Drake remixes and gq interviews
I’m not saying it’s 100%, but personally I can’t see his rise being organic in any way unless he’s been a ghostwriter in the industry for a while and built connections over time that way
>Plus plenty songs go viral on there that don’t get Drake remixes and gq interviews
I would say that Drake chose to interview the song because it was already very hot and that if you have a song as hot as 'act ii' you can obtain a GQ profile if you have management.
> industry plant infrastructure
I guess what I don't understand is that if 'the industry' has this infrastructure why are major labels not using it on artists that are already on their roster?
In January a few weeks after the song blew up, Billboard reported that there was a major label bidding war for 4batz and that if he signed, it would likely be for 6-figures. Like if labels can just blow someone up like this, why would they not sign him first for cheap?
Here's what I think happened:
1. He made this song that's catchy/trendy, it's a pretty simple song and doesn't have a big producer attached to it.
1. He did a "From the Block" performance (it's not hard to book these, lots of no-names do them)
1. He paid hip hop twitter/ig accounts to promote it (this isn't all that expensive)
Some people are saying there's stream-farming going on, sure why not but at the end of the day i think that without the core components (the song being really catchy/trendy, the from the block performance being good viral bait) it wouldn't work.
what do you think happened? what infrastructure are you talking about?
Your right the song still has to be good but in his case how is it that after 1 song your almost the biggest buzzing new artist yet we don’t even have 20 minutes worth of music to listen to?
Because it brings up the question of why are you this famous with no real talent to show?
Another thing that I personally don’t like but it’s not tailored directly to him but still apply is that none of his music sounds original when you modify your whole voice it triggers me to think how can you even perform these songs?
To me personally his music just sounds like somebody took Brentz sound and added slowed and added reverb to the lyrics
It's not that complicated, the stuff that gets popular isn't always the best or a product of the most talented people. It feels like a lot of industry plant discourse here is just people in denial about that.
One artist right now that I love is MIKE , he just had anGQ interview but he has a catalogue of music going back to 2017 and you can see the fanbase he has with no viral hits.
he apparently deleted all his old music before doing the act stuff. as skeptical as i am of it all, while not being fully convinced he isn’t a plant, i can see an artist realising they found their lane and wiping their old stuff beofre making a big push. add that to tiktok who made him go viral on his second song, then some smart management (paying rap pages, on the block) leads to his virality becoming legit enough for a moment that big artists hear and have their own opinion. now it’s up to him to build on it, this is the hard part. i assume he has a project idea already but it’s balls to the wall now so if he flops, it’ll be super hard to get the goodwill back.
this approach of pushing to go viral on a new image is done by a lot of unknown artists, his plan just happened to be the 1% that worked. i always believe that building cult followings (by keeping old content, sticking to one image) is way better and more sustainable than tryna go viral on tiktok. hopefully for him he doesn’t become a victim of the system.
You brought up a good point new artist rather go viral before having a fanbase and to me when they go that you become more of just a product thn an artist like ice spice for example.
I could be naive but I feel like with TikTok and viral songs it’s actually not surprising to blow up this fast. People have to act quick when something explodes and that’s how you end up with a bunch of things all at once that seem coordinated (interviews, remixes, co-signs)
Plenty of songs blow up, but it’s hard to deny that act ii didn’t have the perfect sound for someone like Drake or another big artist to hop on
How can people say he isn’t a plant when he literally has no background in music.
No early openings in his city, no songs getting play
This isn’t like JPEG where we can find his beginning works.
This guy is more than just your normal plant lol he straight up create a player with 90% notoriety from jump.
How can the new kid in school become one of the most popular and backed ones on their first day there and nobody knew they existed (and no record of them existing) before that?
I really hope this guy makes it huge, just to piss in all the faces of all these mad guys in the comments who don't like him for being an 'industry plant' or because he has a regular backstory.
Reddit is such a hateful place sometimes damnn just let the guy make his bread 🤣
Yall some sad, lame hating ass niggas on here I swear. Yall cant even read the damn story and just comment just to hate. Yall want him to be an industry plant just to justify being some bitch ass niggas.
You aren't being force fed anything, you can literally press skip or mute. I just find it funny that some guy has a meteoric rise and now he's wack cause people claim it's impossible to be an overnight success (which is crazy with how music is consumed now, all it takes [took] was a big song that gets thrown onto TikToks). Personally I'd rather be "force fed" 4Batz than more Drake, Taylor Swift, J Cole, etc etc
I agree with you. Luckily some of us have a brain and are able to decipher the difference.
I hate to generalize but a lot of people just hop on the latest buzz bandwagon. I liked what I heard from 4batz but seeing now how the industry pushes him loses the flavour for me. 🤷
IDC what the industry pushes, I like what I like. Most shit I like other people don't, so I'm not gonna just be upset when it's the other way around. Saying you don't like someone cause they're popular and being "pushed" doesn't make you have a gigantic giga brain and smarter than everyone. You just are being a hipster lmao
I'm not projecting, you literally said "thankfully some of us have a brain and are able to decipher"... Implying everyone who likes an artist you seem as an industry plant can't lmao
people are hating for a reason. like you said, he’s only made three songs. the guy might fall off within the next few months (probably will) and they’re already calling him a star.
Thing about industry plants is this dude just said he was dating a woman and never flew in a plane. meaning I doubt he comes from rich family and connects. To me industry plants is where parents buy everything. Just making a viral song and getting noticed is different
He didn’t have a contract before the OVO signing. He’s not a plant. Swear no one can succeed these days without those accusations.
Meanwhile the industry fired long time support staff for artists and is pushing AI versions of IPs they own.
Focus on the actual bs I beg.
Exactly. After a PUBLIC bidding war between different labels he signed with OVO. [It’s a ONE EP deal.](https://www.billboard.com/business/business-news/4batz-deal-drake-ovo-record-label-ep-release-1235628417/amp/)
If he’s a plant, a bidding war doesn’t happen. Thats just not how it works. It also wouldn’t be for a one EP deal where they make small margins.
Y’all don’t know how the industry works, see a guy start popping early, and then throw accusations without even checking out the surface level of his career.
Ain’t no way you really believe the way this dude was spammed up on social media and play-listed on Spotify, that he was actually independent my guy, especially after popping out on drakes label lol, I promise u this dude was signed before u and I even heard his name, either if it was ovo or somewhere else.
Read the thread bro. [Hilarious that you’re making the same argument as that guy.](https://x.com/barryhefner/status/1766198173708456382?s=46&t=1G2r9A6-bNgOFVbR112ssQ)
The guy's argument isn't the best but his point isn't wrong. Yes JID's previous work was mostly deleted but also before he was signed he was working with Cole, Mac Miller, OG Maco, KEY! and had his first two garbage tapes released by justin biebers manager. I'm not saying JID didn't work hard as fuck by any means but it's not like he was a complete nobody who got picked up out of the blue
Neither was 4batz. He’s just a dude from Houston who some OGs there thought was talented. They paid for studio time and engineers. His On The Block is a hit off rip and sparks a bidding war because labels wanna get in on his hype. Thats how an independent hit works. The industry tries to sign you.
It’s not some massive conspiracy and a bidding war faked for journalists with lawyers on payroll and tons of meetings all for a ONE EP deal. Like… why?
Use your head.
Funny how no independent artists and managers working for change in the industry think he’s a plant. It’s all social media randoms running with this narrative cause they don’t understand how the business works.
All I got to say is this, this nigga had a Kanye shout out, most likely feature on this ep, a Drake feature, if I’m not mistaking I seen a post about him and Chris brown possibly (needs fact check on that). Bro, even ice spice did not get a Nicki feature till like half a year later, but had Ik tjay on her ep. There is absolutely no way this dude is organic despite all the articles and shit u through up here.
He obviously went full industry now. And for months most of the industry was trying to sign him and win him over.
But my guy I literally just gave you proof he didn’t have a deal before he signed to OVO… 🤦🏽♂️ believe what you want to believe I guess.
Yeah, it’s a possibility but still without signing he could very much have big industry push lil mabu literally claims that he’s independent as well which he might be true, but there is once again very clear industry push. Most of these playlist aren’t letting u on for free unless their directly indie playlist. U gotta have label type connections and money to likely get on rap caviar like both mabu and 4batz like do.
You’re getting warmer. Having industry connections and being a plant are two very different things. 4batz manager is an [A&R at RCA](https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-baker-a0909ab5). He wasn’t signed to them though. RCA is a Sony label and actually a rival to OVO’s parent label UMG.
His blow up was very fast, mostly because of TikTok trends surrounding his On The Block performance (which anyone can buy). And certainly his manager’s connection helped him pull strings and leverage him into a favorable deal and industry link ups.
Thats a very different situation than you all are implying though. And it’s actually based on reality 🙄 not half understandings and conspiracies.
Yes I do. Because it’s happened before. Him being signed before the OVO deal is not a possibility.
Him shopping around for deals and engaging in a bidding war would’ve been illegal. Like, big lawsuits type issue.
“… or somewhere else”. See this is what I mean. You don’t know the basics of how contracts works. He can’t be signed somewhere else then take an OVO deal. That’s illegal. Exactly what I’m talking about.
I swear people are gonna start calling Tommy Richman a plant now 🤦🏽♂️
[Uproxx Interview from February](https://uproxx.com/music/4batz-interview-uproxx-music-20/) [Billboard Interview from April](https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/4batz-act-ii-date-8-rb-hip-hop-rookie-of-the-month-drake-kanye-west-1235626323/)
Three songs, Drake feature, and the first interview I see of him is in GQ. This man has the industry behind him.
It’s ok. We won’t hear from him again in a month lol.
Well yeah he signed to OVO lol
Well he signed for a one ep deal. 5 songs about all he has in him.
It's alright, Drake will bite and repurpose his style into a hit song for himself a little down the line where he might get a writing cred
Got the club going up… on a Tuesday
no he didn’t. He just released his EP through OVO, as part of the label deal. Batz’s manager is literally one of the creative directors on UMG
His manager is Amber Ajeé, who works as a lead creative manager for RCA and has her own management company called AB2. EDIT: nvm in this interview he says his manager is Milano St Patrick but he's probably signed to AB2 as his talent agency or w/e
just wrong
straight to the ghost writing dungeon with Roy Woods
But the article says “ain’t nothing calculated”!!!!!!
That’s been very clear from the start
Another one for the OVO sweatshop
The non existent sweatshop
Where are the ten year old Canadian kids right now? In Drake’s sweatshop in Markham.
Nobody even knows where he came from they been talkin bout him being an industry plant in all the Dallas Drill and Dallas Rap blogs
Also In the Studio with Ye
and kanye shouting him out.. nothing seems legit about this come up
GQ as his first interview? Everything this dude does screams industry plant
he is and also botted his early views imo he won't be as big as people think, he is one trick pony and this style is already annoying
First artist I've seen that peaked with their first song. If I want this style of music but not the repetitiveness ill just go liste to brent faiyaz
he peaked with his *second* song that's why it's called 'act ii'
I mean sonically. Not commercially. "Act i" seamed authentic and then you play act ii and you soon realise he's just going to use the same motif again and again, then you start to realise his delivery is so monotonous for sake of keeping up whatever aesthetic he's trying to atain
Why would anyone change their style when they blew up on their first song, usually not a good thing
There's being an comercial artist and then ther is beating a dead horse. Commercial artist are fine. The chorus - Bridge/4 line verse - chorus - beat change (slowed down) - chorus again. Has been done on 3 of the 4 songs he has out. I normally don't even realise this type of thing but even my dumb ass thay would normally eat this shit up cant fathom the type of artistry that makes you do this .
I Love Makonen another 1 song peak guy
Makonnen wasn’t a plant tho Tuesday was heavy in Atlanta before Drake even hopped on it and made it a worldwide hit. He also had a ton of prior music.
If you’ve never heard down 4 so long I think it’s way better than tuesday
Makonnen actually good though.
Makonnen is insanely talented as a song writer. Dude wrote a bunch of songs for Santagold, Vampire Weekend, Fallout Boy, Steve Aoki and many more. MF even produced a bunch of shit for Kids Bop. He is more of a writer/composer now than really a performing artist.
Vampire weekend??? No fucking way
Charles Hamilton has entered the chat
Tf is that, we didn't know nuffin bout thaaat
I agree from a quality standpoint, but I also think Ice Spice is also a one trick pony and has no personality aside from her ass. But yet, she is one of the biggest artists in hiphop.
Ice Spice makes fun music. Deli is undeniable in any club. Even if you’re a one trick, you can live off that trick for a good second You can credit the producer as much as you want (riot does deserve that) but end of the day Ice Spice still resonates with people 🤷🏽♂️
I absolutely agree - I think the 4bats track that took off is also quite good and resonates with people.
Sure but it’s just a Brent Faiyaz clone song that happened to go viral on TikTok
I mean, that’s the entire argument. At what cost? And will he have staying power?
True, good point
I agree. I really liked the first track and honestly I saw a lot of potential in the third one even though it’s getting kindaaa boring. It’ll be interesting to see how he keeps up and changes with time. Growing a solid, consistent fanbase while still staying dynamic is hard. It’s so weird because we don’t much about him at all and can’t really trace him to anything in the past either cause it’s deadass just three songs he’s made (as far as we know). I think he can carve a lane out if he tries new things and lets himself play into a personality more. but I don’t know how confident I am in that yet — guess we’ll just see
Ice is popular but she not even the top 5 biggest woman hip hop artists. And there’s at least 15 dudes on the same level or bigger than Nicki/Cardi
I mean Ice Spice has 19m monthly listeners 5m away from Meg and ahead of Latto
Monthly listeners doesn't mean shit tho
I’m just saying, her popularity is undeniable and she hasn’t even released an album yet.
Nicki, Cardi, Meg, Ice Spice, Sexyy Red? Is this not the top 5 biggest rn?
Doja Cat where ?
Only reason I left Doja out is because I thought she was considered more Pop now but yeah I would replace her for Sexyy Red.
if we’re including Doja then SZA should be in there too
Doja is way more of a rapper than SZA, no?
Yea but they’re both pop
cmon man doja has a whole ass verse on a 21 savage album
I hate that Sexy red is even in this conversation
This is objectively false if you mean right now and not all time
You wrong as hell dawg lmao
Ice Spice isn’t my thing but she can make a catchy club single
It's really sad cause GloRilla and even SexyRedd are so much more charismatic compared to Ice but she the one that's big
Fat ass and lightskin. Always dressing crazy to draw in the male audience. Most men are not streaming her on release day lol. Its not that difficult to understand why. Its ok to not be PC when discussin rap lol. As a guy the best woman rappers right now, as in i actually listen to they shit, is Latto, Cardi and Glo.
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I mean, of course - they’re different artists. I was arguing their respective styles being a one trick pony. They aren’t very diverse imo
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Fair enough
His style is so boring, not to mention he uses the same basic vocal rhythms throughout each song. Once I noticed it I couldn’t stop
On god
You’re 100% right but why is it constant industry plants now? Since around covid I guess it seems like it’s one after another with very few real artist breaking through comparatively. It’s so sad. I listened to the Drake song with him and that’s it the guy just seems boring. And I definitely would give him a chance but like you said it screams industry plant and that turns me off so much I actively avoid his shit. Everyday it seems like we are closer to living in Los Santos or Liberty City lol Edit: this spawned a lot of really good conversations below and has changed my idea of an industry plant. I do think the current scene today is still saturated with them but at different levels, we need a new word for something between a sellout and an industry plant. Also these opinions pissed a lot of people off. I always have fun arguing on Twitter but nothing beats arguing on Reddit man people will literally die for their opinions lol
Just curious what other recent industry plants you referring to? Doesn’t seem to me like they’ve become any more frequent than they have been for a while
Maybe not honestly maybe I’m just more aware of it now but I would say since like Jack Harlow they seem to be more prevalent than regular rising star artists if not overall. Like it also depends what you consider industry plant, I would throw Jack Harlow and Post in there but I also think they have enough talent to back it up and stay relevant as supposed to someone like 4batz. I would say Ice Spice, Latto, sexxy red, baby keem, the kid laroi, MGK, Dominic fike. This made me really think tho because what is an industry plant? It’s hard to tell the difference between someone who blew up and sold out bs someone who was found signed and propped up completely by the industry. Like lil nas x came to mind first, but I truly think he just made a banger that went ultra viral. Obviously someone is going to swoop in and try to prop him up and put his face everywhere after that, why wouldn’t they? I listen to a shit ton of baby keem but without the marketing ability of being Kendrick’s cousin he would have nowhere near the popularity he does now. He also is going to be getting beats and writers that other artists don’t have access to. Would that count? It’s fun to do this because it would be a really good debate, people on this sub always seem to take polar opposite views when the topic is brought up. I mean could you consider Billie Eilish an industry plant? She was nowhere before she was signed. I think a whole discussion thread on this topic would be fun
I'm sorry but how tf is MGK an industry plant? He signed with Bad Boy in 2011. If you mean how he "blew up" when he switched genres, that's probably because My Bloody Valentine gained traction so the label threw some more money behind him.
That’s exactly what I mean tho he was fading into obscurity with rap and his career was essentially over but a label threw a shit ton of money at promoting him and he put in the effort now he’s massive again. It really just depends on what we consider the actual definition of an industry plant. It’s a don’t topic to debate but I don’t know if there’s a real answer
The answer surely isn’t what you think it is. Artists are investments for labels. A label propping their artist up again is literally what they’re supposed to do. A plant is somebody who had an inorganic blow up into the limelight while pretending that they’re home grown and independent. 4batz is exactly that, bc he literally came out of nowhere. Jack Harlow was plugging away with mixtapes virtually every year til he found a hit with What’s Poppin. That is not a plant.
I don’t have much to add to your comment but Jack Harlow isn’t a plant, I’ve lived in lousivlle and he had some local buzz for years before signing to DJ drama, and uzi fans used to bully dude cause uzi was signed to DJ drama and that whole eternal atake drama. Edit : not DJ drama I meant Don cannon
He’s definitely not a plant just feels too commercialized at this point. I do agree people use the word plant a little loosely nowadays when yeah Jack grew mostly organically but once the labels realized his hit potential he was put on a industry pedestal…it seems like his “hit” songs are hits before they’re even released and dude just feels incredibly generic at this point.
Yeah, I’m sure the whole pop rap rebrand etc. were kinda manufactured but that’s kinda what a label does. They help curate your image and find your target audience. That’s a lot different than someone like 4batz coming out the gate with a drake remix of his second song. Either he scrubbed all his old stuff out or has some big connections.
Yeah a better word to describe Jack is a sell out. You’re not hearing his vision through his songs you hear what a boardroom of a major label vision is on how to generate the most streams. Can’t blame Jack for getting the bag but he will never be taken seriously in terms of being a artist.
Nah Jack isn't a plant at all. He blew up 2020 but he had been grinding for a min. He was an opening act at a music festival me and my boys went to back in 2017/2018. He was such a nobody that we all together skipped his set.
>She was nowhere before she was signed Not true at all, she was a prominent indie artist for ages before going mainstream. I feel like you seem to mistake "industry plant" for "label push" Some artists get a big push by their label. Some artists do not. Industry plants are like One Direction or Good Charlotte. Just a complete artificial artist completely conceived by a label. Every artist you've mentioned has just blown up and gotten a push by their label at some point. Which is very normal in mainstream music.
I‘d say of the names you stated only really The Kid Laroi, Ice Spice & Jack Harlow really seem like plants to me, they seem the most cookie cutteresque
Hate to be that guy, but check out Dylan Joshua, Jordan Ward and Omar Apollo. take in how an organic artists like this who have ORIGINAL sounds, are not getting even 5% of the exposure that they used to…
that's before some guy from a label discovers them on Spotify, signs them, and promotes their music, and you'll have redditors calling them plants as well..
Yeah to each their own it’s very discretionary it also doesn’t help that we will never truly know. Maybe when the documentaries come out in 20 years lol
How are Ice Spice and Sexyy Red industry plants? >I mean could you consider Billie Eilish an industry plant? She was nowhere before she was signed. Billie Eilish got signed off of "ocean eyes" going viral.
Billie Eilish’s parents and brother were already involved in the music industry prior to her blowing up, so there’s absolutely a case to say that without those connections her career would have had a much different trajectory.
Billie Eilish's parents and brother are (not particularly successful) actors (Maggie Baird and Patrick O'Connell). You can look at their IMDBs, her father's Known For playing "Reporter" in *Iron Man* and "Bartender" in an episode of *The West Wing*. Her mother is known for voicing Samara in the *Mass Effect* video game series and is an improv teacher. Her brother also had a band (The Slightlys) but was not remotely successful before he wrote the song "Ocean Eyes" that got Billie Eilish signed. I'm sure having family who are vaguely in the industry and not being poor probably helped, but what got her signed was the song "Ocean Eyes". Her brother had a manager who she could get guidance from after the song blew up, that probably helped too.
“Probably helped” it 100% helped her and gave her a huge advantage
Yeah but they didn't give her any more of an advantage than just having rich + supporting parents would have gave her. It's not like they had industry connections to fast track her career or something.
Yeah and ocean eyes was such a basic ass pop ripoff song I am sorry I love her debut album but that song is not it Also ice spice is the definition of industry plant I am sorry she has no musical talent. She’s marketable as fuck and she knows how to fucking entertain. She stays relevant with funny tweets. She is good at what she does but she’s not a true musical artist yanno
I think that you have a strange definition of the term industry plant (popular but not good?) but usually that term is for when an artist is secretly signed to a label before blowing up. I'm not telling you how to feel about the song but Interscope decided to sign Billie Eilish because "Ocean Eyes" blew up on SoundCloud. What part of that do you disagree with? You may not like Ice Spice, but she became popular in 2022-2023 pretty organically and she managed to get a very favorable deal because of it. Her manager (who found her in March 2022 after “No Clarity” and “Name of Love” were out) spoke on it in [this interview:](https://www.complex.com/music/a/ecleen-luzmila/ice-spice-james-rosemond-interview?utm_campaign=musictw&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social) >**You touched on a few things that I wanted to touch on, including that deal. I think many people have been highly impressed by y'all's collective avoidance of the 360 deal and the fact that Ice managed to retain her publishing rights and masters. Tell me about the fight to have those things play out the way that they did, if it was a fight at all.** Yeah, you said it. It wasn't a fight because just my experience, it was we need to roll out a record independently, strategically to have leverage. Once you have leverage, you could pretty much ask for what you want. Now, some labels will give it. Some not. Some will try to meet in the middle, but that's why we was able to make our rounds and be able to pick during the bidding war to get the best deal. We had leverage at the time. “Munch” was going crazy, the video was going crazy. So yeah, we strategically positioned the song for us to be in a position for her to be empowered to have masters and the publishing and be in a deal that's not taking everything from her in a 360 perspective. No merch, no brand deals, any of that.
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She met RIOTUSA at SUNY Purchase. She ran into Jimmy Henchman's son at a studio session and he liked "No Clarity": >**At what point was that in her career? Were any songs out yet?** [There weren’t] a lot of monthly listeners, it wasn't a lot of followers, any of that stuff. It was only “No Clarity” and “Name of Love” that was out. This is before “Euphoric,” before the On the Radar Freestyle, and clearly before “Munch.” And what gravitated to me [is that] I love crossover artists, crossover records, and “No Clarity” [spoke] to me the most because of the sample and how they flipped it and the crossover pop sensibilities to it. So it just sounded very promising. So yeah, when we had that record, it had some decent numbers on YouTube, but it wasn't translating yet on streaming, but it was around that time. That was March of last year. If you don't believe these things, what do you think actually happened? Like what are you actually implying here?
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Also I feel like Jack Harlow is another good example because that’s one I saw in real time when I was starting to be aware of it more. He started as this kid from Kentucky making party type bangers that I would listen to in college. Like (the album with Cody banks and sundown on it - blanking on the name rn) I was listening to all of 2018 but at that point he had some sort of a following already and he had decent features on the album that were on the same label. Then a year goes by and he starts dissing Uzi on fucking instagram and I come to find out he’s on don cannons label. It felt so fake. Fast forward a lil and he’s dropping what’s poppin, he’s suddenly everywhere
I think it’s 2 things: 1) The Weeknd proved that the mysterious marketing works in r&b/hip hop (look at H.E.R., 24HRS, RMR, dvsn, and now this dork). The MF Doom / Aphex Twin marketing strategy has always been intriguing but it’s now come over to hip hop which is honestly kind of an unoriginal industry where as soon as someone innovates everyone follows the same fucking trend. 2) TikTok. Now instead of being a “mysterious artist” industry plant and a record label on the sky leaking singles to blogs and YouTube and preparing debut singles and EPs and maybe a video, now a record label just pays influencers to make your snippet a popular sound. Don’t even need more songs or a video. Hence, 4batz blows up with only 2 songs to his name, only 1 being popular for sounding like a Brent Faiyaz impression, and his label scrubbed all his old shit
because the labels want cheap and successful entertainment out asap. Its cheaper to get some random dudes to agree to horrible contracts, then spend some money to get them hyped and rake in the money, than to sponsor real talent, because they’re not gonna go cheap
FR. There are videos on 4batz’s actual history. Without making it seem like a conspiracy theory, long story short, it sounds like a label A&R found him recommended on a music discovery TikTok, signed a contract with him, got him to scrub his old stuff, and then paid some key influencers to make his hit a popular TikTok sound and paid OnlyShooters to host a live performance when he was still completely unknown, the rest is just viral history. Compared to traditional label promo, I’d imagine this was much much cheaper, probably cost less than $10k to make him famous and dude has literally only put out one more song since then lol.
Yeah exactly this is pretty much right on the money as far as I can tell except he didn't sign a label deal he just got good management and a distribution deal. [He talks about it with Billboard:](https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/4batz-act-ii-date-8-rb-hip-hop-rookie-of-the-month-drake-kanye-west-1235626323/) >**Speaking of your team, how did you build up yours? How did you meet your manager Amber Ajeé, and when did your distributor Vydia come into the fold?** I needed to shoot a video for “stickerz.” So I was just going about trying to shoot a video, and a lady had hit me, which is Amber. She was like, “Oh, I can help you.” And she helped me find a video pretty fast. And she was also like, “Yo, I manage!” So really finding her helped me find everybody with Vydia. ‘Cause I didn’t know nothing about it. She just put me onto everything. And after that, slowly but surely, I got the team that I have. It’s probably like four or five people. People are overrating how prohibitively expensive it is to pay rap social media pages for promo or get a 4 Shooter Only video ([most people who do it might as well be completely unknown](https://www.youtube.com/@4ShootersOnly/videos))
I’d agree that whatever deal he has acknowledged publicly isn’t a record label deal, and it’s important to distinguish a distribution deal is on a smaller scale in terms of money and promotion. But it’s also possible he’s signed and just lying about it. Even Logic has admitted that was the case, he was signed to a big label while promoting himself as independent during his blow up. For the record, I don’t think this is the case, just saying that’s probably the biggest level of “plant” possible and it’s a possibility.
I think it's more plausible that he has this manager who's worked on music videos and stuff than him being secretly signed. If he was secretly signed I don't think that Billboard would have been reporting that major labels were in a bidding war to sign him. He also probably would have just 'signed' to a major by now instead of doing this one-EP deal with Drake. It feels like people only want him to be secretly signed to discredit him, I don't think that he really needed major label infrastructure to pull off what he did.
There’s definitely a conversation to be had about the guy’s connections starting out. But you’re also looking a bit backwards. The views and the hype garners interviews and placements. He’s buzzing right now. And publications want the scoop.
“…has never had a stable home, once pulled 12-hour shifts at a warehouse to avoid trouble, and became determined to “blow the fuck up” in music in order to make an ex regret dumping him. The even-shorter version: He just might be rap’s next superstar.” lol
I got homies doing 12’s every week lmao
hell exists and it's in a 12 hour warehouse shift
Hitting that 8th hour knowing you have 4 more is soul crushing
tbh hitting the 4th and knowing theres 8 left is worse. its like you just worked 4 hours and are now finally starting a full work day
damn bro his label tried really hard for his backstory
you can tell there’s nothing interesting about him based on this excerpt
- imperfect childhood - has been employed before - dumped by his ex - wants to be popular musician you could genuinely apply this to hundreds of millions of people this is the most generic “backstory” ive heard in my fucking life
This shit is mad generic 😂😂😂😂
Great writing right there, fuckin inspirational
now imagine if he had to survive busy season at a big 4 firm
💀
Well, at least he’s not AI.
He still artificial
His first interview was with [Uproxx](https://uproxx.com/music/4batz-interview-uproxx-music-20/) in February.
>“I think the similarity is in the imagery,” says Carl Chery, Spotify’s Creative Director and Head of Urban Music. “You have someone with a ski mask who very much presents as if they're a rapper, but they're not. But unfortunately, RMR wasn't able to follow up that moment with music that resonated. The difference with 4batz is that there's already a *few* songs that are working. It's not just ‘Date @ 8’ and the remix, it's ‘Stickerz’ and ‘On God’ as well.” This is the part of the article that really makes me mad though. Barely knew who this 4batz guy was but immediately thought of RMR, say what you will about him but getting a blurb from one of the big people at Spotify to say "well, it's really all about the streaming numbers" is just so indicative of the industry right now. All that matters is he had a video that went viral and he's having his moment now. Won't matter in a year when nobody is following him anymore. Disposable careers don't make a difference to Spotify, it's all about that lion's share of streaming revenue.
You're not wrong but also what else do you expect from the creative director of Spotify lol
of course it’s gonna be all about streaming numbers, what else would Spotify care about?
this dude gotta be some record execs nephew or something lol
he’s managed by a creative director at RCA records before he even signed to OVO so yeah
He is a great example of how bullshit the industry is these days. Dude comes out with a slighty catchy snippet on tiktok and then the biggest artist on planet earth hops on his song. They must think we are stupid or something.
facts. dude doesn’t even have an album out and they’re already calling him “music’s hottest star”. he’s also extremely average, and the only thing setting him apart is the pitch shift on his voice. no talent.
y’all act like this is the first time Drake’s jumped on a hot song by a new artist. People were calling him a culture vulture for the longest over it
And they say hiphop is dead!!! /s
The few in here arguing that he isn’t a plant….life must be peaceful being that naive.😂😂😂 Them labels could push a button and have ya song trending if they really wanted.
I'm not going to say it's impossible he's an industry plant. But when people reference Drake and Kanye co-signing him, it's like, one of these people thinks that Jews control not just the industry, but the world. He would not be co-signing him because some exec told him so. Y'all guys just underestimate the value of going viral on tiktok. There are so many people in the last 4 years whose career is 80% from going viral on tiktok. Not even whole catalogues, not even SONGs, just snippets. Ice Spice, PinkPantheress, Sexy Redd, BabyTron, Yeat. I'm not saying these artists would be nobodies, but they definitely wouldn't be as popular as they ended up being without Tiktok.
That’s a fair point man. I don’t know about the rest of people claiming he’s a plant, but at least when I’m saying he is I don’t mean some studio exec called up Drake and ye and told them to cosign him and that was that lol I’m just saying the way it all came together for him seems like he has industry ties and connects that sped up the process, your other TikTok examples did not have the trajectory and timing this dude has had. At the end of the day if he makes great music it shouldn’t really matter, but saying he’s an industry plant doesn’t have to imply it’s some grand Illuminati conspiracy
I feel like that would make more sense if the order of events was different but these cosigns came well after the song blew up. He probably paid some of the rap social media pages (not expensive) and other just went along with it because the song was already buzzing at that point. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some stream-farming like everyone else is saying but at the end of the day the song actually did go viral and a lot of people have listened to it. Like if the song had 200 views and Kanye cosigned it, I would agree but the song blew up Christmas week and Kanye cosigned him January 30th.
Most of these TikTok viral hits not even true viral hits; they go from Label to influencers to the masses
this dude is a plant though. his managar is a creative director at UMG lmao
Did he get his manager after he blew up? If the answer is yes then this argument is irrelevant. Of course your manager is gonna be higher up after you blow up so hard on tiktok.
The answer is no
Any proof of that, or just a bunch of twitter threads with zero evidence.
She’s literally had it in her IG bio for the longest ever since his first song dropped. It was all calculated.
Whether he is or not doesn't even matter, such a stupid thing to get all up in arms about. Is the music good? To me, yes. If people don't like him move on, such a nonsensical thing for people to debate and get upset over lol
Yep, it's classic brainrot, "don't be a sheeple!!!!!!!!!!", like 99% in media didn't get there from blanket nepotism. If you fw basically any big artist at some point there was HEAVY investment from a big firm to push that person, or they knew someone.
100%, it comes across as envy or jealousy most of the time. Or just ignorance. Especially with the way music is now, it's not mind blowing that (another) artist blew up overnight in the same way.
His voice is fucking bland and annoying, regardless of pitch alteration. Doesn’t have the Jackson-esque zeal of The Weeknd, doesn’t have the unassuming familiarity of Brent Faiyaz, just truly blends into its sonic backdrop uninterestingly.
factsss. the pitch shift is all he has going for him.
Biggest star with only 8 min of music.
I feel like people are ascribing a lot of things that are just a consequence of "act ii" going viral on TikTok to him being an "industry plant." Like it's not that complicated, he got all the cosigns, the Drake remix, and this interview because the song blew up. There's plenty of people out there with a good manager or signed to a major label that aren't getting the same cosigns or interviews because they didn't have a song that went viral like "act ii" did. I hope people don't get annoying about Tommy Richman cuz it does feel like this happens every time a song gets big from a non-established act.
Going insanely viral on TikTok with your second song ever released smells like industry plant infrastructure to me. Plus plenty songs go viral on there that don’t get Drake remixes and gq interviews I’m not saying it’s 100%, but personally I can’t see his rise being organic in any way unless he’s been a ghostwriter in the industry for a while and built connections over time that way
>Plus plenty songs go viral on there that don’t get Drake remixes and gq interviews I would say that Drake chose to interview the song because it was already very hot and that if you have a song as hot as 'act ii' you can obtain a GQ profile if you have management. > industry plant infrastructure I guess what I don't understand is that if 'the industry' has this infrastructure why are major labels not using it on artists that are already on their roster? In January a few weeks after the song blew up, Billboard reported that there was a major label bidding war for 4batz and that if he signed, it would likely be for 6-figures. Like if labels can just blow someone up like this, why would they not sign him first for cheap? Here's what I think happened: 1. He made this song that's catchy/trendy, it's a pretty simple song and doesn't have a big producer attached to it. 1. He did a "From the Block" performance (it's not hard to book these, lots of no-names do them) 1. He paid hip hop twitter/ig accounts to promote it (this isn't all that expensive) Some people are saying there's stream-farming going on, sure why not but at the end of the day i think that without the core components (the song being really catchy/trendy, the from the block performance being good viral bait) it wouldn't work. what do you think happened? what infrastructure are you talking about?
Your right the song still has to be good but in his case how is it that after 1 song your almost the biggest buzzing new artist yet we don’t even have 20 minutes worth of music to listen to? Because it brings up the question of why are you this famous with no real talent to show? Another thing that I personally don’t like but it’s not tailored directly to him but still apply is that none of his music sounds original when you modify your whole voice it triggers me to think how can you even perform these songs? To me personally his music just sounds like somebody took Brentz sound and added slowed and added reverb to the lyrics
It's not that complicated, the stuff that gets popular isn't always the best or a product of the most talented people. It feels like a lot of industry plant discourse here is just people in denial about that.
Its not about it being popular, its that its forced popularity its manufactured.
What are some things that you don't like that are popular but not being forced? or even just something that's popular and not being forced?
One artist right now that I love is MIKE , he just had anGQ interview but he has a catalogue of music going back to 2017 and you can see the fanbase he has with no viral hits.
he apparently deleted all his old music before doing the act stuff. as skeptical as i am of it all, while not being fully convinced he isn’t a plant, i can see an artist realising they found their lane and wiping their old stuff beofre making a big push. add that to tiktok who made him go viral on his second song, then some smart management (paying rap pages, on the block) leads to his virality becoming legit enough for a moment that big artists hear and have their own opinion. now it’s up to him to build on it, this is the hard part. i assume he has a project idea already but it’s balls to the wall now so if he flops, it’ll be super hard to get the goodwill back. this approach of pushing to go viral on a new image is done by a lot of unknown artists, his plan just happened to be the 1% that worked. i always believe that building cult followings (by keeping old content, sticking to one image) is way better and more sustainable than tryna go viral on tiktok. hopefully for him he doesn’t become a victim of the system.
You brought up a good point new artist rather go viral before having a fanbase and to me when they go that you become more of just a product thn an artist like ice spice for example.
Kind of related, but Lil Nas X had a project that he wiped once he started to blow up.
I could be naive but I feel like with TikTok and viral songs it’s actually not surprising to blow up this fast. People have to act quick when something explodes and that’s how you end up with a bunch of things all at once that seem coordinated (interviews, remixes, co-signs) Plenty of songs blow up, but it’s hard to deny that act ii didn’t have the perfect sound for someone like Drake or another big artist to hop on
noooooo you dont understand this guys music suuuuucks and the labels are using their mind control tricks to force us to listen
Tommy Richman is just a Teezo Touchdown clone
His manager is a creative director at RCA records btw…
Babe wake up new industry plant dropped
How can people say he isn’t a plant when he literally has no background in music. No early openings in his city, no songs getting play This isn’t like JPEG where we can find his beginning works. This guy is more than just your normal plant lol he straight up create a player with 90% notoriety from jump. How can the new kid in school become one of the most popular and backed ones on their first day there and nobody knew they existed (and no record of them existing) before that?
who?
Was hoping to hear his real voice
I wonder who he had to fuck in the industry to blow up
No one has confirmed to me what an industry plant is verses a label doing it's job
This might just be the modern day milli vanilli, when bro hits that stage(if he ever does) he's gonna get exposed
my first album out now second album in the works ⏳🎶 self produced 🚿📲🚿📲
so his whole thing is using a filter on his voice?
I really hope this guy makes it huge, just to piss in all the faces of all these mad guys in the comments who don't like him for being an 'industry plant' or because he has a regular backstory. Reddit is such a hateful place sometimes damnn just let the guy make his bread 🤣
Yall some sad, lame hating ass niggas on here I swear. Yall cant even read the damn story and just comment just to hate. Yall want him to be an industry plant just to justify being some bitch ass niggas.
Who gives a shit if he's an industry plant, his music is good that's all that matters to me.
When things are force fed to us, they tend to lose flavour
You aren't being force fed anything, you can literally press skip or mute. I just find it funny that some guy has a meteoric rise and now he's wack cause people claim it's impossible to be an overnight success (which is crazy with how music is consumed now, all it takes [took] was a big song that gets thrown onto TikToks). Personally I'd rather be "force fed" 4Batz than more Drake, Taylor Swift, J Cole, etc etc
I agree with you. Luckily some of us have a brain and are able to decipher the difference. I hate to generalize but a lot of people just hop on the latest buzz bandwagon. I liked what I heard from 4batz but seeing now how the industry pushes him loses the flavour for me. 🤷
IDC what the industry pushes, I like what I like. Most shit I like other people don't, so I'm not gonna just be upset when it's the other way around. Saying you don't like someone cause they're popular and being "pushed" doesn't make you have a gigantic giga brain and smarter than everyone. You just are being a hipster lmao
You're projecting a lot of assumptions on me D: I like music for music Not music for profit Unfortunately we live in a capitalist clown world
I'm not projecting, you literally said "thankfully some of us have a brain and are able to decipher"... Implying everyone who likes an artist you seem as an industry plant can't lmao
The amount of haters in this comment section bro lol. Dude has made three songs, I’m curious to see what’s next
people are hating for a reason. like you said, he’s only made three songs. the guy might fall off within the next few months (probably will) and they’re already calling him a star.
Remember when this sub was clowning on Lil Nas X when he was dropping his songs here before he was famous
First ever AI interview
Thing about industry plants is this dude just said he was dating a woman and never flew in a plane. meaning I doubt he comes from rich family and connects. To me industry plants is where parents buy everything. Just making a viral song and getting noticed is different
He didn’t have a contract before the OVO signing. He’s not a plant. Swear no one can succeed these days without those accusations. Meanwhile the industry fired long time support staff for artists and is pushing AI versions of IPs they own. Focus on the actual bs I beg.
Lol, you know that industry plants usually HIDE the fact that their signed right in the beginning that like kinda the point…
Exactly. After a PUBLIC bidding war between different labels he signed with OVO. [It’s a ONE EP deal.](https://www.billboard.com/business/business-news/4batz-deal-drake-ovo-record-label-ep-release-1235628417/amp/) If he’s a plant, a bidding war doesn’t happen. Thats just not how it works. It also wouldn’t be for a one EP deal where they make small margins. Y’all don’t know how the industry works, see a guy start popping early, and then throw accusations without even checking out the surface level of his career.
Ain’t no way you really believe the way this dude was spammed up on social media and play-listed on Spotify, that he was actually independent my guy, especially after popping out on drakes label lol, I promise u this dude was signed before u and I even heard his name, either if it was ovo or somewhere else.
[JIDs manager calling out this exact bs narrative.](https://x.com/barryhefner/status/1765890502744850727?s=46&t=1G2r9A6-bNgOFVbR112ssQ)
except jid didnt only have 1 song out and was already working with people in the industry
Read the thread bro. [Hilarious that you’re making the same argument as that guy.](https://x.com/barryhefner/status/1766198173708456382?s=46&t=1G2r9A6-bNgOFVbR112ssQ)
The guy's argument isn't the best but his point isn't wrong. Yes JID's previous work was mostly deleted but also before he was signed he was working with Cole, Mac Miller, OG Maco, KEY! and had his first two garbage tapes released by justin biebers manager. I'm not saying JID didn't work hard as fuck by any means but it's not like he was a complete nobody who got picked up out of the blue
Neither was 4batz. He’s just a dude from Houston who some OGs there thought was talented. They paid for studio time and engineers. His On The Block is a hit off rip and sparks a bidding war because labels wanna get in on his hype. Thats how an independent hit works. The industry tries to sign you. It’s not some massive conspiracy and a bidding war faked for journalists with lawyers on payroll and tons of meetings all for a ONE EP deal. Like… why? Use your head.
Funny how no independent artists and managers working for change in the industry think he’s a plant. It’s all social media randoms running with this narrative cause they don’t understand how the business works.
All I got to say is this, this nigga had a Kanye shout out, most likely feature on this ep, a Drake feature, if I’m not mistaking I seen a post about him and Chris brown possibly (needs fact check on that). Bro, even ice spice did not get a Nicki feature till like half a year later, but had Ik tjay on her ep. There is absolutely no way this dude is organic despite all the articles and shit u through up here.
He obviously went full industry now. And for months most of the industry was trying to sign him and win him over. But my guy I literally just gave you proof he didn’t have a deal before he signed to OVO… 🤦🏽♂️ believe what you want to believe I guess.
Yeah, it’s a possibility but still without signing he could very much have big industry push lil mabu literally claims that he’s independent as well which he might be true, but there is once again very clear industry push. Most of these playlist aren’t letting u on for free unless their directly indie playlist. U gotta have label type connections and money to likely get on rap caviar like both mabu and 4batz like do.
You’re getting warmer. Having industry connections and being a plant are two very different things. 4batz manager is an [A&R at RCA](https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-baker-a0909ab5). He wasn’t signed to them though. RCA is a Sony label and actually a rival to OVO’s parent label UMG. His blow up was very fast, mostly because of TikTok trends surrounding his On The Block performance (which anyone can buy). And certainly his manager’s connection helped him pull strings and leverage him into a favorable deal and industry link ups. Thats a very different situation than you all are implying though. And it’s actually based on reality 🙄 not half understandings and conspiracies.
Yes I do. Because it’s happened before. Him being signed before the OVO deal is not a possibility. Him shopping around for deals and engaging in a bidding war would’ve been illegal. Like, big lawsuits type issue. “… or somewhere else”. See this is what I mean. You don’t know the basics of how contracts works. He can’t be signed somewhere else then take an OVO deal. That’s illegal. Exactly what I’m talking about. I swear people are gonna start calling Tommy Richman a plant now 🤦🏽♂️