About

Horses Don't Stop They Keep Going refers to a misheard lyrics meme and catchphrase from the Young Thug song "Digits." While Thug originally said, "Hustlers don't stop," his Southern accent led to some confusion and memes when the rap song first dropped in March 2016, with fans debating over whether he said "horses" or "hustlers" in the years since. Memes about the line, "Horses don't stop, they keep going," continued to spread online in the 2020s, seeing a brief resurgence in mid-2025 after a full-back tattoo created by Madrid-based artist and Instagram user @Infrababy went viral online.

Origin

American rapper Young Thug released the song "Digits" as part of his album Slime Season 3 on March 25th, 2016, gathering over 122 million plays on YouTube^[1] in nine years.

The Genius^[2] transcript of the song's pre-chorus lyrics are:

Nigga, hustlers don't stop, they keep goin' (Yeah)
You can lose your life but it gon' keep goin' (Yeah)
Why not risk life when it's gon' keep goin'? (Yeah)
When you die somebody else was born
But at least we got to say…

The earliest known meme parody of the misheard lyrics "horses don't stop, they keep going" is an April 5th, 2016 YouTube^[3] repost of a Vine originally posted by user srb. The video shows a group of galloping horses on a beach set to the aforementioned lyrics from "Digits." The video gathered over 36,000 likes in nine years.

On April 13th, 2016, the Fader^[4] published an article investigating the lyrics of the song and consulted Young Thug's long-time producer and collaborator, London, who confirmed that the rapper said "hustlers" and not "horses."

Spread

On April 14th, 2016, YouTuber^[5] FREQ reposted a video posted by American sound engineer Alex Tumay on Periscope, showing a "Horses" remix of Young Thug's "Digits." The video gathered over 16,000 views in nine years.

On May 7th, 2017, the Twitter^[6] account @bycycle posted a photoshopped image of Young Thug riding a horse alongside the caption, "Horses don't stop, they keep going. #KentuckyDerby." The post gathered over 7,000 likes in eight years.

On August 9th, 2022, Redditor /u/PlayboiCardi9 posted a Bloods vs. Crips meme to the /r/YoungThug^[7] subreddit, pitting "horses don't stop" against "hustlers don't stop," gathering over 800 upvotes in three years.

On January 19th, 2025, Twitter / X^[8] user @mayybemariah tweeted, "nigga horses don’t stop they keep going," gathering over 9 million views and 200,000 likes in five months.

nigga horses don’t stop they keep going https://t.co/98154xYIPb

— toni childs (@mayybemariah) January 19, 2025

On April 1st, 2025, Madrid-based tattoo artist @Infrababy posted an Instagram^[9] slideshow of a full-back tattoo they did on a client. The tattoo read, "Horses don't stop, they keep going," alongside a tattoo rendition of galloping horses. The post gathered over 6,000 likes in two months.

The tattoo was reposted to the /r/YoungThug^[11] subreddit on April 2nd, where it gathered over 3,000 upvotes in two months.

On April 7th, 2025, Young Thug responded to the image of a person getting a full back tattoo of the misheard lyrics "Horses don't stop they keep going," saying, "And that’s y I’m talking with more clarity UY SCUTI… dam bro…" The X^[10] post gathered over 87,000 likes in two months.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References