They see me rollin' (2006)

Chamillionaire: Ridin’ M/V

About

“They See Me Rollin” is a popular catchphrase derived from the rapper Chamillionaire’s 2006 hit single, <Ridin’. Soon after the single and video were released, people began spoofing the song.

The key to understanding this meme lies not in the popularity of either Chamillionaire or Weird Al, but in the meme’s identity as an incarnation of the “Roll family” such as Duckroll and Rickroll.

Usage

The phrase “They see me rollin’, they hatin’” is often found superimposed over captioned onto or in motivational format using images of out-of-the-ordinary methods of transportation. Either that, or it’s pasted over the top of overweight/disabled people on scooters/wheelchairs.

A unimaginably lengthy video of a truck being chased by police (not as exciting as it sounds

Also Popular on YTMND

Sites using the song will involve either of the following:

• Various people driving a car
• People or cars getting drenched in mud or other dirty substances
• In the rarest occasion, sites may be racist of matter or depict racial profiling.

Read more about Music-related fads on YTMND wiki.

Google Insight for Search

Comparing “They See me Rollin’” and “Ridin Dirty” shows a strong correlation between the popularity of the song, and possibly the meme. If analyzing the search traffic for “They see me rollin” can be used as any indicator for the popularity of the meme, then the meme peaked along with popularity of the song. But since the phrase is a line of lyrics directly taken from the song, it is hard to differentiate between memetic usage and searches by people curious about the original song.

White and Nerdy

Weird Al Yankovic released his White and Nerdy parody video in 2006. After three years, the video has been viewed over 48 million times. It can be seen here, but embedding has been disabled.

If we add the term “white and nerdy” to our Insights Analysis then we see that Weird Al released his spoof just as “Ridin Dirty” popularity was beginning to wane. However, “White and Nerdy” gained more search traffic than even the original, or any other spoofs, and helped to revive interest in both.