Ahhhhh reaction channels, they are the worst and best videos on youtube. To those that aren't aware a reaction video is when a person records themselves reacting to someone else's videos.To someone hearing this for the first time it sounds like something straight out of South Park but the video style has become an important part of the online hip-hop world. I have very mixed opinions when it comes to reaction videos when I first found out about them the first thing I thought was that they are just another get rich quick scheme on youtube, and I probably wasn't too wrong. The first reaction I ever saw was
Mom reacts to Skepta, an American mother and son react to the British artist and to be honest, I found the video interesting because it showed the first impression of an older American woman being introduced to UK street culture. It was obvious why that video had the views it had, it was more than just a person reacting to someone else's videos and had an actual novelty because it was an older mum who would normally never listen to the stuff in her own time it also had the son in the video to talk the mum through what was happening and to explain certain slang, it was its own content. Fast forward a year or so to when I first started seeing people react to Australian content and man was 99% of it complete dog shit trash content. I think most people reading this would be familiar with the stock standard hip-hop video reactor, someone on their own in their bedroom, usually with terrible audio reacting to your favorite videos and only having good things to say about it, sometimes they won't even speak at all. I'm not here to just talk shit on reactors but I don't think anyone can deny that a lot of these reactors were going for quantity over quality, they weren't trying to make their own content but instead cash in on as many views as possible with as little effort as possible. A claim that I hear a lot of reactors say is "oh I'm bringing free attention to these video clips, I'm letting people outside of Australia find these clips." but I call bullshit on this claim, there isn't a person in the world who goes to reaction channels to discover new music. People watch reaction channels to see how someone from outside where they are from would react to their favorite local rapper. Take the biggest reaction channel
Zias for example, they started getting real traction after reacting to British rappers and this was because brits wanted to see how American hip-hop fans would react to British rappers. What I'm trying to say is that reaction channels do almost nothing for an artists publicity, there are only really a handful of reaction channels that actually have a following of fans that care about what they have to say.
After the massive success of OneFour earlier this year I started seeing ALOT more reactions online. Bigger channels like Rock Reacts, Dan & Kaz and Leo to the VI started making genuinely entertaining reactions. I think this was because of the undeniability of OneFours videos and it was interesting seeing Drill fans try to wrap their heads around pacific islanders from western Sydney. In terms of OneFour I do think reactors added to the virality of OneFour globally. So we've established that 99% of aus hiphop video reactors are trash and that the only time it's really entertaining is when the original videos themselves are entertaining. This is largely true but I do have a couple reactors I like. As a die-hard Brooklyn drill fan, I like the channel
Prisoners Ent, two brothers from Brooklyn, I like hearing their opinions on Australian and UK music and they actually seem curious about Australian culture. When it comes to a good reaction channel I think that is the keyword,
curiosity, if there is no curiosity there is no substance. One reactor that took curiosity to new heights is Chazza, to be honest, you can't really talk about reaction channels in Australian rap without bringing up the kid. Chazza's first
reaction was may last year and from then on Chazza has created a youtube channel centered around not just reaction but a commentary on the Australian hip-hop scene, this coming from a brit is definitely unique. Chazza's youtube channel has allowed viewers to watch the process of someone getting accustomed to Australian hip-hop and after a year Chazza knows the scene better than many Aussies. It's because of Chazza's curiosity in his first reaction that has led to the channel he has now. Although 13,000 subscribers might not seem like a lot Chazza has the ear of many of Australia's top rappers and his opinion is taken with more weight than any other reactors online. I would argue that Chazza has the most important opinion on Australian hip-hop outside of Australia.
Reactors like Chazza do prove that there is a place for reaction channels but there is definitely a problem with low-quality reaction channels that ruin the name for that small percent of reactors that make interesting content. Chazza's channel has transcended the reaction genre because at this point it's more like an Australian hip-hop commentary page.
