About

It's People Dying Who Ain't Never Died Before, also known as It's People Dying That Ain't Never Died Before, or It's Niggas Dying That Ain't Never Died Before, refers to a catchphrase used online after a famous death. The humor stems from its redundancy but also its surprisingly apt observation. The phrase was first used by famed American writer Ernest Hemingway. Its first viral use online was when it was falsely attributed to U.S. President Donald Trump in 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The phrase also stems from AAVE as many Black creators have parodied its use in video skits shared to TikTok and elsewhere. The phrase gained viral usage on Twitter / X going into the 2020s. It became a snowclone as people replaced keywords to fit different contexts, roughly following the phrasal template, "It's People X Who Ain't Never X Before" or "It's People X That Ain't Never X Before." The word "that" was used in most of the meme's iterations. However, using "who" is grammatically correct.

Origin

"It's People Dying Who Ain't Never Died Before" has been attributed to late American writer Ernest Hemingway who was quoted saying it in two different memoirs about him.^[1][2][3]

The phrase garnered viral acclaim when it was falsely attributed to U.S. President Donald Trump. On March 18th, 2020, X^[4] user @kenolin1 tweeted about Trump saying, "People are dying who have never died before," during a press conference about COVID-19, gaining over 16,000 likes in five years (shown below). However, Trump never said the phrase.^[3]

Spread

In the following months, the phrase was used in viral posts. For instance, on December 16th, 2020, TikToker^[5][6] @drfleekenstein posted a Duet about "When old Black folks hear somebody passed away." At the end of the video, @drfleekenstein's character says, "People is dying that ain't never died before." The video was reposted by Twitter^[7] user @AFlyBlackLeftie later on December 26th, gaining over 3,200 likes in a day.^[3] It has since been deleted. However, replies to the aforementioned tweet are still accessible on X^[8][9] (example shown below).

On March 24th, 2023, X^[10] user @arisofmars quote tweeted a post about Donald Trump's ignorance making people laugh, resurfacing the false quote. The quote received over 36,000 likes in two years (shown below).

On April 11th, 2024, X^[11] user @Blike_Dante tweeted, "Niggas is dying who ain’t never died before," gaining over 22,000 likes in nine months.

On October 16th, X^[12] user @solayaismail tweeted a screenshot of messages they received from a friend following the death of One Direction member Liam Payne. The person wrote, "It's niggas dying that ain't never died before. Like I'm not even joking." The post amassed over 440,000 likes in three months (shown below).

The post inspired viral quote tweets in the following days that reacted to the use of "It's niggas dying that ain't never died before." For instance, later on October 16th, 2024, X^[13] user @IfyNwadiwe quoted @solayaismail, saying that he was "going to be thinking about" the phrase "for the rest of the year," receiving over 394,000 likes in three months (shown below).

The phrase became a snowclone in the following months, like in a tweet shared by X^[14] user @glenndivaton on January 8th, 2025, captioning a GIF of actor Charlie Day reading, captioned, "It's people reading that ain't never read before," gaining over 15,000 likes in three weeks (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References