About

Mr. Krabs X Squidward "Secret Formula," also known as the Mr. Krabs AI Rap Song or Kash Krabs' "MR. KRABS X SQUIDWARD – Secret Formula, refers to an allegedly AI-generated rap song in which Mr. Krabs and Squidward from SpongeBob are rapping. The song led to discourse about AI Music despite not being generated with AI. Memes spread on TikTok and Twitter about the song's catchy nature, specifically the bar "They don't know." The song was originally uploaded to SoundCloud in early 2023 by the artists KASH KRABS and Oddwin.

Origin

On April 23rd, 2023, SoundCloud^[1] artist KASH KRABS uploaded a track called, "MR. KRABS X SQUIDWARD – SECRET FORMULA," that gained roughly 350,000 listens and 27,500 likes in two weeks (shown below). The song had the voices of SpongeBob characters Mr. Krabs and Squidward.

Spread

The song first made waves on TikTok soon after its SoundCloud upload. The spread started when one of the creators of the song uploaded a screen recording to TikTok^[2] on April 23rd, 2023 under their username @ayo.oddwin. The video received roughly 370,400 plays and 63,600 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). Others on TikTok started to reference the song in their own videos, such as TikToker^[3] @viisual_ice on April 26th, 2023, who pretended Mr. Krabs was being interviewed about his viral song, gaining roughly 18,600 plays and 1,400 likes in 11 days (shown below, right).

On May 1st, 2023, Twitter^[4] user @biigwes_ tweeted the song, captioning it, "Im cryin bro this song actually go crazy 😭😭💀," gaining roughly 9,100 likes in six days. The song continued to gain traction on Twitter in May 2023. For instance, on May 6th, 2023, Twitter^[5] user @biigwes_ referenced the "They don't know" lyrics in a meme, gaining roughly 20,300 likes in less than a day (shown below).

Also going into May 2023, Kash Krabs started to upload more featuring SpongeBob characters, posting them to SoundCloud.^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References