| Formation | January 4, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Michael Gruen Josh Richards Bryce Hall Griffin Johnson |
| Defunct | February 2021 |
| Purpose | Entertainment |
| Location | |
| Origins | TikTok |
Parent organization | TalentX Entertainment |
The Sway House, also known as Sway LA or simply Sway, was a TikTok content house, consisting of influencers and internet personalities who resided together to produce content. [1] [2] [3]
Formed in January 2020, it was noted for its rivalry with The Hype House, another content house. [4] [5] The group officially disbanded in February 2021. [6]
Sway was created on January 4, 2020 by Michael Gruen via his company TalentX Entertainment, [7] with founding members of the group Josh Richards and Bryce Hall and Griffin Johnson. [4] The group originally resided and produced their content in a rented 7,800-square-foot mansion in Bel Air, Los Angeles. [1]
Cosmopolitan described the house as "eye-roll-inducing", [1] while Business Insider noted it as resembling a fraternity group engaging in controversies and feuds, and having supporters akin to those of boy bands from the 1990s. [8]
Often referred to as "the One Direction of TikTok", [2] [9] the group consisted of nine members – Richards, Hall, Jaden Hossler, Griffin Johnson, Kio Cyr, Anthony Reeves, Quinton Griggs, Blake Gray and Noah Beck. [10]
In May 2020, Hall and Hossler, were arrested on drug-related charges. [1] This incident created instability in the group as it disrupted a business deal for its members. [6] Later, Richards and Hall released a single titled "Still Softish" as a diss track in response to a public feud they had with Hype House member Chase Hudson. [1] [6] [11]
Later in the year, Richards & Johnson took a hiatus from the group due to founding Venture Capital fund, Animal Capital. [1] Shortly after, Hossler left the group to focus on his music career under the stage name "JXDN". [4] [12] Following the exit of Hossler and Richards, the group split into smaller groups, with Griggs and Johnson forming Sway Gaming, [13] and Hall, Gray and Beck remaining as the core Sway group. [6] The three members later moved into a 8,500-square-foot rented mansion for their content production. [14] In August 2020, the city council of Los Angeles disabled the electricity for their house, citing "irresponsible highly-infectious disease spreading", as Hall had hosted a party there a few days prior during the COVID-19 pandemic. [15]
In February 2021, Gruen confirmed to People that Sway House was officially dissolved, [16] [17] [1] stating: "if you view Sway as a content collective that lives together and is with each other every day, then yes, it’s over." [18] Despite disbanding in February 2021, Johnson revealed the group had separated as early as December 2020. [19] Several members of the group continued to work with each other for other projects of Sway, such as Sway Fitness, a workout supplement brand, [20] The Sway Life, a reality television show that premiered on March 29, 2021 on Facebook, [21] and Sway Stories, a game developed by Playco. [22]
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