Top 5 Industry Plants
An industry plant is a musical artist that, for whatever reason, is pushed by their record label to the masses, rather than naturally growing a fanbase organically. While not all industry plants make bad music, typically, an artist being an industry plant is a signifier of unoriginal, bland music.
5. Ian
Ian began his rapping career in 2023, releasing a few singles and almost immediately being signed by Columbian Records in early 2024. Shortly after his signing, Ian scored a Lyrical Lemonade music video featuring NFL star Marshawn Lynch, which propelled him to mild popularity. His real breakout in popularity came with the deluxe edition of his first mixtape, “Valedictorian”. The project included the song “Magic Johnson,” which went massively viral on TikTok, and made it to the 25th spot on the Hot 100. Riding the wave of popularity from “Magic Johnson” throughout 2024, Ian was included on the XXL freshman list of 2025, where he delivered his controversial freestyle performance. Overall, Ian’s popularity can be summed up in trending TikTok audios and dance trends. The problem with Ian is that no one actually likes his music, so it’s confusing why he’s gaining so much popularity so quickly and why he’s getting so many opportunities in the public eye. The simplest conclusion is that he is an industry-planted artist.
4. Jack Harlow
Jack Harlow began releasing music in 2015, releasing several EPs and mixtapes which saw very little critical acclaim. In 2020, he released his hit single “What’s Poppin,” which gained popularity throughout the internet, especially on TikTok, where it inspired a massively popular trend that skyrocketed Harlow’s popularity. Since 2020, Harlow has released many songs that gained popularity on TikTok, such as “First Class” and ” Lovin’ On Me”. Even though Harlow had a decently long period of releasing music before his success, he’s still generally known as a “TikTok artist” because of his history of popularity on TikTok, which is common among industry-planted artists. He also has three separate studio albums, all of which have had less-than-stellar chart performances. In other words, Harlow’s only major successes have been singles that gained popularity on social media, without a core fanbase or any critical acclaim. Jack Harlow is almost certainly an industry plant
3. Ice Spice
Ice Spice gained nearly instantaneous popularity in 2022 with her single Munch (Feelin’ U), which went viral on TikTok. After this initial success, she began to collaborate with artists such as rapper Lil Tjay and singer PinkPantheress, eventually climbing the record label ladder and releasing songs with large artists such as Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj, all of which debuted on the Billboard top 100 in their first week. A clear sign of an industry plant is one breakout song with nothing before, as well as relying on collaborations for popularity, both of which are true of Ice Spice’s musical career thus far. This is further supported by the fact that Ice Spice’s only major solo release, her 2023 EP Like…?, fared significantly worse than any of her previously released material. The simple facts point to collaborations with larger artists being a crutch to lean on for Ice Spice, making her a likely candidate to be an industry plant.
2. Benson Boone
Exploding in popularity recently with his hit single Mystical Magical is a clear example of an industry plant. After initially appearing on American Idol in 2021, he quickly left the competition to join the label of Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds. Boone’s debut single, “Ghost Town,” debuted on major Spotify playlists and charted internationally, which is uncommon for beginners with little public history. And with lots of artists taking long periods of time to amass a fan base, it took Boone only a short time, to amass a combined 20 million followers. With this and his music’s clear conformance with current pop culture trends, people are quick to say that he is an industry plant.
Honorable Mention: Tate McRae, Charlie Puth, Sheck Wes, Lil Mabu, Doja Cat, Lil RT, Sombr
All of these honorable mentions on this list have very similar career timelines, with all of them seeming to be likely candidates for an industry plant. Doja Cat is probably the least likely of these artists to be an industry plant, as she has had multiple singles see success and released multiple successful albums in the past few years. Other artists, however, such as Lil Mabu or Lil RT, simply had one song be used on TikTok for a couple of weeks, then fell off near instantly, leaving many to speculate about how they rose to prominence in the first place.
- Doechii
Without a doubt, the biggest industry plant in recent memory is Doechii. For a large part of her career, Doechii has remained largely unknown. From her 2020 debut EP, Oh the Places You’ll Go, to her signing to Top Dawg Entertainment in 2022, she rarely saw the spotlight of mainstream appeal. From there, Doechii released a series of singles over the course of the next three years, the biggest being What It Is (Block Boy), which exploded on TikTok, yet did nothing to propel her to any meaningful level of fame. However, one year later, Doechii released her 2024 mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal to overwhelming acclaim. In months, Doechii went from being a relatively unpopular artist to featuring on songs by Tyler, The Creator, The Weeknd, and Katy Perry. As mentioned before, this sudden burst of popularity and relevance is one of the major tells of an artist being an industry plant, and Doechii fits the description perhaps better than anyone.
