4Batz
We’ve seen this before. A new artist breaks through with a hot new single that seems to completely dominate social media and group chats, alike. But as fire as the song is, the artist doesn’t manage to break into the mainstream. Then, Drake steps in and throws an alley that would make D Wade do a double take.
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The OVO Capo either adds a verse to the bubbling track or finds his way onto a completely new offering. Suddenly, not only is the song with Drake everywhere—radio, Billboard Hot 100, every car driving around your neighborhood—the artist is now a household name who appears on every radio show and podcast. It’s the Drake Effect. Future, Migos, ILoveMakonnen (for better or worse), and BlocBoy JB have all been recipients. And now, according to a few cryptic IG posts, it appears that 4Batz, the quasi-mysterious new R&B artist who has a love of Pooh Shiesty masks, may be the latest beneficiary of Drake’s goodwill.
But does he need it?
Trending on Billboard
If you haven’t heard 4Batz’s breakthrough single, “act ii: date @ 8,” you’ve undoubtedly seen clips from his “From the Block Performance” that featured him crooning into a microphone through gold grills while his friends hover in the background, dancing and punctuating certain lines like professional hype men.
The video itself isn’t spectacular, it looks like every other “From the Block Performance”—a franchise produced by the 4 Shooters Only YouTube channel that features rappers in their home city performing, well, from the block. The only difference is 4batz isn’t a rapper. He’s an R&B singer with a childlike falsetto who sounds like he was raised on nothing but The Weeknd’s first three mixtapes. And like The Weeknd, his voice is surprisingly delicate even if the words it’s delivering are at times surprisingly abrasive.
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The song and video went viral, catapulting the Texas native into stardom before anybody really knew anything about him. His own YouTube channel only has three videos, the first being “act i: stickerz ’99′” which was uploaded in October of last year and now has over 2 million views. The “Official Visualizer” for “act ii: date @ 8” has 3.1 million views.
As its popularity increased a number of artists took note and offered their support. SZA left a comment on one of his Instagram posts, he FaceTimed with Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West), and Timbaland posted a reaction video to the song wherein he says Drake should collaborate with 4Batz.
All of that lead to the song debuting at #77 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and igniting a bidding war that sources said would “end in a robust seven-figure deal” for the artist. And, now, as the song continues to climb the charts, 4Batz posted a video on Instagram last night announcing a “date & 8” remix and asked his fans “who yall want on the remix”?
A quick look at his comments show that the early favorites are Brent Fiyaz, SZA, and Bryson Tiller. But fans really believe it’s the 6 God since he also took to Instagram last night and posted a Story that said “Date @ 8 REMIX” with mentions of 4Batz and his longtime producer Noah “40” Shebib.
While Brent and Bryson would both add interesting elements to the single, and SZA would add a wallop of star power, a remix with Drake will undoubtedly push the single way, way up the charts. He’s one of the biggest pop stars in the world and easily the biggest rapper in the game. A verse from him is enough to launch entire careers (just ask JB).
But 4Batz’s career seems to be moving along just fine. The rollout of his singles has been deliberate and interesting. He’s landed at an aesthetic that accentuates his music. And people seem to be genuinely rooting for him. A top 40 hit doesn’t seem too far away.
But Drake is Drake. The guy with 328 Hot 100 entries. Even if 4batz doesn’t need the Drake Effect, helping him get to 329 may be too tempting to turn down.
Singer 4Batz, whose track “act ii: date @ 8” erupted on social media and streaming services during Christmas week, has sparked a bidding war among several major labels, sources familiar with the negotiations tell Billboard.
Four years ago, it was routine for previously unknown artists with viral singles to score big record deals in a matter of weeks. But that path slowed to a trickle in 2023, and some label executives started to worry about a stagnant climate for new artists.
That helps explain why many A&R executives are now eager to sign 4Batz. One executive calls the singer’s rapid ascent “the most exciting thing to happen in the last six months” in the music industry. Multiple major labels, including Republic Records, Atlantic Records and Warner Records, are in conversations with 4Batz’s team about a potential deal.
While he has released just two songs to date, they are already earning more than 9 million streams a week in the United States between them, according to Luminate. “act ii: date @ 8” leads the way, climbing to No. 76 on the latest Billboard Hot 100 chart. Due to this upward momentum, two sources familiar with the label negotiations say they are all but certain to end in a robust seven-figure deal for 4Batz. When another R&B singer, Muni Long, enjoyed a viral breakout with “Hrs and Hrs” late in 2022, her subsequent record deal came with an advance of around $5 million, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations.
Legal counsel for 4Batz declined to comment.
In the heady early days of TikTok, it was common for half a dozen major labels to compete over a new act with a hot single. From 2019 through at least the end of 2021, this led to big deals for artists like Lil Tecca, Arizona Zervas, Ant Saunders and more. During that period, “it felt like every single day another artist signed a deal that was a gazillion dollars,” one music attorney told Billboard last year.
But as 2022 bled into 2023, fewer unsigned acts surged into view behind singles that streamed like crazy. Executives worried that virality on short-form video platforms no longer sparked listening the way it once did; sometimes what happened on TikTok stayed on TikTok.
At the same time, many label executives became disillusioned with the viral chase. Due to the intense competition around these deals, they invariably ended up being costly. (Though two of the acts who were able to translate viral energy into noteworthy Hot 100 success in 2023, the rapper Superstar Pride and the singer Oliver Anthony, both ended up remaining independent rather than taking a fat check from a major label.) The high cost of the deal put a lot of pressure on young artists to replicate their initial success quickly — to prove they were worthy of a hefty investment in a bottom-line-focused business. Many of the signings were unable to make the leap from popular song to popular artist.
“We’ve all been burned to a certain degree,” Tab Nkhereanye, a senior vp of A&R at BMG, said last year.
As a result, labels have been more circumspect when it comes to signing artists with viral singles in the last 18 months. They’ve also been trying to connect with more acts earlier in their careers via low-cost distribution deals; that way, they have a pre-existing contractual relationship if one of those signings starts to take off. (“act ii: date @ 8” was released through Vydia, a music tech company which is now part of the Larry Jackson-helmed gamma; this marks another win for Vydia, which also brought in Sexyy Red, one of last year’s few genuine breakouts.)
But 4Batz has shown staying power in recent weeks, spending all of January to date near the top of Spotify’s Global Viral 50. “act ii: date @ 8” is hypnotic and loop-able, with feathery come-ons and a slinky bass vamp; it already cracked the top 10 on the Hot R&B Songs chart, leapfrogging established artists like Brent Faiyaz (a clear influence on 4Batz).
R&B is on the upswing at the moment, which is another factor working in 4Batz’s favor. SZA and Victoria Monet dominated the latest Grammy nominations, with Janelle Monae and Coco Jones also scoring nods in the Big Four categories. In R&B, “it’s highly unusual for an artist to come onto the scene with the numbers and interest from labels” that 4Batz has, an executive says. “Normally an artist has to drop more music to get this level of attention.”
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