{"id":2339480,"date":"2026-03-21T01:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T01:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2339480"},"modified":"2026-03-21T01:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T01:37:10","slug":"rap-band-whatmore-are-the-sound-of-new-york-adolescence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/rap-band-whatmore-are-the-sound-of-new-york-adolescence\/","title":{"rendered":"Rap band WHATMORE are the sound of New York adolescence\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WHATMORE<\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n

Gallery \/ 17 images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On the day before their sold-out show at The Bowery Ballroom, I met the band <\/span>WHATMORE<\/span><\/a> at a rehearsal space in South Brooklyn. The band\u2019s members, <\/span>Cisco Swank<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Elijah Judah<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Jackson August<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Sebastiano<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Yoshi T<\/span><\/a>, trailed into the studio in pairs, still recovering from the previous night\u2019s show in Washington, D.C. Since their self-titled debut album <\/span>WHATMORE<\/span><\/em><\/a> came out last October, the genre-defying group have become known for their fusing of rap, jazz and indie-pop. Their recent series of successes \u2013 going <\/span>viral on TikTok<\/span><\/a>, cultivating a devoted fanbase, booking Coachella \u2013 may feel like it\u2019s happened in the blink of an eye. In reality, it\u2019s been years in the making.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The music collective\u2019s five members first met as teenagers, which explains why hanging out with them feels like all the most comforting parts of reuniting with your high school friend group. They drop inside jokes, riff off each other\u2019s bits and are loose and at ease with each other in the way that only friends of over a decade can be. At one point, Cisco begins likening the group, which has \u201cso many different flavours\u201d, to soup, comparing each of his friends to a different ingredient. This goes on for several minutes before Sebastiano interjects: \u201cAre you done with this bit yet?\u201d When I ask how they all first met, Yoshi deadpans, \u201cin the Russian bathhouses\u201d, without a hint of irony. His bandmates need no warming up before joining in on the joke, chiming in in agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n

The real answer is this: the now 20-somethings met as freshmen at The Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Performing Arts, where they were all instrumental majors. Sebastiano, Jackson and Elijah played the saxophone, Yoshi played the clarinet, and Cisco played drums and piano. \u201cIt\u2019s a corny music school for corny people, but I mean that in an endearing way,\u201d Yoshi says of LaGuardia, also the alma mater of Timothee Chalamet<\/a>, Kelis<\/a>, and other famed names. \u201cThere\u2019s no traditional American jocks. It\u2019s all filtered through some creative thing, so if you\u2019re the lead in the musical, you\u2019re like the equivalent of the cool guy.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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