Music
After viral hit “Drugs,” Hero the Band is ready for its next act
The alternative rock trio Hero the Band discusses its evolution and previews new single “Drip” at Red Bull On the Record in Atlanta.
Jerramy “Goku Love” Barnett crouches down on top of a wooden bleacher, belting the lyrics to “Back to Myself.” As he kneels in front of fans, they lean in, shouting the lyrics back to him and dancing along. This is the last song in a nearly hour-long set from Hero the Band, a rock ‘n’ roll trio of brothers from Decatur, Georgia, but fans still seem eager for more.
There’s a sense of déjà vu in the performance. The 2019 music video for the song features the band playing amid office cubicles while motivating an overwhelmed employee. In this moment, seven years later, Red Bull has transformed its corporate space in midtown Atlanta into a concert venue for 150 fans and music insiders.
Hero the Band – Goku Love, alongside Nick “Nicki Jupiter” and Justin “Pootie” Barnett – served as the inaugural performers for Red Bull On the Record, an intimate live music experience designed to introduce tastemakers to emerging artists. Grammy Award-winning music executive, Ray Daniels conducted the interview with the band before they performed a series of original and cover songs such as Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild” and Foo Fighters’ “My Hero.” Throughout the high-energy set, the brothers banged their heads, launched their guitars into the air and knocked over a microphone.
Among the attendees was Afya Ibomu, who first learned about the band earlier this year after the comedian Lil Duval posted about them online. “I looked them up on Spotify and just started listening to their music,” she says. “I was like, ‘I love them so much. They are amazing.’”
She’s not the only person who has fallen in love with Hero the Band recently.
In December 2025, the band posted a TikTtok video performing their song “Drugs” – a single that blends traditional rock sensibilities with trap 808s – in front of a graffiti wall. “We are blood brothers from Decatur, Ga. We are a multigenre band,” the text read.“ This is day 1 of 30 days promoting a hit record.” The video received nearly 100,000 views on TikTok. By day 20, the brothers posted a similar video outside of a Waffle House that received more than one million views.
The Barnett brothers of Hero the Band
© Latisha Mariee
The social media videos did more than introduce viewers to an infectious new song. The content, along with the various Atlanta locations where they were filmed, also helped new fans understand the ethos of Hero the Band.
The brothers have been working within Atlanta’s music scene for more than a decade, but “Drugs” has ushered in a newfound sense of excitement and momentum from audiences. As a band, the brothers have spent the past few months building off the hype of the viral single. Now, they’re poised for their next act.
Hero the Band’s new single “Drip,” which drops on August 14, is an angsty offering tailor-made for listeners feeling overwhelmed by life. If “Back to Myself” was meant to uplift the exhausted 9 to 5 worker, “Drip” is designed to validate their frustration. “I’m burnt out. Breaking down. I’m checked out,” the group sings in the chorus before the bridge offers messages of resilience. “Won’t let you dim my light. Every idea I’m taking flight.”
“It’s like the evolution of Drugs,” Nicki Jupiter says to the crowd about the new single. “We are truly having fun right now.”
The band is speaking from experience when they encourage fans to stay the course through their lyrics. “We’ve been planting the seeds and we’ve been giving it water and sunlight,” Pootie adds. “This is the harvest right now.”
“I’m in the music business and I’ve been in it for 21 years,” Daniels tells the Red Bull On the Record audience. “This business is built to break the confidence of artists. This business is built to make you think you can’t do it. And I’ve watched these dudes stay with it.”
As teenagers, the trio performed in their living room, where they convinced their mother to hang Rolling Stone posters of artists like Led Zeppelin, Tupac and Janis Joplin on the wall. The product of a musical family, they harmonized during car rides and played music together at their grandfather’s church.
When they started the band in early adulthood, they originally made R&B music. Their sound has evolved since then, and so has their capacity to collaborate with one another. “Yes, we are brothers, but [we understand] we are running a business together,” Goku Love says. “If I ain’t talking to you, I know you’re going to show up. And we’re going to show face and we’ll deal with it later. You can’t take anything too personal to the point where it gets in the way of your purpose.”
Brotherhood and perseverance remain central to Hero the Band
© Latisha Mariee
We motivate each other, when you get down or somebody starts fizzling off course, there’s always somebody there to put you back on course. That’s the beauty of our dynamic as brothers
“We motivate each other,” Nicki Jupiter adds. “When you get down or somebody starts fizzling off course, there’s always somebody there to put you back on course. That’s the beauty of our dynamic as brothers.”
Singer malia dishon first met Hero the Band through mutual friends, but she quickly became a fan of their music after watching them perform in 2014. “They were literally just the type of guys I grew up with. They played football. They were very athletic. They were fun and relatable, but they’re from my side of town,” she says. They’re from Decatur and they make rock.” The singer and her mom, Dee Dee Hibbler-Murray, became early advocates of the group.
Hibbler-Murray previously worked as the general manager for Organized Noize – the production trio affiliated with the legendary hip-hop collective Dungeon Family – as well as Big Boi’s label, Purple Ribbon Records. She says when she first met Hero the Band in 2014, she was two years into remission for breast cancer and wasn’t interested in working in music anymore. “I was not feeling music, not feeling the industry, not feeling the people, not feeling anything,” she says. “And when I met them and became a part of Hero Nation, they brought back my love for music to the point where it was just like with Organized Noize.”
She never officially joined the band’s team, but she introduced the group to people within the industry, occasionally attended management meetings and even hosted an album release party for them in her backyard. “They’re our neighborhood Jacksons,” she says, referencing the Jackson 5. “They’re the Decatur Jacksons.”
When the mother-daughter duo first saw the group going viral online earlier this year, malia dishon says she had one thought: “Bout f—king time.” The pair says they felt pride seeing the reception the band received from the audience at the Red Bull On the Record event.
Hero the Band hopes to hit the road soon so that more fans can experience their energy live. They’re also working on animated content and planning to release a new album for 2027. “Drip is just the beginning,” Nicki Jupiter says.
The Barnett brothers are clear on one thing, though. Their newfound success is a sign that staying the course pays off.
“I’m just being real, we ain’t changed shit,” Goku Love says. “We’ve been the same.”