The mere mention of the Hype House dredges up COVID-era memories of sourdough starters and whipped coffee tutorials I’d prefer to let rest. But the legacy of the content group, which included influencers like Charli D’Amelio, Dixie D’Amelio, Larray, Lil Huddy, and more lives on. Mostly because two of its biggest former members, Alex Warren and Addison Rae, were just nominated in the Best New Artist category for the 2026 Grammy Awards.
If you weren’t a loyal follower of all things Hype House, I should note that they weren’t known for making prestige content. Alex was actually one of the founding members of the house, which started in 2019. Its business model was simple: Young creators who’d been gaining traction on TikTok, then still in its nascent era, would move into a Los Angeles mansion where they could convene and create with other people with hype, forgive me.
This group was more focused on utilizing their collective clout to make vlogs and dance videos that, at their peak, drew in millions upon millions of engagements. The Hype House’s moment in the sun was also marked by a couple of cheating scandals, breakups, and parties that flaunted their inability to adhere to standard COVID-19 safety protocols. They even got the Netflix reality show treatment at one point. Suffice it to say, based on the content house’s (respectfully) lowbrow reputation, it’s come as quite a surprise that not one but two of its alums received Grammy recognition this year.
Addison’s journey to the Respected Music Artist territory has been gradual but unrelenting. In 2021, she released her first single, “Obsessed,” just over a year after she’d joined the Hype House. Though I was a loyal streamer, the song wasn’t well-received by critics. Never one to be deterred by online hate (which Hype House fan discourse surely prepared her for), Addison made her foray back into music through a feature on Charli xcx’s hit song “Von Dutch” and followed up a few months later with “Diet Pepsi,” the critically acclaimed (by me) lead single from her debut album Addison, which dropped this past summer.
Alex, who became mainly known for his prank videos in the Hype House, started releasing music while he was still living there. Singles like “Save You a Seat” and “Carry You Home” earned a significant amount of success, but those paled in comparison to the world-dominating wedding video staple that his February 2025 release “Ordinary” has become.
Though they come from boisterous online origins, both Addison and Alex have managed to distance themselves from their days of making lip-syncing videos and pulling viral pranks. I’ve been met with shock on a couple of occasions when I inform people that before assuming the position of America’s chief retail store music artist, Alex was once primarily a TikTok vlogger. But neither has shied away from their beginnings in the press.
“Coming from TikTok to music, I feel like [my music] needs to be neat,” Alex told the Los Angeles Times. “It needs to [make people think], Oh my god, this guy can do this.” He later likened his years in the Hype House experience to a college experience, saying his time there marked “the most formative years in my life… We’re able to look back on it and have a moment of, like, ‘That sucked, but it was also awesome.’”
Addison, on the other hand, considers her years dedicated to influencing to have been a stepping stone to pop stardom—an accessible way to acquire a platform that could propel her to something greater.
“Choice and taste is kind of a luxury in a lot of ways,” she shared on the New York Times’s Popcast podcast earlier this year. “When I was on TikTok and I was posting these things, it was a lot about, ‘How am I just gonna get out of here?’”
“Get out of there,” she did, if today’s Grammy news is any indication. Let Addison and Alex’s journeys serve as a lesson to all: Never let your past define your future. If Hype House members are getting Grammy nods and former SoundCloud rappers are winning mayoral races, who’s to say you can’t completely reinvent your mission and find great success in doing so? Shawn Mendes and Troye Sivan may no longer be alone in the “influencer to legitimate artist” category, but their new company is being highly recognized. Who next from the Hype House will see great heights? Charli’s already made her Broadway debut, but will we see Vinnie Hacker pop up in an award-winning television series? Might Huddy become the next Grammy nominee of the bunch? You can never rule anything out.
