Kevin Gates, Rick Ross and Mike Epps Emotes

Submission 286

Part of a series on GIF. [View Related Entries]

About

The Kevin Gates, Rick Ross and Mike Epps Emotes, also known as The Big 3, refer to three GIFs and videos known as the Kevin Gates GIF, Rick Ross Dancing GIF and Mike Epps GIF that were referenced together in viral TikTok videos and TikTok memes in mid-2024 that equated them to video game emotes that one could "hit" in real life. The GIFs centered on rapper Kevin Gates flexing in front of a train, rapper Rick Ross doing a running dance in a pink polo shirt and comedian Mike Epps dancing in a blue suit with a group of people wearing all-white sourced from Kendrick Lamar's "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" music video. The emotes trended on TikTok and Twitter / X in June and July 2024, inspiring fan edits and recreations predominantly using the drill rap song "BECKHAM" by Dee Billz x Kyle Richh x KJ Swervo x Kai Swervo.

Origin

On March 16th, 2024, TikToker^[1] @joefromyoutube posted a video of himself doing the Kevin Gates GIF, captioned, "POV: You're that one Kevin Gates Gif," gaining over 344,200 plays and 48,400 likes in three months (shown below, left).

The format of the abovementioned video inspired other TikTokers^[2] to recreate the Rick Ross Dancing GIF in June 2024. On June 26th, TikToker^[3] @400unna posted a video, reading, "Kevin Gates GIF & Rick Ross Rock Are On A Generational Run Rn," receiving over 1.6 million plays and 320,300 likes in five days (shown below, right). The video used the song "BECKHAM" by Dee Billz x Kyle Richh x KJ Swervo x Kai Swervo as its TikTok sound.^[4]

TikTokers then added the Mike Epps GIF to the discussion and labeled the three GIFs "emotes," also using the song "BECKHAM" as the TikTok sound. The first videos to do so were posted on June 27th, 2024. One was shared by TikToker^[5] @shaungotjokes who joked about the emotes boosting his Aura Points, receiving over 5.2 million plays and 743,700 likes in four days (shown below, left).

The other video was posted by TikToker^[6] @lonnajay2 who called the GIFs "THE BIG 3," receiving over 2.1 million plays and 388,100 likes in four days (shown below, right). In her video's caption, the TikToker wrote, "repost cause tiktok pwm😪," alluding to her video being the original, although unconfirmed.

Spread

TikTokers continued to make memes about the three emotes going into mid-2024. For instance, on June 30th, 2024, TikToker^[7] @hopecoredaily01 posted a video meme that used each emote, gaining over 1.3 million plays and 345,800 likes in two days (shown below, left).

Also on June 30th, TikToker^[8] @n6llyy shared an edit using each emote, gaining over 247,800 plays and 57,400 likes in two days (shown below, right).

On June 30th, 2024, X^[9] user @hibsidnolic tweeted one of the edits from TikTok, captioning it, "This is the funniest video on the internet idc," gaining over 71,000 likes in two days (shown below).