About

Podray's "East River" refers to a song that was originally promoted by the singer on TikTok offering cash in exchange for unique TikTok videos using the song that gained over 20,000 views. The sound clip became popular on TikTok in May 2020 and gained thousands of unique videos within a week.

Origin

On May 1st, 2020, Iowan Sound Records released the music video of PØDRAY's "East River" to YouTube (shown below). The video gained 980 views in six days.

On May 5th, TikToker @lilyoungoldman, the singer from PØDRAY, uploaded a video promoting his song and offering money to those who use it and obtain more than 20,000 views (shown below). The video received over 15,600 likes in two days.

Spread

On May 5th, 2020, many TikTokers began dueting the video and explaining why they need the money. TikToker poopiepeepp dueted the video showing her bank account balance (shown below, left). The video gained over 17,600 likes in a day. That same day, TikToker @lilyoungoldman named @ashleyp the first winner after she gained over one million views for her duet video. He explained that he would only be awarding cash to people with unique videos in future rather (shown below, center). The next day, TikTokers continued to use the song sincerely or ironically. TikToker satisfyingcleans uploaded a video of someone cleaning up their grandmother's ashes that spilled and used the song (shown below, right). The video garnered over 8,200 likes that day.

On May 7th, reporter and Twitter user @TaylorLorenz reposted @lilyoungoldman video saying, "2,400 people have already taken him up on this and it’s become a meme" she then continued in her thread saying, "One woman has already gotten 1.8 million views on her video using this song (here it is). Padre said in a follow up TikTok he’s reached out to pay" (shown below). The sound clip has been used in over 2,400 videos in two days.^[1]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not Available

External References