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About

"Piraka Rap" is a rap song from the one of the BIONICLE gang of antagonists, the Piraka. The term, "Yo Yo, Piraka!" is the opening lines of the song, and is popularly used as word play on social media websites.

Origin

The song "Piraka Rap" was featured in an winter marketing campaign for the BIONICLE figures, the Piraka. Versions of the song were used in many advertisements, and on Piraka.com, the official website for the LEGO Product. Also, the song was used in a false connect-the-dots game, Draw a Piraka.^[1]

The earliest use of the song was a music video on YouTube uploaded by Vrahno on June 22, 2006. However, the rap or the phrase "Yo Yo, Piraka" didn't spark popularity until circa 2014, when it began to pick up steam in the variety fandom blog, antoinebittersweet on Tumblr, in which he posts a prediction of what the BIONICLE fandom will say tomorrow.^[2]

Spread

One of the first widespread variants of the meme is based on varieties of images on Tumblr. On June 8th, 2015, a blog in dedication to the BIONICLE fanbase by the name of bioniscribbles posted a gallery of GIFs from the Piraka Rap music video, with subtitles of the song's verses on the bottom of the GIF. As of 2016, the post has up to 288 notes.^[3]

Other images also associate with verses from the rap. One of the verses, "Yo Yo, Piraka!" is a one of the most popular quotes from the song, and has been frequently associated with various puns across Tumblr. One of the most popular varieties of this meme is a post on Tumblr uploaded by kopakaskoolkompanion. The post, "Yo Yo, PurAqua!" is a pun for "Yo Yo, Piraka!". The post sparked a multitude of images of the meme, eventually circulating beyond Tumblr^[4][5], which subsequently began circulating on DeviantART^[6] and elsewhere online.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References