Fanum Is Your Favorite Celebrity's Favorite Streamer

Courtesy of vintxhge

"I'm delusionally optimistic,” Fanum says. “I always think everything is going to work out super well.” So far, the buzzing YouTuber/streamer has been proven right. Fanum started his YouTube channel back in 2013, garnering attention with NBA 2K content and especially his lifestyle content New York Problems - Deli Edition, which would set the stage for him to befriend and connect with fellow streamers Duke Dennis, ImDavisss, Chrisnxtdoor, Agent Zero and the buzzing streamer Kai Cenat. Together they’ve formed the formidable streaming collective AMP (Any Means Possible and/or Apply More Pressure), which has slowly but surely taken over culture since its 2019 conception—and changed the narrative and perception of a YouTuber’s fame, popularity and reach in the process. These days you can’t go on Twitch or scroll too long on TikTok without seeing content from at least one of the members.

But whereas most streamers are hugely popular within their own bubble, Fanum and the AMP boys are breaking out into the wider cultural landscape. You don’t have to be on the typical streaming lanes to come across them at this point. Scan Offset’s huge, Michael Jackson-homaging “Fan” music video and you’ll see Fanum and Kai co-starring. Drake’s latest No. 1 hit saves space for a boast on their behalf: “My youngins richer than you rappers and they all stream.” And it’s deeper than an embrace from the rap world, as Fanum and Kai saw this past spring when they were swarmed by fans during a trip to Japan.

Of course, there are downsides to being popular enough to draw masses of overzealous kids wherever you go, as Fanum, Duke and Kai saw in the now infamous Union Square incident, where an impromptu AMP giveaway in New York City incidentally started a riot.

Through it all though, AMP’s influence continues to grow. They’re in a position to try their hand at anything now whether it’s music, acting or whatever else Fanum has up his sleeve. GQ talked to the popular streamer about Kai Cenat’s burgeoning stardom, the misconceptions around the Union Square incident, and AMP going to Mars.

How does it feel, coming from the trenches, to becoming such a popular entertainer? Did you always have an outgoing personality?

I don't even think I have an outgoing personality. I used to say I'm an introverted extrovert, but it's surreal, bro. I was talking to my friend yesterday. He was like, "We're finally seeing it". [We] worked in the dark for so long but after months, years, we’re starting to see it.

Your type of content creation is the kind that wasn’t even around five years ago or so. How did you come to this position?

Where we're from, it’s either be a basketball player or a rapper. If you want to get greedy with it, be a street legend. Some people picked up that crack, I picked up that camera. When I started putting out my videos in the beginning, I was up early in the morning, 5:00 AM playing 50 Cent "Hustler's Ambition" and Rick Ross’s “Hustlin,” that was me all around. I still do that to this day.

It's low key like you have to be a bit delusional. It’s crazy to look back at that old picture of you in the cramped room with the small TV, the Xbox 360, that early set up.

Oh, my God! I have a draft tweet that says, "I'm delusionally optimistic.” I always think everything is going to work out super well. The crazy part about that picture is I was under bunk beds. You can't see it, but it's a bunk bed above me and it was just his turn to get the footage because we were trying to get a specific shot.

When did it click that this shit is serious? And you could monetize off content?

The thing is, I never did it for the money but the bread came in out of nowhere. I remember the first money I made was $8.27, and the first thing I bought was a cup for my mom. It was a cup that would mix your coffee. I thought it was one of the best things ever. The next month I made a little more, then a little bit more and it got to a point where it was like making the same amount of money as when I was working at the deli right on 165 and Ogden. I made my little $800 over there, and then YouTube started making the same amount. But [my mom] looked at it like, That's cool, but go to school.

So, I went and tried school out, and the financial aid people did not give me money till the end of the semester. So I could not afford books for class. I was hopping the train to get to school, doing all types of shit 'cause I'm fucking broke. Every day I'm ducking police. I remember I got caught up one day by the boys [police] for hopping the train going to school, all because I didn't have $2.75.

What was the last straw for you being in college?

I couldn't afford the books. So, I had my phone and I would take pictures of pages in the books at the library with my phone, and then one day it broke. It costs $80 to repair it, and remember I didn't have $2.75 to get on the train. So, now I'm in the crib, my phone's broken, I can't take pictures of the textbooks to do my homework when I get home. I’m thinking to myself “Do I spend all night at the library every day?” I'm going through it. So it’s 8:00 AM the next day, and my mom leaves at 8:00 AM and I usually leave at 8:10, and now it's 8:30 and I'm still sitting on that chair. Now it's 9:00, I'm still sitting on that chair. It's 9:30, I'm still just sitting there like, yo, am I about to... is this how you drop out? I'm going to take that risk. It's 10:00 and I get up…I knew at that moment college was never seeing me again. Every time I think about that shit, it gives me goosebumps because it fucking worked.

You're a visionary in a way. You see something for somebody that they might not see for themselves, like with Kai.

I feel like I can develop anybody, even you. I'm always down to help people. And I don't take anything from anyone. Ask Kai how much he signed [to AMP] for. Zero dollars. I could see greatness, and for Kai, when he wanted to stream, but he kept saying he didn't want to stream from his house because of the way it looked,I told him that’s what helped me when I started streaming. That's authentic, people can relate to that. He started streaming, and he went off.

I'm a giver, bro. But I just keep working, because my dream is to build… I don't know if I want to call it an empire, but more like, just successful people. I enjoy successful people. I enjoy the group we created.

What went into creating AMP?

So, I knew Davis already. I've known Duke since he had 50 subscribers. And I went to his stream and I commented “Keep doing your thing.” At that time I had 2,000 or 3,000 subs. It wasn't anything crazy. Agent Zero had the most subs, it was like holy shit, [this guy] is so professional and well-spoken. That was the original four.

Now how did Chris and Kai get in the mix?

So Chris was the fifth member. I had to go to Virginia once, and we went to see Chris, who was Davis' friend. And Chris was the most interesting. I walk up to this dark house, I go to the second floor, the floor is creaking. I walk into his room. He's lying down editing. He flips the computer around I'm like, what the fuck? This is some fire shit! So I'm like, boom, that's our editor.

Then, fast forward some more, we're missing a little spark. When Kai came, he was shy in the beginning. We did a video at Wal-Mart where we had an outfit competition to see who could make the best fit for under $100 and the ending was missing that punch. So we thought about someone jumping in a little fountain, but nobody wanted to do it.

And as I'm arguing with the bros, Kai just walks in and does it, right through that shit. I was just smiling and clapping. He didn't give any fucks, and that's what solidified Kai’s spot in AMP.

Is it true that FaZe Clan almost acquired AMP?

It was just talks. It never became anything. You know, we believe in ourselves. We talked collectively and it was like do we want to do this now, or do we want to take that risk and be our own FaZe Clan in a way? Because FaZe Clan is the shit. But now it's like, there are other groups [beyond them]. So even if we failed, we still bet on ourselves.

So you’ve formed the streaming Avengers. What is it like living in a house with all these personalities?

You've got to understand, when it comes to AMP, there’s nothing like us. You come into our house, we're there all the time, it's lit. This is our job, but it does not feel like we're working. It's like we're having fun, and it just never stops, bro. Somebody's always doing something in the house.

The fame you guys have feels different compared to other celebrities. It’s new and seems a bit scary.

I don't like the words “famous” and “celebrity.” But I've got to be realistic. I've met people who know more about me than I do myself. For traditional celebrities, they don't show as much or it's like a facade in a way, but we show everything that your typical traditional celebrity doesn’t.

Have you gone on any dates where someone knew too much about you?

That happened to me two or three times, but they never got far. I know when a girl does her research because she's saying things that I've never told her. You went out of your way, which is kind of cool too. it's a little weird though, like you scouted me.

From my perspective, you, Adin Ross, Kai, Jidion, Duke, IShowSpeed, Bruce Dropemoff—guys like you changed the streaming game forever.

We saw other people stream, but we shifted the way streamers are viewed. Before, it was a little geeky. Now you got rappers coming through. You've still got your core streamer, like what a streamer is supposed to be. But we changed the game forever. Like if I drop a song, it's going to have a million views, no label behind it.

Even hearing Drake's line on his new album, “My youngins richer than you rappers and they all stream.” What is it like to get that support from one of the biggest artists in the world?

Just to hear that streamers are making more than your favorite rapper is insane. The one percent of rappers still do make more, but think about MrBeast—he's the one percent of YouTubers. I don't watch pockets, but you do the math, Drake’s right. But our lifestyle isn't about flexing. But I guess that’s why he threw it in there, because flexing is what rappers do. That was a cool shout to us.

Your DMs are probably filled with messages from big-name fans, but the way Drake interacts with you seemed very genuine.

When I met [Drake] in the club, he dapped me and Kai up. He really knew us. Drake watches our content, he’s tapped into what’s going on. his team is tapped in as well. It’s cool, especially from my favorite artist.

It’s dope when someone established fucks with what you are creating. When I saw Offset at the AMP house, his interaction with everyone there looked so fun—he even had you and Kai in his music video.

I fuck with Set. We went to his crib the other day, at 2:00 in the morning, just chopping it up, for like three hours about what we want to do, want to become, and what we want to put out to the world in terms of content because music is a form of content. It was just good energy bro.

There was a lot of controversy about the Union Square giveaway that turned into a riot.

We tried to give back to our community. It's really that simple. It was all good intentions from the jump. I don't know everything else people say. We just wanted to give back, by pouring into our community. Showing little kids that they can do it too by giving them PCs and gaming consoles, to pay it forward.

You have always been open about your mental-health struggles. What’s it like to have supporters come up to you and be open about what they're going through?

We're going to sit down and chop it up anywhere. I've had people cry because they met me. I'm always confused about why, and then I get emotional too. I have these moments where I start talking that real shit on stream, and it may be helping them get through what they're getting through. That's why I will talk to whoever in person whenever we see each other.

There's an ongoing streamer-platform battle between Twitch, Kick and Rumble. Many creators have jumped ship or gotten permanently banned from Twitch. From your perspective, how do you feel about the current competition?

If I'm being honest, if I'm going to make a shift like that, I'm going to study the platform. So if I had gone to Rumble, I think it would have been lit for a day. And then after that, okay. Listen—I've had talks with Rumble. Once I feel like you're not listening, I already know how that goes.

What about Kick, some streamers and creators claimed Twitch was very strict and they couldn't express themselves without breaking TOS [Terms of Service] rules.

From what I see from Kick, looks cool the way the platform is set up, because it's damn near the same as Twitch, But the aura that certain people got the moment they streamed there was weird to me. I feel like n---as started being mean for no reason. I'm like, what the fuck? And I'm studying what’s going on. There were no shots being thrown at me because I'm cool with everybody. But I was noticing that, and I'm like, n---as is stressed out because you've got to build on Kick now?

Do you plan on staying on Twitch, or will we see Fanum on another platform?

As of right now, I'm still on Twitch. I don't think I'm going anywhere. There were some talks with other platforms. It's not really about the money, though. The money is going to come regardless. It's more like, are you going to be okay being over there?

When I interviewed Duke, he said Kai ruined the internet, because every word you guys come up with—like “rizz”—catches fire and becomes oversaturated.

For example, people think I started the whole yelling “God Did!” thing. DJ Khaled started that, but I think I say it differently, so people like my version. It's okay— you've got to let things be what they're going to be.

Originally Appeared on GQ