Kanye East Flies South: Mike Manik Explains Why He Dropped His 'Fortnite Balls' Character And Moved To Cameo

Back in 2020, aspiring rapper Mike Manik posted a video to TikTok where he read some of Kanye West's best tweets while doing a spot-on impersonation of the eccentric rapper. He kept the act going over the next year as a bizarro-world version of West named Kanye East, seeing a viral hit in January 2021 where he asks the viewer, "who was in Paris?"

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6923338530429193477

Manik's eerily similar voice and appearance to West was quickly noted by TikTokers, so Mike kept it up. He even started rapping like West in his famous "Rap Your Comments" videos, where he would go live on TikTok and rap whatever the viewers commented no matter how shocking or tasteless. He was banned for this multiple times, but it also lead to his most viral content, a short audio clip called "Fortnite Balls" that everyone and their TikTok-addicted mother lip-dubbed to. Before long, Manik had a dedicated following on the platform where he kept on being East and kept on getting banned, releasing comedy skits and songs in-between it all. He even open a Cameo account, where he gained further success playing the Kanye East character.

Considering all this, it came as a bit of a shock to some of Manik's followers when he announced that he would be dropping the character on TikTok to pursue new things, namely a music career. While Kanye East will still be available on Cameo, TikTok is now living in a post-East world and the platform is noticeably quieter for it. We connected with Manik over Zoom to find out exactly why he made this decision and to talk about his new singles, "Old" and "Who's Mike Manik?"

MI: When did you decide you wanted to drop Kanye East on TikTok?

A: I had been thinking about doing this for a while. I knew at some point I was gonna have to change my name, 'cause I wanted to build my own brand, but I didn't plan for it to go this fast. What happened was, I started making a lot of money. I was doing cameos, I have royalties from music. I'm doing YouTube now, so I'm getting a lot of money, and I seen this article, it said something about Kanye [West] suing kids for Yecoin. I got to thinking, "What if he saw me and he was like, yo, you're saying you're Kanye East, you're making all of this money." I might get sued by the actual Kanye. It sped the process up for me. I knew that I had to change it at some point and I just felt like it's early on in my career now to do that, it's got the least amount of loss. I don't really have that many people that really know who I am yet. I can use this as a platform to build. So I just figured it was the right time to do it.

MI: What was the major driving factor in dropping the character?

A: It was mainly me making all of the money and not wanting to get sued by Kanye. I didn't wanna keep going on with the Kanye name and build it up to something really big to the point where it was gonna be hard for me to drop it. So I figured now that it's still growing, I can cut it in recoup every loss that I had, so it was just me trying to protect myself.

MI: Did the change-up come as a shock to your followers?

A: I think I made it pretty clear throughout my whole content that I was never gonna stay in that one particular thing. I think anybody that's followed my content throughout the whole Kanye East thing, I'm pretty sure they saw that I was not sticking to that, that one formulaic, big success, "Rap Your Comments" thing, because TikTok really didn't like "Rap Your Comments," so I had to keep evolving and doing different things, because "Rap Your Comments," they was putting the stop on it, every time I got on, I was getting banned. They were giving me 14-day bans. I think the highest I had was a 30-day ban, so like they were really starting to ban me a lot.

MI: Were there any misconceptions about quitting at first?

A: I had to change my content and I let it be known. I think a lot of people knew, but the TikTok algorithm doesn't show your videos to everyone, so I don't think everyone knows. I don't think everyone knows how bad it was for me. I'm getting banned all the time, some of my videos not being seen because I was shadowbanned. Because of the whole Rap Your Comments things and stuff that was being said, hateful comments that were being made. So that's a lot of reason, I think people they had a misconception that it was because of the fans that I did this. No, it was not because of the fans. It wasn't because anybody was trying to keep me in a box, I was never gonna be… I was never gonna stay in the box

MI: How did you make the announcement and did you get lots of backlash for it?

A: I do this thing called Goof Fridays on my YouTube channel. And I actually did it in the music video. It's called, "D-T-BALLZ." It was like a, "I'm not gonna do this anymore, rest in peace Kanye kind of thing." I got a lot of backlash, man. A lot of people were confused as to why I was doing it. Again, that's the issue because everybody doesn't get to see every video that I put out, so everybody doesn't know. So everybody just thought that I was just giving up on the character or anything like that. No.

MI: So is this the end of Kanye East for good?

A: Kanye East is actually still available on Cameo. I'm actually quite successful on Cameo with the Kanye East character. Three thousand fans on there, subscribers. I've almost made like $60,000 so far on Cameo. So it's been very lucrative. I haven't given up the character. It's still available.

And it helps me also, to be able to do different things. I won't be considered this niche meme character. I could do anything. It's Mike now. That's another beneficial thing, 'cause being Kanye does kind of keep you minimalized in a position, 'cause it's like you're gonna have to do Kanye content. They're not gonna find anything else funny if you're always stuck in that. So it gives me a chance to do the other things, take other lanes, do more comedy. Things that's not really Kanye oriented.

MI: Were you nervous to make such a core change to your content? Did you see it as somewhat of a "dangerous move?"

A: I don't think that that's a dangerous move. I think that's a parody. I think the dangerous move is actually calling myself Kanye East or making that my stage name. Bringing him out as a character as a parody, I think that's completely fine. And of course, I'll do that. I really had the idea of fighting with myself. Having Mike Manik versus the Kanye East character that blew him up. Kind of like poking fun at him like, "Yo, you see what you're doing right now, you're not getting as many views. Come back to me, bro." Kind of like something funny like that.

MI: People loved "Rap Your Comments." Is that series gone for good?

A: "Rap Your Comments" isn't dead. I just have to find a place for "Rap Your Comments." TikTok is not rocking with "Rap Your Comments." Instagram is not rocking with "Rap Your Comments." I actually do "Rap Your Comments" on Fridays on this little app called YouNow. A lot of people don't know about it. It's a smaller app, but there's not that many rules in the app that bans you from typing stuff in chat. So it is definitely the best place right now for me to do "Rap Your Comments." And I'm doing that Fridays, 5 o'clock, Eastern Standard Time, on the YouNow app.

MI: Are there any rumors or misconceptions about moving the character that you want to clear up?

A: There are a lot of people out there that are just saying that I just dropped the name because I didn't wanna be the meme anymore. I had fun being the meme. It wasn't a bad experience for me. The bad experience for me was more along the lines of getting banned, not being able to grow my content on the channel because of "Rap Your Comments," things like that, but it wasn't the character. I had fun with the character. I told everybody when I first started, when I changed my name, it was for fun. It was all for fun.

MI: What were some of the initial reactions you were seeing to the news?

A: I feel like I killed their super hero. [laughter] I really do. It wasn't the intention. And nothing's really changed. It's just finding a place for the content. The content is risky. It's borderline risky. People come in there and it becomes dark humor at that point. It's not something that TikTok wants to do. They actually changed their community dialogues again. And I'm probably gonna have to leave TikTok now, because of the guidelines there. The guidelines are like really strict now, so.

MI: What was the main problem with "Rap Your Comments?"

A: I'm gonna say there are some people in there that really take it too far and they say some things, very hurtful things. I think what it is, is people come in the room and they don't understand what's going on and they just see these words come up on the screen and they overreact and they go and they report. Once TikTok gets that report, they're gonna start screening everything. They'll screen your videos, they'll screen your lives, they'll ban you constantly. I think they do it to protect the kids and stuff that's there. That's why they allow you to report. I think you should separate it, man. Separate it so there's a TikTok for teens and a TikTok for adults and YouTube does it. TikTok should be able to do it.

MI: What's your opinion on what the real Kanye West is going through right now with the divorce and Pete Davidson drama? Did that have anything to do with dropping the character?

A: Oh, man, listen, I didn't even know that was gonna happen. That was just a coincidence. I'm getting the flack for it. I get so many messages like, "Oh, Kanye what's wrong? Why are you going crazy? Oh man, you've changed your name. Oh, the meltdown is real." The jokes are hilarious. I always hear what Kanye do without even subscribing to Kanye. I don't even follow Kanye on his social media or anything like that, but I always know what Kanye is doing.

I really think he's embarrassing himself with Kim. I think he needs to calm down right now and just do what's best for his kids, man. I think Kim has shown that she has no interest in getting back with him, he should just move on. He's really taking it wrong by posting everything on social media. That's just my opinion. All of the stuff he's posting on social media is cringe right now. Trust me, believe me I know, because I was posting cringe stuff too.

MI: What are you trying to do now on TikTok? What do you want to show people with your new content?

A: I'm trying to show my skills, the real me, the things that I can really do. Because a lot of people don't know that I can really rap. They've heard "Fortnite Ballz." Some of them maybe have heard "Sussy Sussy." But there's still not many people that know about "Weed Lullaby" or I just dropped a new track, "Who's Mike Manik?" So a lot of people don't know that I really have skills, they just thought that it was some meme. So I'm trying to do that with the "Goof Fridays," releasing a new music video every Friday. I got a mixtape in the works, trying to just showcase some skills.

MI: What can you tell me about "Who's Mike Manik?"

A:I recorded "Who's Mike Manik?" in Florida in the studio. I've known my man, Johnny Neptune, for a long time. He's been producing music for a while. He's been wanting me to hop on one of his tracks for a minute, and I just did it, the beat was fire. We did it together in the booth. I just really wanted a song that was kind of like in the same vein as "Hi, my name is Slim Shady." Just like an introduction. Like, "Yo, I'm Mike Manik, hi." Let people know who I am. Introduction and then gonna show them what I can do.

It was definitely a segue from East to Mike Manik. 'Cause, a lot of people didn't even know that Mike Manik and Kanye East were the same person. I had a lot of people asking who Mike Manik was. That's where "Who's Mike Manik?" came from. 'Cause, there was a lot of people who's always asking me, "Who's Mike Manik?" "Who's Mike Manik?" "Who's the guy that did 'Fortnight Balls'?" It's the same person.

MI: What have the reactions to your new content been like?

A:People are actually really excited about me releasing new music, they hear the music that I'm doing, they've gone to Goof Friday and they seen the music videos. They're really excited for the potential to see what I'm gonna do next. That's what I wanted to build. I wanted to build that excitement of, "Yo, What is he gonna do next?" 'Cause this Friday, I'm dropping something real crazy. Something real serious. And I just wanted to build up to that point. To get people to start listening and then to drop that bombshell on them

MI: What can you tell us about the new mixtape?

A: We're making one from scratch. [My producer is] making all of the beats from scratch. We're coming up with different ideas of how we want it to sound. We kind of want it to be this kind of like a tribute to '90s. That old-school kind of vibe trying to bring it to like the new school, too, like kind of incorporate it both together. So it's gonna be something that I hope everybody likes. I'm going to put my whole soul and energy into this and really show people what I got beyond the meme. Beyond the Kanye East stuff.

MI: Are you going to keep comedy a part of your music?

A: Yeah. I mean, it was inevitable, man. I think every artist wants to be taken seriously. I think we like to be silly, we like to be goofy. But we wanna make people think as well, but I tell people, "I'm not gonna stop doing the silly music. I'm still gonna do that too. I'm gonna do both. I'm gonna make you laugh, then I'm gonna make you think." We can do both. You don't water yourself down. It's whatever you want it to be. And people do it, anyway. Look at Drake. Drake, if he would have stayed in one lane, he wouldn't have been the pop king right now.

MI: Are you going to miss anything about being Kanye East on TikTok?

A: I really don't feel any different, like Mike and Kanye is kind of the same person. I really wasn't being anybody but myself, the loud screaming and the hype-ness maybe. I'm not gonna say I'm gonna miss that, I'm still doing that, I'm doing that every day as Kanye East on Cameo. I really haven't lost anything. [chuckle] He just moved to a parody. He is now a parody, instead of that being my main moniker, he's now a parody.

MI: If you had to sum it up, why should people listen to Mike Manik?

A: People should just ride with me for the same reason they've always ridden with me. Because I'm just a real person. I'm not like these other social media influencers, man. If someone wants to talk to me, I'm gonna talk to you. Like I said before, I think I said this in my last interview, there was a lot of social media people that I looked up to that were just real snooty, and I said to myself, "Yo, if I ever got big, I was never gonna be that snooty, I was just gonna be real." I think I've been that, I've been genuine with my fans, I haven't told any lies or anything to my fans. I just wanna be real. So if you want real and you want genuinely good music, come check your boy Mike Manik, y'all. Or not, it's up to you.

You can follow Mike Manik on TikTok @mikemanikmusic on YouTube at Mike Manik and order a Cameo from him here. You can also catch him at 5:00 PM EST on YouNow for "Rap Your Comments."