WHATMORE'S Electric: A Conversation with Hip-Hop's Next Big Thing

Introduce yourself

 

Cisco: What's good, we are WHATMORE? We are all him. We are all of everything. We exist everywhere. We're omnipresent. And we are Christmas.

 

Yoshi: Merry Christmas. 

 

How did you guys meet and how long have you been making music together? 

 

Yoshi: WHATMORE began when the universe began. The universe was created, and WHATMORE formed.

 

Cisco: We began in year zero and now we are everything. Now we're all 2025. And that's how we began.

 

Yoshi: (We’re lifelong friends from New York City).

 

You guys just dropped an album. What was the process of making it for you guys?

 

Cisco: Elijah usually is on the computer producing. We get a vibe or a concept. We’re like, “Oh we want to make it more indie leaning or hip-hop leaning.” He starts a beat, we hear it. We start writing. Sebastiano usually finishes first. He records, we all record. Then we kind of organize it after. And it's kind of just like a building-block type thing. 

 

Yoshi: We made the whole album in Holly, Pennsylvania, two hours out of New York. We went up there for three trips in three days and just like worked, worked, worked and made the album.

 

What are you guys inspired by when you make music? 

 

Yoshi: Us as WHATMORE we're inspired by the trees, the sand, the dirt, the earth, the sky and the water. We're like Aang from Avatar, all of us. And all the Avatars before us, you know; Avatar Kyoshi, Avatar Roku, the first Avatar who talked to the lion turtles. The lion turtles are very incredibly important for this album. 

 

This is your first time touring as a group. How has it been?

 

Cisco: Honestly, mad fun. A lot less sleep than we normally get, but it's been cool, playing just different cities most days.

 

I was introduced to you guys first through social media. How have you guys used that as a tool to grow your audience and how has that impacted your relationship with your fans? Do you feel like it's made it more personal or less authentic? 

 

Yoshi: I would say it's more authentic. I feel like we all have different interests outside of music. We're making videos, writing, directing and stuff. So it's been nice to actually use social media to kind of get those ideas out there, get who we are as people out there for people to kind of understand and give more context to the music. So that's ultimately been more a personal relationship than just having the music speak for itself, which it does as well. And we keep it authentic, we keep it real.

 

Kinda going off of that, what elements contribute to virality?

 

Cisco: It honestly changes every time. Sometimes you try to make something that's viral and it just doesn't go. And other times we just won't care and post something, and then it'll be viral. So honestly it depends. We just do things that we think are fire.

 

Yoshi: We try to make people laugh. 

 

What goals do you guys have for the next year as a group?

 

Cisco: We all want to meet DJ Khaled and be on a yacht with him. God did. 

 

If all of you were to rob a bank, who would be responsible for each task? 

 

Cisco: You know what? That's a good question, and we do actually have something relating to robbing a bank coming soon, believe it or not. So that's crazy that you called that. 

 

I would be the one to literally go in and just start screaming. No, that would be Jackson. I would be the one who would just walk around with a gun and just look at people.

 

Yoshi: Did you watch One Battle After Another? 

 

Yeah.

 

Yoshi: Cisco would be Junglepussy. I would probably be Teyana Taylor and accidentally shoot somebody. Yeah, I'm stupid. 

 

Who is the best Beatle? Not your favorite Beatle, the best Beatle. 

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Cisco: John. 

 

Yoshi: No, that's so wrong. George. George is the best Beatle. 

 

Cisco: Oh wait, I meant George. Yeah, John is wack. I meant George. 

 

Yoshi: My favorite is Paul, but George is definitely the best one. 

 

Cisco: George is the best. We the best.

 

Anything else you want to add before we end the interview?

 

Yoshi: We're at the Vera Project, you know, I'm just sitting on this couch. It's a leopard print and I'm staring at Jimi Hendrix, just thinking of greatness. And Oasis, the greatest band in the world. After WHATMORE and the Beatles. And yeah, I mean, I'm so grateful to be here. And, you know, Ichiro. Suzuki. Mariners 51, all-time greatest Japanese baseball player. After Shohei. And Yoshi.