The cultural influences that ooze out Atlanta have been taken to the next level due to the global accessibility that social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram have allowed for. With it, the driving force behind so many prominent viral trends have come from a generation of Black creatives living in the city.
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Jalaiah Harmon is the 15-year-old Atlanta native that took TikTok by storm with his Renegade dance. The TikTok dance dominated the app in 2019 and still persists as one of the biggest trends across the platform. Lil Nas X hails from Lithia Springs, Georgia, a suburb outside of Atlanta, and he too utilized his music-making abilities and TikTok to springboard into a full-blown music career. Based in Atlanta, Lil Nas X took “Old Town Road” and turned it into a viral sensation into a chart-topping hit.
Youtubers, multi-million followers strong, record their videos in Atlanta and create some of the most viral pieces of content in the Peach State. Copious trending moments are cultivated within the influence community of Atlanta. Some of the city's content creators developed the top viral trends during a casual weekday collaborative session called TikTok Thursdays.
Many followers gravitate towards Atlanta-based influencers for the ways in which they go against what it means to be a “typical influencer.” Unlike their Los Angeles counterparts, Atlanta influencers tend to stay away from the ego-centric, entitlement characteristics that often come with being a sought after influencer. Hard work, attention to details and internet trends, and community seem to be the mainstays for Atlanta influencers, with a little internet drama sprinkled in in-between.
Atlanta’s influencers represent a young, Black, creative community, whereas Los Angeles-based influencers are rarely the same. The disparity lies in the brand deals and sponsorships that these creators receive. Despite setting and leading trends, Atlanta’s Black content creators are offered fewer brand partnerships and are consistently paid less than their white TikTok contemporaries. It's a trend that they are hopping to kick, according to a new report from The New York Times.
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The new generation of talent in Atlanta aims to rid the influencer community of the ongoing disparities that brands have implicated. In recent weeks the Collab Crib and the Valid Crib opened just outside of Atlanta. At the helm of these two creator mansions are all-Black, Gen Zers, motivated to collaborate in the name of going viral and hoisting their status as valid content creators. In doing so, these content innovators aim to solidify Atlanta as the focal point for digital talent.
Valid Crib member Devron Harris told The New York Times, “We’re trying to work together and build each other up as one.” Valid Crib members include Chevy Octa, Richard Bimpa, Jayde Chanda, Xavier Smith, Mataya Sweeting, Demaury Mikula, Exzale Smith, Devron Harris, Shaianne Perkins, Kizzie Merchant, and D’Aydrian Harding.
Content creator mansions are not a new development. They exist from Los Angeles to Mexico, to Russia, to Atlanta, and function as a place of constant collaboration. Most notably, The Hype House, which came together in 2019, helped to perpetuate the influx of content creators and TikTok personalities based in Los Angeles. Members of the Hype House have secured massive brand deals, gone on to sign with mega-talent agencies, started their own product lines, or invested in start-up businesses. “We’re motivated by houses like the Hype House or the Sway House,” Omar Williams Colon of the Valid Crib, tells the Times.
The Valid Crib came together earlier this year as Georgia was placed under stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 20 founding members of the house swapped DMs and messages over Instagram and Snapchat in order to get their mansion off the ground. The group began renting Airbnbs where they would brainstorm as a team what kind of content they’d release next. Finally, in November the group secured their “crib,” a seven-room, suburban home just minutes outside of Atlanta.
Currently, the Valid Crib is still undergoing construction, and shared spaces are awaiting furniture, but members of the group have already begun to move in slowly. “Right now our house is still loading, I’d say. We’re trying to put our own vibe and style into it so when people see it they know, ‘Oh, that’s Valid Crib,’” explains Williams Colon.
Members of both the Valid Crib and the Collab Crib can be credit with many viral moments and dance sensations. O’Neil Rowe, a 19-year-old member of the Collab Crib is credited for his own single “Snappin,” which has made appearances in 20,000 TikTok videos already. Initially, the creator kept getting booted off of the app after he was using songs from DaBaby, Roddy Rich, and Lil Yachty to create dances to.
Content from both creator mansions consistently crossover to other platforms, often appearing on major Instagram accounts such as The Shade Room or Worldstar.
Keith Dorsey, who initiated the founding of the Collab House now manages both Atlanta-based creator mansions. The trailblazer within the content creator community hopes that once the pandemic is over these two homes will serve as a meeting of minds for Black content creators both in Atlanta and beyond. He says the goal is “to keep their promos flowing,” and combat the racism that Black influencers constantly face when securing brand deals or even combatting algorithms that often lead to Black creators having smaller followings. He told The New York Times, “we’re starting a wave that isn’t there for people that look like us. We could have easily moved to L.A., but we wanted to trailblaze something new.”
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