The Repo Reaper / DaBaby's "SHAKE SUMN"

Submission 3,388

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

About

The Repo Reaper and DaBaby's "SHAKE SUMN" refers to TikToker @only1reporeaper who's a repo man that drives a tow truck and repossesses cars when someone's car payment is past due. He started filming himself repossessing cars and posting them to TikTok in early 2023, predominantly using DaBaby's song "SHAKE SUMN" as his TikTok sound. The virality of his videos led to memes about him, mostly related to hearing the DaBaby song while at work or at home and realizing that he was outside towing one's car away. Many made jokes about being milliseconds late on their car payments or putting their cars in a hard-to-reach place to avoid the Repo Reaper.

Origin

TikToker @only1reporeaper posted his first TikTok^[1] to the platform on July 25th, 2020. However, he didn't gain viral engagement until early 2023. This started with a TikTok^[2] he uploaded on May 9th, 2023, that used a Kodak Black song and showed him repossessing someone's car with text reading, "Towing is LIFE," gaining roughly 431,000 plays and 35,400 likes in nine days (shown below, left). Due to the video's success, he posted similar videos documenting his repo job, such as a TikTok^[3] he posted on May 11th that used the song "SHAKE SUMN" by DaBaby,^[4] gaining roughly 10.2 million plays and 1.6 million likes in one week (shown below, right).

Spread

After @only1reporeaper went viral for using DaBaby's "SHAKE SUMN" as his TikTok^[5] sound, he continued to use the song for all of his repossession videos that posed scenarios in which he was repoing the cars of real people when they were at work, at home or shopping, among other settings. His videos became increasingly viral, evident in a TikTok^[6] he posted on May 12th, 2023, that gained roughly 15.3 million plays and 2.7 million likes in six days (shown below).

As his video's using DaBaby's song gained virality in May 2023, others started making memes with the song "SHAKE SUMN" in reference to them hearing it and automatically knowing that the Repo Reaper was outside towing their car. The first known TikToker to make the joke was TikToker^[7] @extremecantaloupedicer on May 16th, 2023, using the Punisher's 'No, No, No, Wait, Wait, Wait' template and receiving roughly 2.6 million plays and 631,300 likes in two days (shown below, left). On May 17th, 2023, TikToker^[8] @its_rayee posted a similar video about hearing the song while at work, gaining roughly 3.7 million plays and 854,000 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Similar TikToks^[9] persisted going into May 2023 as their plots and situations became more elaborate. Other TikTok^[10] videos showed cars in hard-to-reach places, imagining that they were being hidden from the Repo Reaper. By May 18th, 2023, the TikTok^[5] sound for DaBaby's "SHAKE SUMN" had amassed over 14,900 posts.