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Zayy’s Music-Reaction Videos Are the Last Real Thing on Our Bankrupt Internet

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Culture

Zayy’s Music-Reaction Videos Are the Last Real Thing on Our Bankrupt Internet

The content creator talks to GQ columnist Chris Black about his hit video channel, discovering Gen X music as a Gen Z listener, and his newfound love of Wilco and Ministry.
By Chris Black
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This is an edition of the newsletter Pulling Weeds With Chris Black, in which the columnist weighs in on hot topics in culture. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Thursday.

When I am down and out, scrolling Reels endlessly in a crowded Delta Sky Club, I rarely see anything new or even that interesting. It’s a mediocre barrage of the content style we're accustomed to. Maybe it’s “GRWM to spend the day as a 22 year old content creator and runner in Atlanta” or a more simple video of an obese man in a flyover state putting 15 different flavored powders in a giant thermos of water to make it drinkable, it could be your favorite baddie influencer doing bikini sponcon on a Greek beach you cannot pronounce, or to be extra current, guys with topknots doing soccer trick shots on a perfectly manicured camera ready pitch. This is why, when I was served simple, wholesome videos from a Gen Z guy who was listening to bands like Silver Jews, Ween, and Sisters of Mercy for the first time, I was transfixed.

Zayy is a 22-year-old good-looking Black kid from Inglewood, California, who works at a gym while figuring out his next move. For his videos, he sits in a gamer chair, facing the camera, in his bedroom at his parents' house, with a stack of Nike shoeboxes and collectible toys in the background. There is no schtick; he simply listens to bands for the first time. This is not a new construct; these “reaction videos” have been popular since the early days of YouTube. But something about Zayy and his incredible selections, everything from Built to Spill to Townes Van Zandt to Cat Power—ideas sourced from his comment section—struck me. In a cesspool of content, it’s pure of heart. A young guy trying to learn and develop taste with such an open mind in 2026 is not something you stumble across often. I had to find out more, so I sent him a DM on Instagram, and we got on Zoom to have a chat about his ambitions, creating something positive online, and his newfound love of Ministry.

GQ: I started seeing your videos because all my friends follow you. You're interacting with my genre of music. I was like, "Wow, this guy is in deep. He's seeing some shit that people just don't know about.” How did this start? Who put you on? Walk me back.

Zayy: You know how they do suggested videos? I saw Slipknot, and I had never listened to any rock or any kind of music like that.

You said, "This crazy white boy stuff is not coming across my radar?"

Exactly! I saw the thumbnail. They had the masks and everything. So I clicked on it, and that was the first video I posted. I didn't think anything of it, but I checked two or three days later and it had 50,000 views. So then it turned into, like you said, the genres that people have never heard.

Now you're getting into Pavement, Built to Spill, Wilco...

That's where the comments help me a lot. Growing up, I was more 90s, 2000s R&B, Michael Jackson, of course. Now I'm getting into some hip-hop that I hadn’t even heard of, like Souls of Mischief. I hadn’t heard of that because I'm young.

Are you a musician yourself?

No, I really love it, though. I don't know how to play. I don't know how to sing. I just like the way it sounds.

I think the appeal of your videos is that you're so open-minded to it, which is something that we don't think of your generation as being.

Exactly. Everybody’s just set to their same artists, same shows, same clothes…

What have you liked so far? What have you listened to again?

I love Ministry, I can’t lie. Tool. The Cocteau Twins. We got some Sonic Youth, New Order, Boards of Canada… Oh, Wilco. I like Wilco a lot too.

Ministry and Wilco are very far apart.

What I like about Ministry is they place the background noises perfectly. “Breathe” is a song I like a lot. They'll do little screams that echo, but it blends perfectly with the way the music is going.

Have artists that you've talked about gotten in touch with you or tagged you?

Yeah, that's what I didn't expect at all. Wilco has liked some posts. Jack Black, Erykah Badu, George Clinton…

So what's your plan with this? Do you want to monetize it?

I have thought about switching. I’m still on Reels of course, but the thing with YouTube is they're very strict with copyrighted music, so I don't really know how to pivot.

I just think it's so refreshing. We see shit all day long and some of it resonates, some of it doesn't, but I think that there's something so wholesome about it. I can remember hearing these things for the first time when I was 13, 14 years old, and I see you figuring it out. And because you've gotten so specific, it really hits with my peers. I'm 43, so all my homies, this is the shit we grew up with. We're sending it to each other like, "Yo, this guy's deep! He's listening to Cat Power.”

That one came about because I saw the follow from Cat Power. I clicked on the profile and looked it up on Spotify. I was like, "Oh, she makes music!"

What do your parents think?

When it started going up to this extent, they were like, "Wait a minute, this could be something." It’s not guaranteed you're going to blow up but they’re excited to see where it could go.

They're supportive. They're not like, "What are you doing?"

Of course, that's what I'm thankful for.

Parents, especially if they have kids your age, have to consider this stuff because it's part of the world now. Before this started taking off, what was your plan, where was your head at?

Well, I wanted to be an actor. I did my headshots and everything, but I can't really throw myself into something if I'm not passionate. I did background casting, whatever, but over time I was like, "I'm not feeling this." I started looking at trade schools or real estate. It's hard to set myself on one specific career. But, I don't know. Let's just see where it goes.

As long as you're going to dedicate yourself to it, whatever it is, it'll work.

I believe that a hundred percent.

I love what you're doing and I love your attitude.

Thank you. I'm just grateful for the community that I've created there. I don't know if you looked through my comments, but there's no hate. And if it stays like this, it can go to the moon.