Artist Spotlight: WHATMORE

Photo courtesy of Isaac Wheatley

If you are searching for 2025’s breakout artist of the summer, look no further than WHATMORE. The up-and-coming rap group, which has probably ended up on your TikTok For You Page once or twice, checks all the boxes for the perfect listen in the upcoming months. The group consists of vocalists Sebastiano, Jackson August, Yoshi T, and Cisco Swank (who you may have seen on Noname’s Tiny Desk Concert), as well as producer Elijah Judah. 

In just a few months, they’ve managed to grow a following on TikTok and Instagram, posting short snippets using samples of hit songs from the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Gracie Abrams, and Role Model. Role Model even showed his support, reposting the group’s unique track that sampled “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out” to his Instagram story. These snippets can be listened to on the group’s Bandcamp, where they have posted Flips 1, which dropped on February 23rd, and Flips 2, which dropped on April 16th. In between these releases, on March 12th, they also appeared as a feature on group member Yoshi T’s song “Mii MUSIC”, which serves as the group’s streaming service debut.

These short mixtapes and the feature verses on “Mii MUSIC” provide just a hint of the group's dynamic chemistry. After hinting at new music for quite some time, the band recently announced that they would be playing their new album at a special show in Brooklyn on April 24th. Fans know that there's no doubt that new singles will be coming soon from the group, preceding the highly anticipated album. Given the frequency of their recent releases, the new songs will likely come out just in time for summer.

 New listeners of WHATMORE will naturally draw comparisons to Odd Future and Brockhampton, with one of their snippets even being featured on the Brockhampton subreddit. The appeal of Brockhampton and similar groups lies in how easily the artists’ personalities shine through the music. At its core, Brockhampton was just a group of friends hanging out together, who just so happened to make great music. WHATMORE brings that same appeal, with evident similarities in sound as well.

The seamless grooves and syncopated lyrics make WHATMORE stand out among the several artists currently storming the TikTok scene. Perhaps WHATMORE sounds derivative of their influences right now, but a great sound doesn’t have to die with its originator. An artist or group wearing their influences on their sleeve is not at all uncommon when they first debut. Besides, the music scene has been missing a group with the vibe of Brockhampton since they broke up. Whether or not this new hip-hop ensemble is too derivative for your taste at the moment, the group is undeniably making fun, catchy music that is guaranteed to soundtrack your summer. 

What more could you ask for?