Druski

About

Druski, also known by his former username Druski2funny or his real name Drew Dawit Desbordes, is an internet comedian, influencer, meme creator, video creator and hip-hop/rap producer who became known online in the early 2020s for his online presence that started on Instagram in 2017. Druski is best known for his sketch videos that are predominantly made for a Black audience. As he grew a large following, he collaborated with many rappers and internet comedians, eventually creating his record label Coulda Been Records. Various meme formats were inspired by Druski including his "What Do You Mean by That?" video from Instagram Live and the "Druski Shrug" reaction image that's often paired with the phrase, "Personally, I wouldn’t let that slide."

Background

Drew Dawit Desbordes was born on September 12th, 1994 in Maryland.^[2] However, Druski grew up in Gwinnett County, a suburban area north of Atlanta, Georgia. Druski's father is a United States Air Force Academy graduate and is a Wall of Honor nominee at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.^[3] His mother has a Master of Science in Public Health and once worked at the CDC.^[3]

Druski almost didn't graduate high school, but eventually attended Georgia Gwinnett College before transferring to Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA. He then dropped out after two semesters.^[3]

Online History

On October 2nd, 2017, Druski posted his first-ever sketch video to Instagram,^[1] gaining roughly 73,200 views and 2,600 likes in six years (shown below, left). The sketch was parodying rappers who flex when they don't have much to flex. Druski continued posting Instagram content in 2018 to his account druski2funny, and by November 2018, he'd amassed roughly 5,200 followers.^[4] Before November 2018, his most viral Instagram^[5] post was uploaded on November 19th, 2018, and was a lip-dub of Dexter's Laboratory, earning roughly 47,100 views and 4,700 likes in five years (shown below, right).

On November 18th, 2018, Druski reposted a sketch video to Twitter^[6] and received viral engagement, earning roughly 2.5 million views and 108,300 likes in five years (shown below). The tweet is the first still-accessible tweet on his account. He likely deleted all prior tweets after the video's virality.

Thereafter, Druski's momentum online as an internet comedian grew, snowballing into his later influence in the hip-hop world started by his guest appearances in numerous rap music videos. This started with his cameo in the Lil Yachty, Drake and Lil Baby music video for "Oprah's Bank Account," uploaded to YouTube on March 9th, 2020 (shown below, left). On August 14th, 2020, Druski appeared in the music video for Drake's song "Laugh Now Cry Later" (shown below, right).

Coulda Been Records

On December 12th, 2020, Druski posted to Twitter,^[9] "COULDA BEEN RECORDS WILL BE LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT 😳," earning roughly 16,800 likes over three years. In the week that followed, Druski held rapper auditions for his new music label on Instagram Live and uploaded the funniest clips from the auditions to Twitter and Instagram. On December 17th, 2020, Druski tweeted^[10] a photo of rapper Jack Harlow wearing a Coulda Been Records t-shirt, earning roughly 27,600 likes in three years (shown below).

On January 10th, 2023, Druski posted a video to his YouTube^[15] that was a new audition video for Coulda Been Records held in New York City. The roughly 20-minute-long video received roughly 2.4 million views and 92,000 likes in two weeks (shown below).

Kyle Rogger

On September 20th, 2019, Druski posted to Twitter^[7] a video with the caption, "How Whiteboys talk to Eachother 😂😂😂😂😭😭😭," that parodied white frat boys, specifically one character named Kyle Rogger. Over the course of four years, the video received roughly 530,600 plays and 23,600 likes (shown below).

Following

By January 26th, 2023, Druski had amassed roughly 5.4 million followers on Instagram,^[11] roughly 1.1 million followers on Twitter,^[12] roughly 356,000 subscribers on YouTube^[13] and roughly 4.8 million followers on TikTok.^[14]

Related Memes

What Do You Mean By That?

Druski's "What Do You Mean By That?" refers to a reaction and viral video of Druski saying "What do you mean by that?" to a rapper on Instagram Live in late 2020. The video spread to YouTube, Twitter and TikTok going into 2021 and 2022, being used as an exploitable to question sus content and concepts within memes.

On December 5th, 2020, Druski was hosting an Instagram Live, inviting people to come on and talk with him. Among the guests was the rapper Grillz who sported dreads and gold grills while talking to Druski about some events in his life including multiple gang-related instances of violence and theft. Druski continued to provoke him until Grillz started singing about "taking lives." Druski then stopped him and said, "Take lives … What do you mean by that?" while leaning in, smiling and stroking his beard. When posted as the seventh video in an Instagram^[8] carousel post that day, the video received roughly 527,700 likes over the course of two years.

Search Interest

External References