Mo Bamba

Submission 19,438

About

"Mo Bamba" is a hip hop song by American rapper Sheck Wes named after basketball player Mohamed "Mo" Bamba. Initially unnoticed after the release, the song turned into a hit in mid-2018 and later became a popular choice for video remixes. Additionally, memes poking fun at the popularity of the song among the white demographic gained popularity on Twitter.

Origin

On June 16th, 2017, American rapper Sheck Wes released "Mo Bamba", a lead single for his debut studio album MUDBOY. On January 30th, 2018, an official video for the song was posted to Sheck Wes YouTube channel. Within an 11-month period, the video gained over 112 million views.

The song received its name after Orlando Magic player Mohamed "Mo" Bamba, with whom Sheck Wes spend part of his childhood together in New York^[1].

The song was later described as a sleeper hit as it eventually rose to popularity in mid-2018^[2], first entering Billboard Hot 100 chart in September 2018^[3].

Spread

Several bass-boosted versions of the track were posted as the song grew in popularity. On May 14th, 2018, YouTuber Loud Sounds posted a version of the song which gained over 1,6 million views within a 7-month period (shown below, left). On September 3rd, 2018, an "extreme bass boost" version was posted by UndeadHunter Productions (shown below, right).

In September 2018, posts poking fun at the apparent popularity of the song among the white demographic started appearing on Twitter^[4]^[5].

On October 14th, 2018 Twitter^[6] user 5thyear posted a video of Mo Bamba being played at a party captioned "Mo Bamba will take a party from 0 to 100 is less than 3 seconds". The post gained over 43,700 retweets and 141,800 likes over a 2-month period.

Several popular versions of the joke appeared on Twitter in late October – early November 2018.

In meme remixes, the song began seeing use in late October 2018. On October 30th, 2018, Instagram^[7] user crucialemoji posted a clip of a toddler lifting and throwing away a toy barbell accompanied by a bass-boosted version of the song. The edit got over 16,200 likes within a 2-month period.

The song gained popularity among the Instagram remix community, with other users creating similar edits. For example, on November 7th, 2018, Instagram^[8] user utopiaofmemes posted an edit featuring Inhaling Seagull.

On November 11th, 2018, YouTuber 2,650,195 views posted a Mo Bamba meme compialtion. Within six weeks, the video gained over 379,000 views.