About

"Wasted" is a 2018 rap song by musician Juice WRLD featuring Lil Uzi Vert. In August 2021, a nightcore remix of the song by HVKEN and Murkish achieved viral spread in videos on TikTok thanks to its memorable drop, where it's used for rapid-fire montages such as progress videos.

Origin

On July 10th, 2018, American rapper Juice WRLD released his single "Wasted" featuring rapper Lil Uzi Vert (music audio shown below).^[1] The title "Wasted" references the death screen message from the Grand Theft Auto video game series. The YouTube upload alone garnered over 108 million views in four years, while on Spotify, the song accumulated over 404 million streams in the same period.^[2]

Damn, why is she so demonic?
She Medusa with a little Pocahontas
She been lacin' all my drugs or somethin'
'Cause every time that we're together, I'm unconscious
Hold up, uh, let me be honest
I know I saw her put the Percs in my chronic
Smokin' 'til my eyes roll back like the omen
Just another funeral for her, goddamn

On October 26th, 2018, music producers HVKEN and Murkish, working under the moniker Chairmillionaire, released a nightcore remix of the song titled "NIGHTCORE – CHAIR – HVKEN X MURKISH – WASTED (JUICE WRLD)" on Soundcloud.^[3] The track, recognized by a unique, "swirly" drop that follows the lyrics "smokin' 'til my eyes roll back like the old man, just another funeral for her, goddamn," received over 4 million streams in three years (shown below).

On March 22nd, 2021, Twitter^[4] user @slonker_ posted a Schizowave edit based on the song, editing in a clip from a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast asking the producer Jamie to show a clip. The video (shown below) gained over 82,800 views, 480 retweets and 2,300 likes in 10 months, with a same-day YouTube^[5] reupload gaining over 152,000 views in the same period.

pic.twitter.com/yuvG78wOyx

— biggie 𓆏 (@slonker_) March 22, 2021

Pull that shit up, Jamie.

Spread

In the following months, the video received further spread online through reposts.^[6] On July 10th and 22nd, 2021, Soundcloud^[7][8] users sinisayso and ghostggutz made two uploads of this version of the song, with the reposts gaining over 51,200 and 36,600 streams, respectively.

The song did not achieve a viral presence online until August 6th, 2021, when TikToker^[8] @.umbriel uploaded an AMV based on the Black Clover anime series set to the song. The upload (shown below) gained over 1.3 million views and 57,700 likes in six months. On August 17th, TikToker^[9] @lilboniq posted a fancam of Guts from Berserk set to the "Pull That Shit Up, Jamie" version of the song, which gained over 739,100 views and 74,600 likes in the same period (shown below, center). On August 23rd, TikTokers^[10] @.whosjoe_ and @miladyxi made two more uploads of the song to the app (whosjoe_'s video no longer available; miladyxi's video shown below, right).

As of January 2022, three of the four uploads of the track had between 70,000 and 90,000 TikTok^[11][12][13] videos using them, with most examples being fancams and rapid-fire montages of images united by a certain theme (such as progress montages), as well as within "me hating how I look 99% of the time" fad. The TikTok trend achieved peak virality in September 2021, with multiple high-engagement TikToks posted in that period.

Following the viral success on TikTok, several uploads of the song were made by users on YouTube. For example, on August 7th, 2021, YouTuber^[14] Soys made an upload that gained over 148,900 views in six months. An August 17th upload by YouTuber^[15] Top Music 世界 gained over 500,000 views in the same period. A September 5th, 2021, upload by YouTuber^[16] wait0td gained over 3 million views in five months (shown below, left). On October 16th, 2021, Murkish made the official upload of the song to YouTube,^[17] with the video gaining over 460,000 views in four months (shown below, right).

In January 2022, the remix experienced a resurgence in prominence as several memes using it went viral. For example, on January 21st, 2022, gimmick Twitter^[18] account @OutOfContextEvr reposted a history meme about Switzerland made by an unknown user, with the post gaining over 359,000 views, 5,000 retweets and 45,600 likes in four days (shown below).

pic.twitter.com/1Oz4jGvEwy

— Out Of Context Everything (@OutOfContextEvr) January 21, 2022

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References