About

The Mike Epps GIF, also known as Mike Epps Dancing or the Mike Epps Emote, refers to a reaction GIF of comedian Mike Epps dancing in a blue suit and glasses with a group of people wearing all white, sourced from rapper Kendrick Lamar's "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" music video. The Mike Epps GIF became a TikTok meme in mid-2024, along with The Big 3 Emotes including the Kevin Gates GIF and Rick Ross Dancing. They were portrayed as adversarial video game emotes in memes.

Origin

On May 13th, 2013, Kendrick Lamar uploaded the music video for "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" to YouTube,^[1] gaining over 229.3 million views and 1.7 million likes in 11 years. At the video's 3:56-minute mark (shown below), comedian Mike Epps is seen dancing in a blue suit with a group of people wearing all-white.

On December 23rd, 2013, Imgur^[2] user HVSHBROWN made a GIF of Mike Epps dancing in the music video, gaining over 1,300 views in 11 years. Sometime before 2021, Tumblr user gifhop created a Mike Epps GIF with the scene, evident in reposts on Gifer^[3] with the user's watermark (shown below).

The GIF and Mike Epps dancing became a meme in 2024, following TikTok memes that used it. Currently, the first discovered Miike Epps meme with the GIF was posted by TikToker^[4] @strokinmychicken45 on June 20th, 2024, who captioned the video, "Me n bro at his wedding knowing we gotta 2 man after," gaining over 545,400 plays and 120,700 likes in 11 days (shown below).

Spread

Others on TikTok started to use the template going into June 2024, such as TikToker^[5] @nazzz.eq on June 23rd, who captioned it, "Me at bro wedding knowing I was the one sending the messages when he didn't know what to say," gaining over 175,200 plays and 41,700 likes in eight days (shown below).

On June 27th, 2024, TikToker^[6] @shaungotjokes posted a video that joked about increasing his Aura Points by doing the Mike Epps "emote" as well as the Kevin Gates and Rick Ross emotes. Over four days, the video received over 5.2 million plays and 743,700 likes (shown below, left).

Also on June 27th, 2024, TikToker^[7] @lonnajay2 posted a similar video, receiving over 2.1 million plays and 388,100 likes in four days (shown below, right). It's currently unknown which TikToker posted their video first.

Related Memes

Kevin Gates GIF

The Kevin Gates GIF, also known as the Kevin Gates Emote, refers to a GIF of rapper Kevin Gates dancing, flexing and pointing at himself in front of a moving red and white train while wearing a black t-shirt, backward baseball cap and gold chains. Gates is also shown pounding his chest and thrusting both elbows down, doing a double fist pump. The GIF was sourced from the music video for his song "RBS Intro," filmed in the Netherlands. The Kevin Gates GIF was frequently spammed in Instagram comment sections starting in 2024. The reaction GIF then spread on Twitter / X and was referenced in viral TikTok meme videos. The Kevin Gates GIF was often referenced alongside the Mike Epps GIF and the Rick Ross Dancing GIF. All three GIFs were compared and powerscaled in referential content.

Rick Ross Dancing

Rick Ross Dancing, also known as the Rick Ross GIF, Rick Ross Emote or Rick Ross Walk, refers to a viral video and GIF of rapper Rick Ross dancing in a pink polo shirt, a backward black baseball cap and a gold watch in a studio with friends. His dance resembles running or jogging while slowly moving sideways. The original video was posted to Instagram in 2019 by fellow rapper Drewboy. Rick Ross Dancing became a reaction GIF online in the 2020s. In mid-2024, the Rick Ross Dancing GIF was referenced in viral TikTok videos alongside the Kevin Gates GIF and Mike Epps GIF, forming the so-called Big 3 Emotes.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References