Imagine If Ninja Got a Low Taper Fade

About

Imagine If Ninja Got a Low Taper Fade is a viral audio clip of hyperpop artist ericdoa singing, "Imagine if Ninja got a low taper fade," referring to streamer Richard Tyler "Ninja" Blevins. The audio comes from a freestyle Twitch livestream by ericdoa that took place in January 2024 and went viral on TikTok that month after it was reposted to the ericdoaclips page, inspiring videos reacting to it and slideshows where Ninja is photoshopped to have a low taper fade. In October 2024, a series of memes parodying the meme, Tfue high taper fade, went viral on TikTok. By late 2024, many made memes about how The Low Taper Fade Meme Is Still Massive concerning a quote from Ninja about the meme weeks after its initial virality.

Origin

On January 5th, 2024, ericdoa went live on Twitch.^[1] During the stream, he freestyled for about an hour. Around the 29:26 mark, he sings, "Imagine if Ninja got a low taper fade." The stream was uploaded to his YouTube^[2] channel on January 6th, in which the clip appears at the 25:35 mark, garnering over 4,000 views in six days (shown below).

On January 11th, the clip was uploaded to the @ericdoaclips TikTok^[3] page, garnering over 1.4 million views in a day (shown below).

Lyrics

Imagine if Ninja got a low taper fade,
Imgine if Ninja got a low taper fade.

Spread

The audio gained viral spread on TikTok over the following days, inspiring reactions and memes. On January 11th, 2024, TikToker^[4] @aamxrr posted a video claiming the song was by Frank Ocean, garnering over 240,000 views in a day (shown below). On the same day, TikToker^[5] @sahhyameiii posted a slideshow consisting of Ninja photos followed by an image of a man with a fade, garnering over 400,000 views in the same span of time.

Later that day, TikToker^[6] @.evocator posted a similar slideshow to the song, this time photoshopping Ninja to have a fade, garnering over 46,000 views in a day (shown below).

On January 12th, TikToker^[7] @latenightgamenight posted a video to the song in which a Fortnite player approaches a wall that reads "Ninja with a low taper fade solves all world problems," garnering over 679,000 views in under a day (shown below, left). On the same day, Ninja posted a clip to his TikTok^[8] page where he reacts to a "low taper fade" meme, garnering over 212,000 views in under a day (shown below, right).

On January 13th, inspired by the meme, Ninja got a low taper fade. That day, he posted a video to TikTok^[9] showing off his haircut to ericdoa's original sound, garnering over 5.4 million views in three days (shown below).

Related Memes

The Low Taper Fade Meme Is Still Massive

The Low Taper Fade Meme Is Still Massive, also known as Ninja Dragging the Low Taper Fade Meme, refers to a series of TikTok videos making fun of Ninja for still about Ninja dragging the meme years into the future. Increasingly absurd iterations surfaced, like ones of Ninja as a baby or as different animals in different lifetimes. The memes used a copypasta from a video where Ninja sings "Low taper fade" and then says, "You know what’s crazy? Is that that low taper fade meme is like- Dude, it is still massive." Meme creators made AI voice parodies with the copypasta.

Tfue High Taper Fade

Tfue High Taper Fade or Imagine If Tfue Got a High Taper Fade refers to a series of memes about streamer Tfue getting a high taper fade, referencing and parodying the "imagine if Ninja got a low taper fade" and "Ninja dragging the low taper fade" memes. In June 2024, TikToker @hpf.an posted a meme consisting of a photo of Tfue with a fade over an edit of the "Ninja low taper fade" song in which the lyrics are changed to, "Imagine if Tfue got a high taper fade." The user continued to post memes about Tfue's high taper fade, which went viral that October, inspiring a surge in Tfue high taper fade memes. Many of the memes pretend that Tfue's high taper fade was a huge meme in 2024, similar to Ninja's low taper fade.

Low Taper Fade Art Trend

The Low Taper Fade Art Trend refers to a series of redraws on Twitter / X showing different characters giving and receiving low taper fade haircuts, referencing the Imagine If Ninja Got a Low Taper Fade meme. Characters from video games, anime and cartoons, among other subcultures, were shown in the barber shop setting. The trend started in February 2024.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References