Curating Music Discussions Online: An Interview with @drawntothesound

Photo courtesy of Drew Wojtas (IG: @drawntothesound)

@drawntothesound, a music page operated by Midwestern college student Drew Wojtas, has been a fixture of hip-hop Instagram since its inception. Its memes about various rappers took users’ feeds by storm over the pandemic. Formerly known as @yandhi_memes, the username was changed to @drawntothesound in 2024 to escape all unfortunate associations with Kanye West and to highlight a shift towards covering a broader range of musical genres. While still posting memes, Drew has additionally started conducting artist interviews and album reviews.

@drawntothesound was one of the pages in 2020 that got me into checking out new music releases and introduced me to alternative pop artists such as Magdalena Bay and Cowgirl Clue. I had the pleasure of interviewing Drew about the longevity of his page, the current state of hip-hop social media, and comments section comedians.

This interview was conducted virtually in May and has been edited for clarity and brevity purposes.

Interviewed by Dana Badii

Dana: How did you get started with @drawntothesound/@yandhi_memes way back when?

Drew: I first got into music, Instagram-wise, in 2017/2018. I would just follow all these accounts and I wanted to talk about music. My friends, I like them, but they’re not big into music at all. If they like music, it’s not even the music I like. I would follow certain Instagram accounts; shout out @smuckersbytyler/@rapdebates_. The [owner’s] name is Chris, he’s like the OG of music meme lore. I’d always be in his comments talking about music. This was when Kanye [and Kid Cudi] released Kids See Ghosts. I made a New Year’s resolution in 2018 that I’m going to start an account, and I’m just going to see what happens. I just reposted Kanye memes that were already out there. I just wanted a couple friends to talk about Kanye with. And then once I started making my own, over a thousand followers, that was enough to just have conversations and discover more music. That’s also what I wanted to do — discover more music, talk to more people, and get their music recommendations, which would grow my music taste.

Dana: Around 2020, when people started to look at hip-hop meme pages more because we were all at home back then, what did hip-hop Instagram look like?

Drew: It was better. I don’t want to say it’s bad now, but there were more people. Obviously, they had nothing better to do, so they just made content all the time. There were so many more pages and they were all so interactive with each other. It was nice to see. I think artists were more consistently dropping around then. Tyler[, the Creator] drops every two years, so we always had something to look forward to there. But Frank Ocean was dropping the singles “Cayendo” and “Dear April,” The Weeknd dropped After Hours, Lil Uzi Vert dropped Eternal Atake, and even Charli xcx made how i’m feeling now. There were more eventful drops happening around that time. Artists were more communicative because they had nothing to do either; they were on their own.

Dana: I miss those random live streams a lot of artists would do, where they’d be working on music or talking with people.

—

Dana: Because of how much you’ve shared about your life across the years — and truth be told, I remember your Dunkin’ Donuts arc —

Drew: Oh my God, don’t remind me, I remember!

Dana: And your transferring to college arc, too. Do you ever feel like your audience had a parasocial relationship with you?

Drew: That’s why sometimes I slowed down on posting, because it was getting too much. I’m like, “Dang, they know a lot about me.”

Dana: Remember the account that was like “I post every time Drew uses that machine at the gym?”

Drew: Yeah, @drewlegdaytracker. I miss him; he was good. I don’t mind [accounts] like that, it was kind of funny to me. I haven’t seen any other accounts that do creepy stuff — not creepy, but the copious amounts of DMs were a little too much for a normal person. I thought, “Maybe I need to watch what I post and who I attract to my page.” Artists that I like have kind of a young following, who can be in high school. Once 2021 passed, I said, “Some people are in high school, and while I’m only posting for myself and can’t control what they see, I get worried about that.” I got DMs saying, “Yo! You showed me what this word and that word means. I’ve known you since I was a freshman in high school.” I started the page when I was a senior in high school, and people started knowing me more in 2020 when I was a freshman in college. I had to slow down on that and lay low. The parasocialness calmed that down; it was getting too much at times.

Dana: I always read the comments of different rap pages, and I feel like it kind of proves the dead internet theory: everyone is commenting the same thing over and over again. It’s kind of surreal thinking about the longevity of your account.

Drew: Six years, for what I’m doing on Instagram, is a lot, even though I’ve had hiatuses. So many things have happened since my account [started], so many eras. One of my friends would show texts of her friends saying, “Wait, Drew follows you? How do you know Drew?” and they would talk about me and my eras, like “Oh man! People know a lot about me!”

Dana: Have you ever had any in real life fan interactions? Has anyone in your personal life ever come up to you and asked “Yo, are you Drew from @yandhi_memes?”

Dana: When Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red dropped, you were one of the first to defend it.

Drew: I still go back to that post when the album first dropped. I posted the album cover with “WHOLE LOTTA HEAT.” and the comments were just insane and blowing up. Some were defending it, but I still like to go back and see the comments. It got pretty good engagement, like 15,000 likes and over a thousand comments, because people go back to it. It’s like a time capsule, pretty much. 

Dana: About @drawntothesound, what’s it like shifting your account from being seen as a rap meme page to more of a broad source of music journalism? 

Drew: It’s hard because I have a job too, and the Wi-Fi is bad. I can’t post sometimes, even with my data, because I’m in a basement. It’s so infuriating. Even just having a team to schedule a post would be good.

Dana: How have you used what you’ve learned from running a music page within your life outside it?

Drew: I’m better at communicating with larger groups of people. When I first started in high school, I’d be like a hermit. If I had to talk in class, I just wouldn’t. I guess that maybe comes with growing up too, coming out of high school. You’re more likely to just be yourself out there. I think, mentally, the people in my phone and DMs have fortified my mind. There’s a lot that has to happen now to rage-bait me. There were so many things back in the day, and now it’s like in one ear and out the other with criticism. I think I’ve learned to take criticism better and handle it better, even though I still give a little response back, but it’s more witty and cute than my mean way back in the day.

Dana: I remember peak quarantine hip-hop Instagram, when 12-year-olds would be commenting “YB better” on every page.

Drew: It got bad with the recent beabadoobee controversy. She’s already popular, and I would see rap pages be tuned into her because of the memes.

Dana: What’s your take on the current state of hip-hop social media?

Drew: I like the news aspect. @forthespeakers, Camden, is doing a really good job with his branding. The underground rap scene, media-wise, is popping off like crazy. With the underground, people blow up and get engagement because they had that cult following. Yeat, Nettspend, and Playboi Carti are out of the underground, like they’re popular, but the underground pages can still post about them and get engagement. @undergroundsound, @forthespeakers, and @hyperpopdaily get crazy engagement. The memes, of like Tyler, the Creator and Frank Ocean and all that, are kind of dead. Shout out @babykeem.memes, I didn’t know about him until Camden, but he reminds me of me in my prime. Except he’s about Baby Keem, A$AP Rocky, and those types of artists. That era is kind of dead because every page grew up. 

Dana: What’s your most repeated song right now?

Drew: “Butterfly Kisses” by Rico Nasty. Also “Electronica” by Brothel in Belize — just interviewed them. I’ve also been replaying the Bloc Party discography to get ready for my concert in June. That’s probably going to be my favorite concert I’ve ever seen.

Dana: Where do you go to discover new music?

Drew: Shout out Apple Music. I’m telling you, it’s underrated. I always just go through the home section. They have a discovery station where they’ll have music you’ll maybe like, and then they have artist stations. I still use Spotify, though, because Discover Weekly is actually really good. I can usually tell in 30 seconds if I’ll like the song; I’ll just play like the first 30 seconds, then just do that for the whole 30 [songs] usually for Discover Weekly. [Also] just looking through Instagram. Honestly, TikTok is pretty good, too. The only underground rappers I like, I’ve discovered through TikTok and Instagram. 

Dana: I discovered Magdalena Bay and Cowgirl Clue from your stories. When people post a catchy snippet on their stories, it makes me want to check out the full song. For me, it’s also Spotify and random YouTube recommendations.

Drew: I used to be on YouTube more. That’s where I discovered Clairo’s “Pretty Girl,” and beabadoobee too.

Dana: What hip-hop and alternative pop projects do you recommend for newcomers, since those two genres are the mainstays of your account?

Drew: I’m mostly an albums guy. Obviously Magdalena Bay, I recommend. I think any of their work you could recommend and it’ll just be good. I think it’s the future of pop. Charli xcx has blown up into the stratosphere, like in pop, and they go hand in hand. Cowgirl Clue always; I’ll always stand on Rodeo Star, that one. That’s a good album. Hip-hop wise, UK rap actually [has] been really good. I’ll recommend Fimiguerrero, Lancey Foux, Len, and Slew, who is coming out with an album soon, but he has a lot of singles. Since 2022-ish, I’ve just been into J-rock, J-pop. Perfume is the best pop group of all time. I would recommend Japanese Breakfast. Her new album [For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)] just came out. I actually really like that, probably not as much as Jubilee, but it’s still a good album. I like to recommend Vince Staples-type and Earl Sweatshirt-type people. 

Dana: I always struggle with the balance of making people branch out their taste, but I don’t want to scare them.

Drew: I try not to be as pretentious as I see with other [people’s accounts]. Whenever I post a song in my story, I’m just like, “This is this song I’m listening to. You don’t have to listen, I just like the song like that.” 

Dana: How did “Sofia Sunday” first come about? During spring 2021, you posting “Sofia Sunday” was the only way I measured time at a certain point. I’d send it to my high school friend group who didn’t know anything about Clairo’s music.

Drew: I remember just seeing “White Girl Wednesday,” which had “Kelly K” with Playboi Carti, and then “Sosa Saturday.” And I’m like, “Is this like a thing? Maybe I should make like a thing.”  

Dana: Remember “Frank Ocean Friday?”

Drew: That too! But just Sunday was free. “Sofia” is my favorite song by Clairo, so I [could] do “Sofia Sundays.” I made a quick video with dancing and all that. 

Dana: When Sling came out, it was the end of the “Sofia Sunday” era.

Drew: I thought of “Sling Sunday.” It was like a nice, ceremonious goodbye. It still comes back every now and then.

Dana: How does it feel being followed by a lot of artists you like? 

Drew: Kevin Abstract did, and then he went on the unfollow spree with one. He always goes on an unfollow spree whenever he does a promo. I’d rather have him communicate with me in DMs than follow me. Growing up listening to these artists, and [now] they know of me, even if it’s in meme form, [is] pretty cool and a privilege nonetheless. I know they’re just people at the end of the day and I don’t worship them, but I think it’s just pretty cool that my content could branch out even to people that popular. 

Dana: Where do you see your page going forward? You’ve done interviews with Magdalena Bay and Kevin Abstract, and you’ve already started talking about expanding @drawntothesound. What are your biggest aspirations with the page?

Drew: I just think getting a team that has the same core ideas. There’s this page that I like — I’m kind of not stealing obviously — but like using their basis as something I want to do. @the_soundgeist still makes music memes, but they do newsletters and a blog and all that. People care, because they get a pretty decent amount of engagement on their newsletter. So I like that idea. But I also like posting memes. Obviously, it’s a great way to get interactions with people. I changed my page to @yandhi_memes when I was under 200 followers, but I think the first name was like @ye._daily or something. I wanted to talk about music. More discussions and music, that’s kind of what it was back in the day. I was pretty good at that. 

Dana: How do you feel knowing people have bonded in real life over your page?

Drew: It’s so crazy that the internet has that much connection. I think I didn’t really grasp [it] until 2020 where I’m like “I got international people.” I had so many in the UK following. I would post between noon and 3 p.m. or something. I didn’t even think about the UK, where it’s like 9 p.m. or like 6 p.m. [when] they would get my posts and interact with them. I just thought it was all Americans and I thought Instagram would only promote to Americans. The reach of it is crazy.

Dana: Our unofficial tradition within UCLA Radio’s interviews is to ask what your DJ name would be — what’s yours?

Drew: My Xbox name is Drewski OG, maybe that, I like the ring of it. It rolls off the tongue, like “This is Drewski OG on the radio!”

Dana: What would your show be about?

Drew: Maybe I’d talk about a Premier League match day, on a Sunday, and then play some good music. I’d give really good J-pop and J-rock recommendations. Shout out to [Tottenham] Hotspur, they’re in the Europa League finals tomorrow. I could do one with @kanyewestsdad; he’s an Arsenal fan, and Arsenal and Tottenham are big rivals, like UCLA and USC. I think that’d be a good little back and forth, because I think our music taste is similar, too.

Check out Drew’s @drawntothesound Instagram and YouTube accounts here:

• Instagram
• YouTube