Ice Spice and PinkPantheress are among a special few that have established the pipeline from viral TikTok superstar to mainstream artist. In the time since their ascent, the pair has been embraced by the hip-hop and pop worlds, paving the way for similar artists to emerge on the scene. And now 4batz, the internet’s latest viral rapper, is seemingly replicating the formula after making his name in late 2023 with a pair of breakout tracks and a clear musical vision.
It’s not hard to understand why the average TikTok user would stop at 4batz’s videos for “act i: stickerz ‘99’” and “act ii: date @ 8,” the two songs he’s released up to this point. Often spotted in his visuals with a black ski mask, golden grills, double cup, and crew in tow, the 20-year-old Dallas native—real name Neko Bennett—looks like an enigmatic rapper ready to tell the greatest come-up story of all time. Except the music, laced with emotive lyrics, romantic crooning, and a mix of pitched-up and slowed vocals, provides a juxtaposition that draws listeners in.
Though playing with song pitch has become a hallmark of “TikTok music,” 4batz’s stylistic choices have a large connection to his Texas roots. The rapper credits Z-Ro, Paul Wall, and DJ Screw—the Houston hip-hop pioneer that birthed the city’s chopped and screwed sound—with influencing the slowed-up moments in his tracks. And then there’s his love for ’90s R&B, an inspiration that might surprise some listeners.
“That’s actually my favorite genre of music,” 4batz tells Genius over Zoom. “There’s so many people in ’90s R&B that I like, that I look up to. Jodeci, Mint Condition, SWV, Intro, Sade, Anita Baker … whoever did ’90s R&B, they did it, and it stood out in a crazy way. Everybody [today] is sampling songs and singing over it and saying, ‘Oh yeah, this is bringing ’90s back,’ when in reality, it’s just them sampling the song, so that’s the difference.”
Much of 4batz’s introduction to the internet has been shrouded in a deep cloud of mystery, causing some to accuse him of being an industry plant. But he says stardom has been at the top of his mind since his teen years.
“I been taking it seriously since I was like 14,” he says. “I was just scared. I used to be on YouTube, and I looked up how to blow up.”
After several years of what he calls “procrastinating,” he finally decided to release material. “What made me drop the fucking ball was I got my lil’ heart broke,” 4batz says, adding that “act iii: on god?” which arrives tomorrow, March 1, will also draw from real-life pain. “When it comes out, you’re gonna hear, ‘Damn, this nigga was hurt.’ That’s what all the acts is about, too.”
While the forthcoming material comes from a personal place, the rapper is largely excited about releasing new tracks that can bring “funness back to music.” To 4batz, the current musical landscape is “boring,” and album releases are over far too quickly for his liking.
“I don’t even really look at anything,” he says. “I move how I move because I look at older things, not really what’s going on now. We’re just bringing back that fun, when people used to buy albums. People want to feel like they’re with you when you’re creating, and people want to feel like they’re going to another planet with the music that’s created.”
The R&B and hip-hop worlds are also taking notice. With only two tracks to his credit and a third on the way, 4batz has earned glances from heavyweights like SZA, Drake, Kanye West, and Timbaland. He even made No. 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “date @ 8”—an impressive feat for an unsigned, independent artist. That led to an apparent bidding war between majors like Republic Records, Atlantic Records, and Warner Records, though 4batz remains unsigned at the moment.
“It made me feel really good [to be praised], but I don’t spend too much time looking at it,” 4batz says. “I am extremely, extremely grateful for what’s going on. [In] my whole life, I ain’t never really had shit. I ain’t never really had nothing but belief that I was gonna be someone.”
After charting so early in his career, 4batz is doing his best to stay grounded, though he jokes he lost 20 pounds jumping around and doing backflips to celebrate the achievement.
“I don’t try to be too into that because I want more, and I feel like I deserve more because of my creative ideas, and the way my music is,” he says. Though he offers this prediction for “act iii”: “We’re hitting that Billboard.”
Beyond “act iii,” fans can expect more new music in the near future, though 4batz can’t yet reveal what form it will take. “It’s about the eras of my life, stages of 4batz, and what created 4batz,” he says, adding that he hopes to garner Rookie of the Year accolades and make his 2024 “the biggest in the world.”
“People think, ‘He’s the one,’ and we actually gonna be that,” 4batz says. “This gonna be my year to prove all the haters wrong and prove to people that believe in me that we all that.”
