About

I Gotta Put Me First refers to a clip from the television show Empire in which the character Cookie dramatically affirms her self-importance, repeating "I gotta put me first!" The sound later became a popular sound on TikTok and was often paired with comedically overdramatic skits about times when one feels the need to be a little selfish.

Origin

In season 5, episode 18 of Empire, aired May 8th, 2019,^[1] the character Cookie, played by Taraji P. Henson, tells Lucious, "The time of ride or die is over. I gotta put me first! I gotta put me first…"

On December 29th, 2021, TikTok user @citiboiisrt isolated the clip and paired it with a caption reading, "When your job ask why you callin out," gaining over 278,000 likes (shown below).

Spread

Over the following two weeks, the clip became a popular sound and was paired with skits portraying someone being overly dramatic about being selfish in a situation. For example, on January 4th, 2022, user notchrisolsenn used the sound to describe when they want to decline a FaceTime call, gaining over 1.6 million likes (shown below, left). On January 11th, user hello.momo_ used the sound in a video showing her cat forcing itself under he blanket cover, gaining over 1.2 million likes (shown below, right).

As of January 13th, 2022, the sound has been used in over 81,000 TikTok videos.^[2] It has also been covered by numerous media outlets, including Seventeen,^[3] We Got This Covered,^[4] and Her Campus.^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References