Thanks to TikToks like David Dobrik.
Photo: David Dobrik / TikTok
I don’t want to be the one to say it. But is it the Jack Harlow song “Whats Poppin” of the summer? As heartbreaking as it is to assign a bop to a summer in which very few heads peek out of the car windows, shouting letters to the wind and where the bad guys can’t go crazy for their friends on the dance floor, the successes have not stopped. The famous TikTok song, a 22-year-old Louisville native, has been rising slowly but steadily on the charts (not for lack of streams; the music video only has more than 74 million views). But with the release of a remix of “Whats Poppin” featuring DaBaby, Tory Lanez, and Lil Wayne, he jumped ten places to No. 8 last week, earning Jack Harlow his first Billboard Top 10, and six other places to No. 2 on July 6.
“Whats Poppin” was released before the pandemic on January 21, with a video produced by Lyrical Lemonade and directed by Cole Bennett. The song quickly exploded on TikTok, especially thanks to its beat made by Pooh Beatz and JetsonMade. The Glo-Up “Whats Poppin” trend begins with a montage of your younger photos, then cuts to the new, improved, and gloved up when the beat drops, lip syncing “What’s poppin ‘?” like you’re flirting in a bar. It could also be revenge, with captions like “For all the guys who rejected me …” What’s going on now? The glo-up inspo was perfectly in line with our vision for the new year. But just like us course to be doing a Dua Lipa “180 complete”, suddenly the letter “I am going to spend this vacation locked up / My body got rid of those toxins” now means something totally different. And with everyone literally locked inside, the TikToks kept coming. Along with the glo-ups, the “If You Like” trend started, where the boys list their attributes and qualifications and then ask “What’s going on?” There are “Whats Poppin” dances, “Whats Poppin” parodies and more throughout the application.
The song, out of their EP. Sweet actionIt’s a big breakup for Harlow, whose punches have caught his attention since he was in high school. There are over 400,000 TikToks on the track, earning millions upon millions of views and frankly you could be talking about the one that TikTok Charli D’Amelio made him where he says “What’s going on?” To her dog. With its fame, the song has only gained more influence for the rapper, especially since he received co-signs from some of rap’s biggest names at the time; at number 2, he caught up with another favorite on TikTok this year, DaBaby’s “Rockstar” with Roddy Ricch. As it takes over AirPods and radio waves, “Whats Poppin” could go from “SportsCenter, top ten” to # 1.
