Young King Dave

About

Young King Dave was the internet moniker of late Instagram personality and rapper David James Nixon. He was best known for his large stature and his videos where he gave observations on life and his use of unique slang terms for marijuana, particularly referring to joints as "doinks." He passed away on May 17th, 2018 due to complications from a collapsed lung.

History

Nixon grew up in Middletown, New Jersey, USA.^[1] He was an aspiring rapper and prior to his viral fame had uploaded several tracks to YouTube (examples shown below).

"I Got Loud" Video

Nixon first attracted viral fame after uploading a video to his Instagram in which he commented that the weather was nice and he was looking for people to smoke weed with. On January 12th, 2017, Nixon posted the video, which has gained over 94,000 views as of May 18th, 2018 (shown below).

The video did not go viral until summer of that year. On July 24th, 2017, Twitter user @millsWhyy uploaded a video in which he remixed Nixon's video with auto-tune, gaining over 10,000 retweets and 18,000 likes (shown below).

pic.twitter.com/xJg03VnUos

— mills (@millsWhyy) July 24, 2017

Two days later, Twitter user @hinduanish tweeted a video of himself making a remix song out of the clip that gained over 490 retweets and 1,200 likes (shown below).

i had to do it pic.twitter.com/akI8o7x2hB

— anish (@hinduanish) July 26, 2017

As the clip grew popular, it began to be parodied in either text posts or video remixes. For example, Brandon Wardell posted a joke using the quote that gained over 250 retweets (shown below, left). Twitter user @leyawn uploaded a version parodying a recent viral photo of a dog in a hot car using the image, gaining 3,500 retweets (shown below, right). The Daily Dot covered the meme on August 3rd, 2017.

Doinks

Nixon is well known for using the word "doink" to refer to marijuana joints and blunts. One of his most popular videos showed him in a field, presumably in the Amish part of Pennsylvania. He tells the camera he's "out here in Amish, smoking big doinks in Amish." The video has been uploaded several times to YouTube, with the most popular upload gaining over 1 million views (shown below, left). The video was parodied in a Trap remix posted by ShadyFIF that gained over 450,000 views (shown below, right).

On September 10th, 2017, YouTuber BenBam posted a compilation of Young King Dave videos, gaining over 142,000 views (shown below).

Death

On May 17th, 2018, Vice^[2] confirmed that Nixon had passed away at the age of 19 due to complications recovering from a collapsed lung. A GoFundMe campaign was set up to help his family with funeral costs and donations to the Make a Wish foundation.^[3] Speaking with Vice, Nixon's friend and manager Chris Clemenza joked that Nixon would be remembered for "doinks."

“They’re gonna remember him for doinks!… He knew how to make everyone laugh and make their day better no matter what it was… He was always so happy and filled with joy, he just knew how to make me laugh.”

Nixon's death was also covered by The Fader^[4] and The Outline.^[5]

Search Interest

External References