Music
How reaction videos became hip-hop's secret weapon
Among the millions of reaction videos that live on YouTube, a select few channels are busy hyping Australian hip-hop and drill to a worldwide audience.
As soon as Western Sydney rap crew OneFour dropped its video for ‘The Message’ in March of 2019, UK YouTubers Dan&Kaz were ready to react.
In a video that’s since passed one million views, the duo begin by testing some shaky Australian accents. Both are repping UK fitness brand Gainage across their chests, which Dan pairs with a cap and dark sunglasses. It’s clear from their easy back-and-forth that they’ve been friends for over a decade. For the next ten-odd minutes, Dan&Kaz play and pause ‘The Message’ with increasing hype. They praise the accents, the quality of the camera work and the often brutal bars, hitting the ten-second rewind to pick apart the words.
After the song is over, the guys kick back to riff on their thoughts. “This tune deserves way more views than it has,” Kaz declares. “I’ll be real, I think the last time Australia came out my mouth...” Dan begins, before Kaz seamlessly completes his thought, “I was talking about a spider eating a bird.”
As a broad genre, YouTube reaction videos are nothing new. Soon after the video-sharing platform launched in 2005, people started filming themselves watching things. Early reaction videos ranged from grimy (webcam reactions to the scatalogical fetish clip, 2 Girls 1 Cup) to wholesome (parents filming their kids discovering pop culture artifacts). Before long, YouTube was filling up with reactions to movie trailers, TV episodes, sporting events and any other ephemera that might warrant a click.
Into this mix emerged a new cottage industry of music reaction videos, led by largely Black creators. A theme soon emerged: people love watching YouTubers experience classic songs for the first time. Channels such as Lost In Vegas, No Life Shaq and Jamel_AKA_Jamal built followings on this gimmick, bringing internet cachet to oldies radio staples like Genesis, The Bangles and Dire Straits. (The ‘Kids React’ series takes this formula and supercharges it with adorable/precocious children.)
Others, like the popular ZIAS! duo (four million subscribers and counting), react to the latest hip-hop music videos, occasionally alongside the artists who made them. Mansa Mayne, meanwhile, fits into a trend of Americans weighing in on UK hip-hop. Dan&Kaz occupy their own corner of the view-hunting game. Instead of recontextualising old songs or chasing the latest Cardi B hit, they keep the UK front and centre, tailoring their videos to fellow hip-hop and drill fans -- who might also appreciate a far-flung group called OneFour.
Reaction videos got a 2020 news bump thanks to a burgeoning channel called TwinsthenewTrend. 21-year-old twin brothers Tim and Fred Wiliams make ‘First Time Hearing’ videos reacting to everyone from Dolly Parton and Cher to Kriss Kross and Warren G.
Last August, the twins’ awed reaction to ‘In The Air Tonight’ by Phil Collins became a viral sensation, racking up eight million YouTube views and a whole lot of press. Their take swiftly propelled ‘In The Air Tonight’ to No. 2 on the iTunes chart. The New York Times Magazine even weighed in with an article titled ‘The Racial Anxiety Lurking Behind Reaction Videos’, which unpacked the discomfort of “Black 20-somethings professing love for a white boomer’s pop-rock chestnut”.
The set-up of reaction videos is comfortingly consistent. YouTubers sit (usually in a gaming chair) in modest bedrooms or against blank backgrounds, relying on charisma to keep you watching. The tone is almost uniformly one of open-minded excitement and upbeat humour. Occasionally there’s an emotional hook -- YouTuber PinkMetalHead’s most popular videos, for example, feature Pink Floyd and Johnny Cash bringing her to tears. For everyone watching, the compulsion is getting to experience a song you love through new ears. As attested by the huge view counts, we all want someone to validate our passions.
Dan&Kaz use these familiar tropes to celebrate artists outside the realm of most casual YouTube scrollers. The duo regularly tackles music videos from the new wave of British rappers, including Dutchavelli, Headie One, Aitch and Digga D. However, it was OneFour’s ‘The Message’ that widened their scope.
“We are predominantly known in the UK, but we listen to music from all over the world,” Dan tells Red Bull. “When we heard about OneFour from Australia, we were open to giving it a go. We reacted to ‘The Message’, and the rest is history. The guys are crazy talented, so the music spoke for itself.”
After the success of ‘The Message’, Dan&Kaz have kept up the OneFour reaction videos. Every time, the YouTube comments jump between UK drillers saluting the discovery and OneFour’s Australian fans bigging up their local heroes.
“OneFour was really unique to us personally because we hadn’t tuned in to Australian music before,” Kaz explains. “To hear OneFour, whose music has UK inspiration, but in a totally different accent and context, was really interesting to us.” Judging by the views, their subscribers feel the same way. “The music speaks for itself, but sometimes it’s just about putting it in the right light,” Kaz adds.
“To hear OneFour, whose music has UK inspiration, but in a totally different accent and context, was really interesting to us.”
The Dan&Kaz example is proof that reaction videos can help artists break through online. This is particularly meaningful for an act like OneFour, who rely on the internet to spread their message. Under pressure from NSW Police, OneFour was forced to cancel its first national tour in 2019. The rappers have instead channelled their energy into making high-octane music videos that reliably clock up views in the millions. Search OneFour on YouTube and you’ll also find a trove of reaction videos. This upswell of online fandom has extended to big names in hip-hop. On a trip to Sydney, A$AP Ferg drove out to Mount Druitt to guest on ‘Say It Again’. Since then, OneFour has put in work alongside UK drill trailblazers Headie One and Dutchavelli.
OneFour members J Emz and Spenny tell Red Bull it was a gradual build. “We started seeing more and more reaction videos around ‘The Message’,” J Emz says. “But when we dropped ‘Spot The Difference’, our third proper release, people started to really take us seriously. When Ferg came and did a track and video with us, we knew that there were people who we fucked with who respected our music.”
The rappers aren’t surprised their music found an international audience online. “There’s a place like Mount Druitt in every big city,” Spenny says. “I think what caught their attention was the raw emotion and energy. We speak about things we’ve been through, so we speak with conviction.”
“There’s a place like Mount Druitt in every big city"
November saw OneFour enter a new phase with the release of its debut EP, Against All Odds. While the EP has plenty for drill fans, it’s also a clear evolution of the OneFour sound. With group members YP, Celly and Lekks currently serving prison sentences, Against All Odds hits new emotional notes. Last February, OneFour’s heavy-hearted ‘Welcome to Prison’ spawned various reaction videos. “They’re showing versatility on this, and it’s crazy,” Kaz marvelled on the Dan&Kaz channel. OneFour then capped off 2020 with a rowdy video for ‘Better’, featuring Dutchavelli and Carnage, which once again had the reaction channels hyped.
Fellow Australian success story The Kid LAROI is also a regular on these channels. The 17-year-old rapper, who guests on OneFour’s ‘My City’, is already irrepressibly prolific. YouTubers including No Life Shaq and Mansa Mayne pore over his slick music videos, heaping praise on his every move. The Kid LAROI even joined YouTube live streamer ImDontai for an hour-long reaction to his mixtape, F*CK LOVE. Even for an artist climbing the US charts on his own, a few million extra views can’t hurt.
Elsewhere, Australian up-and-comers such as Hooligan Hefs, HP Boyz and No Money Enterprise have enjoyed a bump from YouTube reaction videos. (Dan&Kaz, in particular, are converts to Australian drill since ‘The Message’. The pair have also since turned their attention to Red Bull's 64 Bars alumni Lisi.) And while homegrown reaction channels are still niche, the likes of DME TV give a platform to the local scene on YouTube and Instagram.
As long as YouTube exists, the reaction videos will keep on coming. For the creators, it’s an avenue to build a brand, make some coin (several top channels have merch stores) and hopefully go viral. For the artists, reaction videos represent a new path to reach fans beyond Spotify playlists and radio rotation. For the rest of us, it’s a natural next click from a music video we’ve played to death. The internet is especially good at amplifying bad energy, but reaction videos are a rare good-vibes-only zone. (Even the comments are uncommonly positive.) It’s possible to frame the phenomenon of reaction videos in contrast to the shrinking relevance of traditional music criticism: why parse an 800-word review when you can skip right to the endorphin hit?
While reaction videos can push an artist to the next level, there’s no way to game the system. “When it comes down to it, the most important thing is making high-quality music and videos,” OneFour’s J Emz says. To earn a reaction, in other words, you’ve got to bring the goods.
Jack Tregoning is a freelance writer for Billboard, the Recording Academy/GRAMMYs and Red Bull Music. He tweets at @JackTregoning.
