Standing On Business

About

Standing On Business is an AAVE slang phrase that means "taking care of business," or defending oneself, especially under pressure. The phrase grew popular in 2023 after comedian Druski made a series of sketches using the phrase. Rapper Drake quoted the phrase in the song 'Daylight' in his album For All The Dogs in October 2023, leading to renewed interest in the term. In January 2024, a pose and redraw meme sometimes known as the standing on business pose went viral.

Origin

The use of the phrase "standing on business" online can be traced back to the year 2014 on X.^[1][2][3] However, use of the phrase online only increased exponentially in the year 2020, becoming a popular caption for photos on Instagram starting June 2020 (seen below).^[4][5]

On December 3rd, 2021, Urban Dictionary^[6] user SterlSam02 posted a definition for the phrase "standing on business," defining it as taking care of "your business/obligations" (seen below, top). On December 18th, X^[7] user @MoneyBaggYo made a post that read, "U either standing on business or u just standing around AINT no in between ♟📉🗣," gathering over 1,000 likes in two years (seen below, bottom).

Spread

A March 14th, 2023 video posted by @RapAllStars^[8] on X was captioned, "Wallo & Gillie started arguing over the meaning of “standing on business” 😂" The video gathered over 600,000 views and 4,000 likes in seven months (seen below).

Wallo & Gillie started arguing over the meaning of “standing on business” 😂 pic.twitter.com/Ln1WMewmyY

— Rap All-Stars 🏆 (@RapAllStars) March 13, 2023

On March 21st, 2023, X^[9] user @Fizzy_renzel posted an image of a man standing on a woman labeled as "business," gathering over 5,000 likes in seven months (seen below).

On September 29th, 2023, comedian Druski posted a TikTok^[10] video captioned, "Dudes say "Standin on Business" BUT DO THE OPPOSITE 😂😂" The video gathered over 3 million plays and 500,000 likes in a month (seen below, left). On September 29th, Druski posted a video^[11] previewing a song and asking if he should drop his track "Standing On Business." The post gathered over 4 million plays and 600,000 likes in a month (seen below, right).

On October 6th, Drake released his album For All The Dogs, repeating the phrase "Standing on business" in the song "Daylight"^[12] (seen below).

On October 7th, Druski posted a TikTok^[13] skit where he acted angry about Drake using the phrase in a rap song before he got a chance to, gathering over 3 million plays and 590,000 likes (seen below, left). On October 19th, TikToker^[14] @topxszn posted a video using the phrase, gathering over 2 million plays and 600,000 likes in a week (seen below, right).

Related Memes

Wide Power Stance Low-Angle Shot / Standing on Business Pose

Wide Power Stance Low-Angle Shot or the Standing on Business Pose, also known as Polnareff-Type Pose or Wide Stance Hero Pose, is a series of memes based on a photograph of a man standing with his legs split wide and his arms crossed, taken at a low angle from the tip of his shoe, resembling a typical "hero pose" that has been compared to poses one might see in anime or manga series like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The photo went viral after it was posted to Twitter / X in December 2023, becoming the subject of redraws, image macros and other memes. Although not directly related, the pose is sometimes shared alongside the phrase "Standing on Business."

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References