About

Laker Brady and Nodding, also known as Nodcore or Nod Theory, refers to an internet trend prevalent on TikTok in which people act like their asleep while standing up, essentially resembling the stance of someone high on drugs like benzos, opiates, heroin and fentanyl, known colloquially as tweakers or geekers. The trend became associated with the song "Kyoto" by Laker, specifically the lyrics, "You can catch me in the alley. Yeah my name is Laker Brady and I'm from the Valley." The trend was started by Laker and other members of the rap collective Shed Theory which includes others like Joeyy and Marlon Dubois. Videos of rappers, influencers and teenagers "nodding" trended en masse in mid-2023, additionally including a song by xaviersobased and videos from TikToker Alpha Pookie. The trend also gained backlash for glorifying drug use and satirizing drug addiction.

Origin

Members of Shed Theory began posting videos online showing them "nodding" starting in late April 2023, surfacing in reposts on Instagram.^[1][2] On May 10th, 2023, Shed Theory member Laker posted a Reel to Instagram^[3] (@nextlevelultimate) in which he was "nodding" and telling the camera that it was his birthday, gaining roughly 73,900 likes in two months (shown below, left). On May 13th, 2023, Shed Theory-affiliated rapper Christ Dillinger posted a similar "nodding" video to his Instagram^[4] (@christdillinger), captioning it, "had a great time at the D Savage concert last night, huge fan of his music!" In the same timeframe, the Reel gained roughly 101,100 likes (shown below, right).

On May 14th, 2023, TikToker^[5] @shedmageddon reposted Laker's Instagram^[3] video, replacing the audio with Laker's song "Kyoto," specifically with the lyrics, "You can catch me in the alley. Yeah my name is Laker Brady and I'm from the Valley." Over the course of two months, the video gained roughly 404,900 plays and 45,500 likes (shown below, left). On May 15th, TikToker^[6] @shedmageddon reposted Dillinger's Instagram^[4] video, again pairing it with "Kyoto." The video received roughly 107,400 plays and 15,300 likes in two months (shown below, right).

Spread

After the two aforementioned videos were posted to TikTok,^[5][6] more videos of Shed Theory members "nodding" were uploaded to TikTok. For instance, on May 23rd, 2023, TikToker^[7] @shedmageddon reposted a video of Marlon Dubois "nodding" with "Kyoto" as the sound, gaining roughly 95,400 plays and 10,000 likes in two months (shown below, left). Soon after, average TikTokers began adding to the trend, such as TikToker^[8] @fouljerm on May 28th, 2023, gaining roughly 956,800 plays and 125,400 likes in two months (shown below, right).

Going into July 2023, TikTokers continued to post Laker Brady videos but started using other songs. For instance, on July 2nd, 2023, TikToker^[9] @alpha.pookie posted a video of him "nodding" with a song by rapper xaviersobased. The video's caption read, "Having a fun time in downtown Portland!" and gained roughly 352,500 plays and 47,300 likes in 11 days (shown below).

The trend also gained backlash within comment sections, specifically beneath Laker Brady videos on TikTok^[10] that seemingly showed people actually overdosing.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References