WHATMORE's genius branding and content strategy

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WHATMORE went from zero monthly listeners in March 2025 to 250,000 by fall, becoming one of the busiest groups in cool kid New York circles. They're a New York hip-hop crew that draws heavily from Brockhampton—and they executed one of the smartest content strategies I've seen in a while.

For context: I made a video years ago called "Stop Asking Who's the Next Nirvana? It's Brockhampton," the first week of COVID. I still believe they'll be one of the most consequential artists of the coming decades. They changed the game. WHATMORE is a product of that changed game, and they understood the assignment.

The Connections

They met at LaGuardia High School—the gifted-and-talented public school for New York City kids, not a private school. A lot of my friends went there and went on to bigger things because they were around creative kids.

Their manager is Jeremy Erlich, who left Spotify in February after serving as Global Head of Music. He also manages JENNIE. You can imagine how they got on more Spotify playlists than most artists ever get on, with 250,000 monthly listeners.

But here's the thing: tons of artists get all these connections, and it doesn't go anywhere. WHATMORE did the work.

Instagram Over TikTok (Stop Guessing Platforms)

They're bigger on Instagram than TikTok. It's not even close.

You would think everybody would guess TikTok. You'd be wrong. For the 5,000,000th time: stop pretending we can predict what artists will be bigger on Instagram or TikTok. You have to post on both and see what happens.

Give People Something to Talk About

When you don't give people ways to understand you, they can't tell friends about you. The key to word of mouth is giving people something to discuss.

WHATMORE has videos pinned at the top of their Instagram and YouTube that introduce the group and help you understand what's happening.

The Fake Record Executive Videos

Great psychological trick: somebody playing a record executive talks up how big they're going to be. You think, "Oh, this is important, I should know who this is." Then, at the end, it's some broke homeless person. They clown the whole idea.

They also call out everything people are going to say about them—the DEI thing. The "looks assembled" thing. They're like, "No, we met in high school, we've been friends for years." Getting ahead of the "oh this is a boy band made by some pedophile like Backstreet Boys and NSYNC were." They're pulling it out before it even happens—addressing the misconception right from the jump.

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