Keke / "In My Feelings" Challenge

About

"In My Feelings" Challenge, also known as #InMyFeelingsChallenge, #DoTheShiggy and #KekeChallenge, is a hashtag used to catalogue participants of the social challenge in which people dance like the comedian Shiggy to the Drake song "In My Feelings." The fad gained much online notoriety during the summer of 2018 due to people performing the challenge by getting out and dancing alongside moving cars.

Origin

On June 29th, 2018, Drake released the song "In My Feelings" from his album Scorpion.^[1]

That day, comedian Shiggy posted a video of himself dancing to the song on his Instagram ^[2] account. The post (shown below) received more than 4.4 million views and 559,000 likes in two weeks.

Spread

Several days later, people on Instagram began posting videos of themselves doing the same dance on Instagram. On July 4th, professional football Odell Beckham Jr. posted a video of himself doing the dance on Instagram.^[3] The post (shown below) received more than 1 million likes and 7 million views in less than one week.

Two days later, on July 6th, the YouTube account Now That’s Trending posted a compilation of participants of the challenge. The post (shown below, left) received more than 741,000 views in five days.

On July 9th, YouTuber Guava Juice published a video of himself doing the dance in an inflatable suit. The post (shown below, right) received more than 450,000 views in less than one week.

On July 10th, Shiggy appeared on the Hot 97 radio station to teach host Ebro how to do the dance. When posted on YouTube, the video (shown below) received more than 102,000 views in 24 hours.

Car Videos

In July of 2018, several videos spread of people jumping out of moving cars and dancing alongside them as part of the #kekechallenge. Most of the videos in this style that got popular were of various Fails, however. For example, user @arianataylorr posted a video of herself successfully doing the challenge until her friend stops the car, causing her to crash into the passenger door (shown below, top). User @baabsxx posted a video of herself failing to do the challenge, gaining over 25,000 retweets (shown below, bottom).

The spread of the challenge led the National Transportation Safety Board to advise against doing the challenge.^[4] Nicholas Worrell, Chief of Safety Advocacy at the National Transportation Safety Board, said:

“Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in the U.S. Hopping out of a moving vehicle or jumping into lanes of traffic to show your dance moves is foolish and dangerous – to you and those around you… There’s a time and place for everything, but our nation’s highways and roadways are no place for the #inmyfeelings challenge.”

The Birmingham, Alabama^[5] police also warned against it.

Law Enforcement

On July 24th, Bloomberg^[6] reported that Egyptian officials announced that performing challenge in public could result in a fine and up to one year in prison, if the participant blocked or disrupted traffic. Additionally, the reported that prosecutors in Abu Dhabi ordered the arrest of three social media influencers for posting videos of the challenge.

On July 27th, the National Transportation Safety Board tweeted about a blogpost about the challenge. They wrote,^[7] "#OntheBlog we're sharing concerns about the #InMyFeelings challenge while driving. #DistractedDriving is dangerous and can be deadly. No call, no text, no update, and certainly no dance challenge is worth a human life." The post (shown below) received more than 25 retweets and 40 likes in three days.

On July 29th, Bloomberg published the story in a video tweet. They captioned the video, "You could face a year in jail for doing the #InMyFeelings challenge." The post (shown below) received more than 2,100 retweets, 3,500 likes and 500,000 views in 24 hours.

You could face a year in jail for doing the #InMyFeelings challenge https://t.co/Uv34K9OQb0 pic.twitter.com/ODrhxVMBVV

— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) July 29, 2018

Antwan Mims' Tarmac Dance

On August 13th, 2018, the WOODTV news station uploaded footage of the murder suspect Antwan Mims, who had appeared on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, performing the dance while being escorted by police across a tarmac (shown below). Mims was arrested on charges related to the murder of two men that occurred at a party in Michigan in late March 2018.

The day, the Michigan news sites WNDU published an article about the incident, which included a statement from Benton Harbor Director of Public Safety Dan McGinnis:

"It's almost like it was a joke. He's taken two people's lives."

In the coming days, the news sites Vice^[9] and The Daily Dot^[8] published articles about the video. Meanwhile, a Moments page titled "Suspect on FBI's most wanted list does the In My Feelings challenge while escorted by police" was published on Twitter.^[10]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References