Friendship, Fame and the Business of Growing Up Online
There is something about putting Fargo, Bruce, Siv and Dom in the same room that almost guarantees a good conversation. Between the jokes, disagreements, music debates and the occasional moment that probably should have stayed off-camera, the chemistry between the four friends has become a big part of what audiences have come to know as New Gen.
But the podcast is only one part of their story. Fargo, Bruce, Siv and Dom are part of a generation of young South Africans who are figuring out how to build careers almost entirely online. Together, they have grown across Instagram and TikTok, while their content continues to pull strong numbers across YouTube and the New Gen Podcast. Those numbers matter, but perhaps what’s more interesting is what they’re choosing to do with the attention.
MORE THAN A PODCAST
New Gen works because the friendship feels real. The boys don’t always agree, they don’t have the same personalities and, increasingly, they don’t necessarily have exactly the same career ambitions either. That difference is becoming part of the story. Each of the four is developing an identity outside of the group while continuing to build New Gen together. Fargo, in particular, is steadily exploring another side of himself through music. An aspiring musician with growing ambitions as an artist, he is beginning to balance the personality audiences already know online with the musician he wants them to discover.
Music is something that connects all four of them. Their conversations naturally move through music, relationships, internet culture and the things young South Africans are talking about amongst themselves. It is part of what makes their world feel at home within youth culture rather than simply being another podcast.
Their careers are also beginning to demonstrate just how much the definition of an entertainer has changed. For this generation, there is no real need to choose between being a podcaster, YouTuber, musician, content creator or streamer. You can build across all of them and allow the audience to follow you from one platform to another.
ENTER KICK
That next platform for New Gen is increasingly becoming live streaming. The boys have started exploring Kick, stepping into a format that is growing quickly internationally and beginning to find a stronger audience in South Africa. For the young men, it is also unfamiliar territory and that might be exactly what makes it interesting.
Podcasting gives them a conversation. Social media gives audiences the best moments from that conversation. Streaming removes much of that structure. When you’re live, there is no edit. The audience is responding while you’re talking, the chat can completely change the direction of what is happening, and the entertainment often comes from moments nobody planned.
In many ways, they’re learning the platform alongside the audience.
FRIENDSHIP MEETS BUSINESS
Behind the content is another reality: these four friends are also learning how to work together.
Building an online career may look effortless from the outside, but friendship changes when schedules, money, individual opportunities and different ambitions enter the conversation.
One person might get an opportunity that doesn’t involve the other three. Fargo’s music career may require him to move differently from the group. One of the boys could find a bigger audience through streaming, while another discovers an entirely different lane.
That is the reality of building a collective made up of four individuals.
The challenge isn’t making sure everybody follows exactly the same path. It is finding a way to let each person grow without losing the friendship and chemistry that made New Gen work in the first place.
And they’re figuring that out publicly.
THE NEXT GENERATION OF ENTERTAINMENT
Perhaps that’s why the New Gen story feels particularly relevant right now. There isn’t an established blueprint for the careers Fargo, Bruce, Siv and Dom are building. The South African creator economy is still evolving, streaming is opening another frontier and young audiences are increasingly deciding for themselves who they want to watch rather than waiting for traditional entertainment platforms to tell them.
New Gen sits right in the middle of that change.
And there is a new level of intention behind what comes next. The four have recently entered a new management chapter, bringing greater structure around both New Gen and their individual careers as they look to turn the momentum they’ve built online into a sustainable entertainment business.
That means thinking beyond the next viral clip or podcast episode. The focus now is on building their individual brands, developing new opportunities across entertainment and streaming, nurturing Fargo’s ambitions in music, and ultimately creating careers that can grow alongside, rather than at the expense of New Gen.
The podcast gave audiences an introduction to four friends with something to say. What they’re building now feels bigger: four individual careers, one collective and a new generation of South African entertainers learning the business while helping shape what it could become.
The mic may have introduced them, but it certainly not where their story ends.