The crowd at this 2hollis show is cooler, younger, and definitely better dressed than you. Plushy boots and baggy hoodies, nose piercings, Y2K tattoos peeking from oversized sleeves. Miniskirts, bleached hair and brooding stares. 19-year-olds strut up the street outside the iconic industrial Heaven nightclub in central London, where he’s playing tonight, to join a queue. Those who arrived early are leaning against the railings outside, smoking.
The whole scene feels like a ’90s grunge roleplay. You might expect them to be standoffish, but they seem surprisingly friendly and excited for the show. People weren’t just standing around, avoiding eye contact, scrolling through their phones. They were talking to each other, sharing the same high.
It’s an IRL manifestation of a culture that’s permeated every niche corner of the internet, and since his major label signing to Interscope at the tail end of 2024, it feels like it’s seeping into the mainstream too. Chicago-born and now based in Los Angeles, he’s one of a new cohort of internet rappers whose fame has shifted and spiked in unison with his peers––some of whom, like Nate Sib, have joined him on the road. In the last year, he’s released his third independent record and collabed with Playboi Carti producer Jonah Abraham, a nod to the opium crowd the young star takes influence from. On 4 April, he’ll drop his first major label album, titled star.
Today, when they’re not queuing outside his gigs, the fans in his orbit are whispering on Reddit forums or going in-depth on Discord servers, discussing deleted tracks and hidden projects beyond the five EPs, two mixtapes and three LPs he’s released so far. Stans with 100 followers post theories about new projects, style changes, and new collabs, as if writing the gospel of a new deity. 2hollis has become more than a musician, he’s an idea that fans pour over and dissect: What he looks like, sounds like, and what he might be dropping next.
“People want something different,” Hogan, 19, tells me leaning over the barriers outside the club. He looked like Rambo if he was styled by Playboi Carti: black tank, camo trousers, attitude. “I don’t want to blend in. I want to stand out.”
“He’s pushing the envelope for modern music,” Jake, 19, added, black paint smudged across his eyes, matching the musician’s iconic look. “This is what the rest of the decade’s gonna sound like. He’s bending what Drain Gang, Opium, AG Cook, and SOPHIE built, and making something we’ve never heard before.” As Sookie, 19, says: “It’s about finding a niche where we all feel connected.”
2hollis isn’t alone in this: The journey of his friends fold so seamlessly into his lore that they’ve joined him on the road. Watching 2hollis sculpt beats on Ableton during high school pulled Sib deeper into his own kind of sonic experimentation. A frequent collaborator of 2hollis, he’s quickly becoming a rising star in his own right. He recently sat down with Zane Lowe to share his story. Then there’s rommulas. Featured on an unlisted track, there’s been endless speculation on Reddit about his identity. Fans, as would be expected, have tried to figure that out from themselves.
Backstage, a couple of hours before the show, 2hollis, Sib, and rommulas were lounging on a massive white sofa. They looked exactly like what the crowd outside was trying to channel. Wearing an oversized white hoodie, 2hollis has an ethereal aura, with his long blonde hair making him resemble a pale elven wizard. He’s the emo kid from school who grows up, leaves town, and becomes cooler than the people he left behind.
So far, the 2hollis and Nate Sib tour has been to four continents. The other day in Glasgow, “they were going fucking dummy!” 2hollis says, laughing. “Seoul was insane too. Bro, we had a bomb threat mid-show. They evacuated 1,500 people. We waited three hours, went to the BLACKPINK studio, bumped the whole album, then came back and ran it again. One kid camped out the night before, like 10 p.m., in a tent!”
If 2hollis’s contemporaries are mumbling and seemingly hard-to-read, he’s easy: articulate, polite, and excited to talk about what excites him. When he mentions his fans, his face lights up. “I’ve always admired those cult-like fan bases, super tight-knit, passionate, and invested,” he says. “It’s never just about the music. It’s the art, the culture, the whole vibe…”
2hollis’ journey started when he was 11 years old, and his parents gave him that aforementioned Ableton Live music production software as a birthday gift. He learned how to use it by browsing Reddit, Discord, and YouTube. His early music, released under the alias Drippysoup in 2018, blended glitchcore with Chicago drill. Though he moved on from the name, Drippysoup remains part of his lore, echoed in online forums and on Instagram by his dedicated stans.
“We all dream so big, and it’s not even corny, we just do”
2hollis on his creative circle
World building has been just as crucial to 2hollis’ success as his pulsing basslines and ethereal sound. His friendship with rommulas and Sib, who have been by his side since 18, fuels this creative energy. When they’re together, their bond contributes to something bigger than music.
“It’s very special,” 2hollis says of his inner circle. “We really care about it and we’re all on the same wave. It feels sacred. Whether we’re on stage or in the studio, you can feel the energy. We all dream so big, and it’s not even corny, we just do. We’re always making something that feels huge.” Their shared ambition drives their work. They often joke, “This is gonna be a Coachella banger,” after making a song. 2hollis is set to play the festival for the first time next month.
“Hollis amplifies everything,” Nate Sib says. “We just build off of what we’re feeling in the moment. It’s very playful at first, and then it just progressively grows into something bigger. It’s not even intentional, it just subconsciously enters the music, and we’re like, ‘Whoa, this is literally what we were just doing.’ A lot of it comes from us just adoring certain sounds. Like, we’ll hear something, whether it’s at a stoplight in Australia or some crazy synth, and we’ll geek out over it, asking, ‘How did they make that sound? We end up taking that vibe and turning it into something completely new. It’s a whole journey.”
Even 2hollis’ latest track, “Style,” with its bold club energy, came from pure experimentation. “Me and [producer] Jonah Abraham were just messing around in the studio, laughing,” he recalls. “It came out so fire, we knew it had to drop. But it sat on the shelf for a while, then leaked, and people went crazy online. I always loved that song, especially my verse and the hook. I just think it’s a great club track. So I was like, fuck it, put that shit out.”
But star, the new album, is nothing like “Style.” “It’s its own thing,” he says. “‘Style’ was just a moment, a tiny capsule I washed away. This new album is completely different. I don’t want to say too much, I’d rather people just listen. When they do, it’ll make more sense. There’s a big concept behind it that I’ll explain in time. I’m excited for everyone to hear it.”
Later, in the pit of the show, every flicker of the lights and passing crew member on stage sends cheers and shouts through the crowd. Nate Sib opens with melodic vocals and vulnerability, an emo-rap and pop-funk fusion. His sound feels equally apt for a hazy bedroom playlist or as something you could blast through your AirPods when you’re in a frenetic headspace.
Then, shortly after, 2hollis steps on stage in a flash of light and a leather jacket. The room explodes. Each track sends waves through the crowd. One moment, the audience is swaying to dreamy synths, the next they are moshing to club-line bass, gabba and trance like beats, lost in the experience.
It reminds me of being 17, listening to Sad Boys, Lil Peep, and Suicideboy$. When I went to a Suicideboy$ show, my friend got punched in the stomach, threw up, and lost his glasses in the intensity of a mosh pit. But this is different: no drugs or animosity. The bar is empty. The crowd (the show was for 14+ audiences) was mainly sober, dancing, fully immersed in the music.
“It’s surreal,” I remember 2hollis saying earlier. “I zone out during shows, like a crazy dream. Then I step off stage and think, ‘What just happened?’ Being on stage with my friends… I feel invincible.
“I want to leave an impact through the art, the look, the shows, the discography,” he adds. “Ever since I was a kid, I saw my music being the biggest in the world. I don’t set expectations, but I just know… it’s going to be huge.”
WRITTEN BY: Jamie Styles
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Iris Luz
STYLING BY: Ada Matylda
MAKEUP BY: Martha Inoue
HAIR BY: Gordon Chapples
STYLING ASSISTANTS: Katarina Levinska, Luz Saez, Mary Ravenhall