DMX Challenge

About

#DMXChallenge is a series of videos in which people showcase their various hairstyles and looks in sync with the lyrics of 1999 DMX rap “What These Bitches Want” featuring Sisqo. During the track, DMX lists various names of women he has had relations with. In 2018, women began using the list to define their various looks in video format but the challenge hit peak popularity in August 2019 on with Twitter users.

Origin

On September 25th, 2018, Instagram user WIGGINIT uploaded the earliest known DMX Challenge video which gained over 2,800 likes in a year (shown below).

Spread

On August 19th, 2019, the hashtag #DMXChallenge began trending on Twitter with hundreds of videos of women showing of their versatility. That day, @lanifeli_ tweeted her variation stating, "Thought I’d do the #dmxchallenge 🤗 I really had a different hairstyle for all 46 names, including the 3 different Kims" (shown below). The tweet gained over 61,700 likes and 16,000 retweets in two days.

That day, Twitter users continued to gather thousands of likes for their #DMXChallenge videos. Twitter user @rhodayyy garnered over 34,700 likes and 8,800 retweets in two days. Many Twitter users and Media outlets like The Root,^[1] All Hip Hop^[2] and Buzzfeed^[3] recognized the challenge as a celebration of black women's versatility and beauty.

Various Examples

External References