Is Bobbi Althoff a hustler, an industry plant, or simply lucky?

• Celebrity interviewer Bobbi Althoff has become one of the most polarizing influencers of the year.
• Many in the entertainment industry are shocked that she's landed interviews with stars like Drake.
• She's been criticized for her interviewing style and has been accused of being an industry plant.

Bobbi Althoff's swift ascent to fame over the past year has raised eyebrows.

In less than a year, the MomToker-turned-interviewer secured sit-downs with celebrities such as Drake, Tyga, J Balvin, and Offset. Clips from her podcast, "The Really Good Podcast," have gone mega-viral on TikTok, and she's rapidly amassed over 6.8 million followers on the platform. 

But her rise has been plagued by criticism about how she conducts her often deadpan, awkward interviews. She's faced accusations online of patronizing guests, frequently Black entertainers, and taking opportunities from music journalists who have tried to land interviews with these sought-after celebrities for years. 

Althoff has also been criticized by social media users who say she treats Black celebrities differently than white ones during her interviews. Detractors pointed to a recent interview with Scarlett Johansson, in which she helped the actor fix her hair and seemed more personable, comparing it to her sometimes combative interactions with Black stars.

"So she's touching all over Scarlett Johansson and not being standoffish, but around black people she's frightened and dry," one person wrote on X. 

Others have accused the 26-year-old mother of two of being an "industry plant," a term for someone who presents themselves as independent while having corporate or industry connections. They point to Althoff scoring an interview with Drake within months of launching her podcast as proof. 

Insider spoke with a PR expert and a hip-hop music journalist to understand why Althoff has become such a polarizing figure and to dissect her meteoric ascension. 

A representative for Althoff did not respond to Insider's request for comment on these criticisms.

Althoff claims she landed big-name stars through hustling, but an expert says that's unlikely

In Althoff's version of her path to fame, she paints herself as a hustler, someone with a vision who isn't afraid to chase it. 

But Eric Schiffer, a veteran crisis-PR expert and the chairman of the Los Angeles-based agency Reputation Management Consultants, told Insider that while Althoff's rise to fame could be explained by strategic prowess, the more likely scenario is that she's involved with a well-connected talent booker. 

"Hollywood is a relationship town," Schiffer, who's handled crises for major A-list celebrities, sports stars, and Fortune 500 companies, said. "Many times people develop friendships with people that they work with and partner with, and so they will help each other at times and helping in a case like Bobbi might be bringing one of their stars in their stable to do her show."

Althoff has largely remained quiet on how she's landed interviews with stars like Tyga, Jason Derulo, and Charlie Puth — though in an August interview with Cosmopolitan, Althoff claimed those bookings were the product of hard work and hustle.

"When I started my podcast in April, I wanted to do interviews with celebrities, but I didn't know how I was going to get there," Althoff told the magazine.

The influencer said she made a TikTok offering $300 to anyone who could successfully connect her to a celebrity for the podcast. What sounded like a shot in the dark delivered real results, she said.

Althoff told Cosmopolitan that after she posted that appeal, she locked down the comedian Rick Glassman. Afterward, another stranger encouraged her to reach out to the comedy influencer Funny Marco, who responded with a yes to Atlhoff's surprise inquiry. 

Funny Marco was Althoff's first major breakthrough. His interview in June spawned several viral clips and created a buzz around Althoff's dry style, which brings to mind Nathan Fielder's surreal comedy "Nathan For You" or Aubrey Plaza's sour "Parks & Recreation" character, April Ludgate. (In the comment section of one of her early clips, she wrote that she dreamed of meeting Plaza). Her humor doesn't involve punch lines or extended skits. Instead, it's about how her subtly antagonistic demeanor and awkward pauses elicit perplexed reactions from guests.

Still, there were hints of the backlash to come — some viewers said she copied Funny Marco's style of humor, which is similarly absurdist and leans into uncomfortable physical comedy.

Althoff told Cosmopolitan that Drake reached out to her after he liked one of her clips with Funny Marco. 

The rest is history — or is it? 

'It's like you got the opportunity we've all wanted, and this is what you do with it?'

In her interview with Offset in September, Althoff took on a decidedly antagonistic approach. At one point, she acted as if she didn't know who the rapper was. She also claimed the rapper's team reached out to ask her for the interview, to which Offset said, "Let's not cap about that."

At another point, she asked if he'd previously lied about his income. "I feel like you're clocking my bag and I don't appreciate it," Offset replied. 

Journalists were quick to critique the interview, along with many other sit-downs she's had, pointing out how poorly she conducted the conversation.

Responding to a clip of Althoff's interview with Offset, the Emmy Award-winning sports journalist Jemele Hill took to X, writing: "I don't find these types of interviews particularly enjoyable or interesting."

"Instead, it just sadly points out how real hip-hop journalism has been practically erased," she added. "Some of the media teams behind these artists aren't interested in them sitting down with credible people who know how to tell stories and do quality interviews. Then they wonder why an artist's real story goes untold, neglected, or that artist is misunderstood."

Kia Turner, a hip-hop journalist who worked at Okayplayer for over two years before members of its editorial staff were laid off in September, told Insider that it feels like a "slap in the face" to see Althoff use her access to create mediocre content.

Turner marveled at the fact that Althoff had landed an interview with Drake, who she said is notoriously impossible to book. "Drake was the one that everyone was like, excuse my French, how the fuck did you get this?" Turner recalled after seeing the interview.

"It's like you got the opportunity we've all wanted, and this is what you do with it?" Turner said, adding that she believes Althoff's whiteness played a "big role" in her fame, allowing her to gain more attention.

"There's a larger conversation within the hip-hop community about Black journalists and the access that we're given, the people that we are allowed to speak to, versus people who are non-Black or people of color," she said.

Turner isn't the first to speak on the differences in opportunities Black journalists get in entertainment coverage. Discussions about Black reporters having the same access as their white counterparts during press junkets and celebrity interviews hit a fervor pitch in 2018 when Black reporters across different publications spoke to IndieWire in August of that year. Most recently, during the 2022 release of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," Marvel Studios and Disney faced criticism after Black journalists and creators alleged they were excluded from the Hollywood world premiere, Decider reported in October 2022.

Althoff doesn't consider herself a journalist

Turner said she doesn't consider Althoff's work journalism — but apparently, neither does Althoff.

In the interview with Cosmopolitan, Althoff didn't have any pretenses about being a journalist.

"It's not a real interview," she said. "I'm not trying to get hard-hitting information about you — I'm not trying to uncover anything. It's just a conversation. It's really a parody of a good interview."

She told the outlet she thinks of herself more like "an entertainer and comedian" and claimed she doesn't do any preparation before interviews.

Yet Schiffer, the PR expert, told Insider it's unlikely she goes into interviews completely cold.

"Anyone that believes that she doesn't do any prep is not understanding how hard she works," Schiffer said, adding that from what he's seen of Althoff, she appears to be "strategic" in preparing for her show in order to deliver it "in a way that feels natural."

"While she may not have a prepared list of questions, she certainly is gonna know her target," he said. 

Stars might agree to Althoff's podcast to reach a new audience 

Turner said she understands the allure of sitting down with Althoff because her interviews go viral with lots of engagement, but the content doesn't provide much value.

"I'm not surprised that these publicists want their clients and want their talent to go to someone like a Bobbi," Turner said. "But at the same time, I don't think they understand that you're not offering anything new to the artists nor the media space by going to someone solely like Bobbi."

She added that it might come down to a celebrity's publicist thinking it's a worthwhile opportunity.

Schiffer expressed a similar sentiment: Celebrities might say yes to an interview because it could mean connecting with a bigger or younger audience. Based on Schiffer's experience representing Hollywood stars, he said the A-listers and their teams would likely have stipulations for Althoff, like vetting questions beforehand or ensuring that certain topics remain off the table — stipulations that journalists would typically laugh at.

But based on her chaotic interviews, in which she often pokes and prods at her guests, it seems as though those boundaries aren't being established or honored. 

Turner said it's fine to have jokey interviewers like Funny Marco and Althoff in the creator space, but she said there's a lack of opportunities for respected music journalists who take their craft seriously. Following the layoffs at Okayplayer, the music-hosting platform Bandcamp conducted massive layoffs, with its editorial operation being one of the hardest-hit departments, according to The Guardian. Both came after Paper Magazine, a NYC-based independent magazine that covered music, art, film, and fashion, laid off its entire editorial staff in April (it was later acquired and re-launched in September, per Women's Wear Daily).

"You have to have these narrators," Turner said. "Because if not, what are we gonna look back on in 20 years?"