The internet has changed the way we listen to and discover music by becoming a seeding ground for anyone to be discovered as the next great star or the next meme.
In recent years, artists like Ice Spice and Pink Pantheress have leveraged their internet success to secure lucrative contracts with subsidiaries of major record labels like Warner Music Group. With the internet behind them and the record label muscle, Ice Spice and Pink Pantheress have sustained their explosive internet popularity to continue being at the forefront of conversations, festivals, and magazines.
While most audiences enjoy the meteoric rise of artists like Ice Spice and Pink Pantheress, eventually they question the nature of their stardom and the industry plant accusations begin flying.
Two artists are making their ascent within the music industry right now and audiences are wondering the same thing: are 4batz and Tommy Richman industry plants?
“I’ll come and slide by 8pm and send a text to your DM,” sings 4batz on his act ii: date @ 8 r&b single that has garnered over 100 million streams on Spotify.
The Texas artist, whose real name is Neko Bennett, blew up after performing the aforementioned single on the From the Block YouTube performance series by 4 Shooters Only. His candid lyrics coupled with his shiesty made the song so popular it caught the attention of Kanye West and Drake. In fact, the Canadian rapper liked the song so much he released a remix in early March that has been streamed over half a million times.
This week, 4batz appeared on the controversial, yet popular Adin Ross’s live stream, and in outlets like GQ and Complex as he gears up to release his ironically titled first-ever project, U Made Me A St4r*, on Friday, May 3.
This project will be distributed by OVO, Drake’s record label, but 4batz will remain an independent artist.
All of these public appearances on major media platforms, along with a Drake feature so early in his career, give ground to the industry plant argument.
On the other side of these current industry plant conversations is Tommy Richman.
Richman is a Virginia artist who has been releasing music since 2016. These releases caught the attention of Brent Faiyaz who signed Richman onto his ISO Supremacy label, which is partnered with Pulse Records.
Last year, Richman’s r&b single Last Nite off his debut ISO Supremacy EP, The Rush, put him on the map as an artist to watch, but this week a new single has skyrocketed his popularity and the industry plant accusations. The new single, Million Dollar Baby, currently has over 15 million streams on Spotify and for a short while, usurped Taylor Swift for the number one position on Apple Music’s Top 100: USA Chart. The song now sits at number two, underneath Kendrick Lamar’s newest Drake diss, Euphoria.
Million Dollar Baby is Richman’s first number one song and the first time many people are learning about him, so its instant popularity raised a lot of eyebrows. Richman is an industry plant right?
No, and 4batz isn’t one either.
An industry plant is a musician who gains their popularity through family connections, money, or nepotism, but none of those things, at least publicly, are known about either of the two artists.
What 4batz and Richman represent is a significant shift in music by the internet, this time not for listeners, but for the industry.
TikTok has become a star-making machine by providing independent artists a platform to connect with audiences through an efficient algorithm that quickly places relevant content in front of users based on their preferences and actions. For example, Million Dollar Baby has been used in close to 100 thousand TikTok videos since its release, exponentially growing audience familiarity with the song.
Record labels know the power of the internet and they also know that it moves on quickly, so when an independent artist breaks the net, record labels move with breakneck speeds to capitalize on the popularity of these artists.
It’s not surprising that 4batz secured a Drake remix because the Canadian rapper operates just like a label by using the internet success of new artists to continually keep themselves relevant with younger audiences who dictate who becomes popular and who flops on social media. This power to control the narrative by younger audiences isolates older audiences who are not tapped into the pulse of pop culture, which leads to confusion when an unfamiliar name like Richman tops an Apple Music chart.
4batz and Richman represent two sides of this new business model. 4batz has achieved astronomical streaming success independently and will only grow more when he decides to partner with a label, but Richman has achieved success because his moderate internet success was invested in early by Brent Faiyaz.
For now, the industry plant accusations are unfounded. 4batz struck gold on the internet, while Richman has worked hard for almost 10 years to earn the backing of arguably r&b’s biggest male artist.
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