Mask Off Challenge

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About

The Mask Off Challenge is an internet challenge where participants recreate the 2017 hip hop track "Mask Off" by Future with various musical instruments. On social media platforms, recordings of the musical covers are often shared along with the hashtag "#MaskOffChallenge." In mid-2022, a new challenge of the same name set to the song spread on TikTok where users lip dub to the opening of the track, cover their face with their hand, then move their hand to the side to flip off the camera and move their hand over their face again, often cutting to themselves in a new outfit.

Origin

On February 17th, 2017, rapper Future released his fifth studio album Future, which featured the track "Mask Off" written by Navyadius Wilburn, Leland Wayne and produced by Metro Boomin (shown below).

On March 2nd, Twitter^[4] user @ricelozano tweeted the hashtag "#maskoffchallenge"^[3] along with a video of himself looking into a mirror and taking a pair of sunglasses off to reveal another pair of sunglasses while "Mask Off" can be heard playing in the background (deleted, compilation shown below).

Spread

On March 7th, 2017, Twitter^[5] user @ThatTrumpetGuy_ posted a video of himself playing "Mask Off" on a trumpet along with the hashtag "#MaskOffChallenge" (suspended account). Over the next month, the tweet garnered more than 7,000 likes and 4,500 retweets. On March 24th, YouTuber xoete uploaded a compilation of people playing the tune along with "Mask Off" (deleted).

On March 28th, Twitter^[6] user @Sleazy_WaltP uploaded footage of a woman playing the song on a flute (suspended account). Within one week, the tweet received upwards of 31,900 likes and 20,900 retweets. On March 29th, Twitter^[7] user @_blackDICE uploaded a video of their aunt performing the challenge (deleted, archive screenshot shown below). On March 31st, the hip hop news blog HotNewHipHop^[1] published an article about the challenge series.

On April 3rd, Twitter user @iamezinma posted a video clip of herself playing the violin along with "Mask Off," which received upwards of 22,700 likes and 13,900 retweets over the next 48 hours on the social networking site (shown below). On April 4th, Entertainment Weekly^[2] highlighted several notable examples of the challenge.

Just did the #maskoffchallenge 🤘🏽TheShadeRoom</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/classicalbae?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#classicalbae</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/1future?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">1future #future #maskoff pic.twitter.com/fgO2fgva0z
— Ezinma (@iamezinma) April 4, 2017

On April 19th, YouTuber^[8] Trumpet Music posted a video participating in the trend, garnering over 199,000 views in five years (shown below).

2022 TikTok "Mask Off" Challenge

On August 19th, 2022, TikToker^[9] @the_.bunnie posted a video where she lip dubs to "Mask Off" then puts her hand over her face, movers her hand to the left and pans the camera towards it, flips off the camera, then puts her hand back on her face, transitioning to herself in different makeup and hair, garnering over 143,000 views in two weeks (shown below).

The video inspired a trend over the course of the month, which several of the biggest TikTokers took part in, often using the hashtag "#maskoffchallenge" to collect the videos. On August 25th, TikToker^[10] @cosyfaerie posted a version of the trend, garnering over 8.3 million views in five days (shown below, left). On August 27th, TikToker^[11] Charli D'Amelio did the trend, garnering over 40.6 million views in three days (shown below, right).

On the same day, streamer Pokimane posted a video to TikTok^[12] where she does the challenge, garnering over 6.2 million views in three days (shown below).