DJ Khaled "GOD DID"

About

DJ Khaled "GOD DID" or "They Didn't Believe In Us, God Did" is a recurring catchphrase of DJ Khaled's who often says it in his inspirational videos, surfacing en masse in 2022 on his Instagram. Videos of Khaled saying "God did" went viral across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, among other video platforms, and were used in memes on each platform. Many of the memes were fancam edits, often including a video of a man who looked like Khaled twerking underwater. Other memes simply added a text caption to the video. In text, the phrase was mostly written in all caps, sometimes with the Speaking Head emoji, appearing like GOD DID 🗣️🗣️.

Origin

On March 3rd, 2022, DJ Khaled posted a photo to Instagram^[1] of him smoking a cigar, including the phrase, "They didn’t believe in us GOD DID !" in his caption. The post gained roughly 55,700 likes in one year and is currently the first known instance of him using the phrase in a post.

In the days that followed, he posted two videos to his Instagram^[2][3] in which he reiterated the phrase. The first Instagram^[2] video was uploaded on March 4th, 2022, and showed him with his then-recent award from the XXL Awards, gaining roughly 32,200 likes in one year (shown below, left). On March 6th, 2022, he posted the second video to Instagram,^[3] showing himself with two cheeseburgers and saying, "They didn't believe in us, God did." The video gained more engagement, receiving roughly 276,800 likes in one year (shown below, right).

Spread

DJ Khaled's March 6th, 2022, Instagram^[3] video was reposted to YouTube on March 7th, 2022, by YouTuber^[4]
Only Media Things, gaining roughly 63,200 views in one year. At the same time, Khaled continued posting videos to Instagram^[5][6] in which he said, "They didn't believe in us, God did," putting an extra inflection on "God did" by cocking his head (examples shown below).

On July 6th, 2022, Khaled announced on his Instagram^[7] that his then-upcoming album was going to be titled GOD DID. Going into 2022, Khaled's videos were made into memes and edits on platforms such as TikTok. For instance, on October 31st, 2022, TikToker^[8] @antermedit posted an edit that received roughly 1 million plays and 78,900 likes in eight months (shown below, left). On December 14th, 2022, TikToker^[9] @notalonzo1 posted a similar edit, gaining roughly 68,100 plays and 2,500 likes in six months (shown below, right).

DJ Khaled "GOD DID" memes became increasingly viral and commonplace in May 2023, following a surge of TikTok videos with over one million plays each. For instance, on May 22nd, 2023, TikToker^[10] @bernerd_ posted an edit with a humorous caption, gaining roughly 1.2 million plays and 225,600 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). On May 26th, 2023, TikToker^[11] @shedntfw._.juju posted a similar meme, additionally including a video of Khaled twerking underwater in the edit, receiving roughly 2.8 million plays and 618,100 likes in 10 days (shown below, right).

The video of the man twerking underwater was not actually DJ Khaled. Instead, it became associated with DJ Khaled after a viral Instagram^[12] post from DJ Akademiks in May 2023.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References