Wake Up It's The First Of The Month

Submission 11,804

Part of a series on Playboi Carti. [View Related Entries]

About

Wake Up It's The First Of The Month refers to lyrics from the Playboi Carti song "Sky" which became a recurring meme shared on social media at the start of every month. Many video creators on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, among other video platforms, made wholesome edits with the lyrics, bringing in the new month with dancing cat, dog and cow visuals, among other aesthetics that portrayed optimism. In 2023, many alleged that not using the sound on the first of the month was bad luck. The meme is similar to Lil Uzi Vert's It's Only My Third Day Out Here I Don't Know meme.

Origin

Prior to Playboi Carti, rap group Bone Thugs N Harmony recorded the song "1st of tha Month" in 1995,^[11] which became a recurring homage in rap songs, such as in "First of the Month" by Max B.^[12]

On December 25th, 2020, Playboi Carti released his album Whole Lotta Red with the 19th track on the album being "Sky."^[1] The song's audio was uploaded to YouTube^[2] by Carti's channel on December 25th, gaining roughly 37.9 million views and 487,000 likes in three years. At the song's 0:40-minute mark, Carti says, "Wake up, it's the first of the month" (shown below).

On January 1st, 2021, TikToker^[3] @itsvanburen posted a video with Playboi Carti's "Sky" as the audio, starting at the part where Carti rapped, "Wake up, it's the first of the month." @itsvanburen showed himself waking up and completing other tasks in accordance with Carti's lyrics. Over the course of two years, the video received roughly 2 million plays and 114,600 likes (shown below).

Wake up (Wake up, wake up, woah)
It's the first of the month (Slatt, slatt, slatt, slatt)
I brush my teeth and count up (What? Slatt, slatt, slatt, slatt, woah)

Spread

TikToker^[3] @itsvanburen's video started a recurring trend in which TikTokers^[4] used his sound to make videos on the 1st of every month. For instance, on June 1st, 2022, TikToker^[5] @saucysphinx made an edit with herself, gaining roughly 4.5 million plays and 884,600 likes in one year (shown below, left). On November 1st, 2022, TikToker^[6] @pibegang posted a video of cats dancing to the song, gaining roughly 2.8 million plays and 752,500 likes in one year (shown below, right).

Memetic usage of the song seemingly peaked in July 2023, as multiple TikTokers^[7]^[8] posted videos on July 1st, 2023, which gained millions of views each. By August 1st, 2023, @itsvanburen's original TikTok sound had amassed over 2.1 million posts. Around the same time, many on TikTok^[9]^[10] started to purport that not using the audio on the first of the month was bad luck.