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.
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?
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.
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.
