We President Now

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About

"We President Now" is an expression mocking African Americans celebrating the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Online, it is often associated with a photograph of rapper Lil Wayne and has inspired variations using the phrasal template "we X now."

Origin

The exact origin of the expression is unknown. According to a post on /r/OutOfTheLoop,^[2] 4chan users began posting the phrase on the /pol/ (politically incorrect) board after Obama was elected in 2008, but no archived threads have been found.

Spread

On January 7th, 2010, an image macro of rapper Lil Wayne with the caption "We President Now" was uploaded to the 4chan archive site Chan4Chan^[1] (shown below). On November 5th, IGN Forums^[3] user LegacyAccount submitted a post asking for an explanation of the "'We President Now' meme," where many noted that the quote had been falsely attributed to Lil Wayne.

A page featuring other captioned versions of the photograph was subsequently created on Troll.me.^[5] In March 2012, a screenshot of a Facebook rant in which a user named Tyrone Concord Jones writes "we president now" was submitted to the AllHipHop Forums^[4] (shown below).

Not sure if this came before the lil wayne meme, but seeing how in depth this is and how its thrown around, it's probably safe to say its older based on how forced the lil wayne meme is. This image has been on 4chan for ages, it isn't out of the question to think this is the origin of the meme, but citation is needed.

On November 17th, YouTuber zerxes94 uploaded a prank call titled "We President Now," in which a radio caller impersonates LiL Wayne (shown below). On June 5th, 2013, Body Building Forums^[6] member HippyBrah submitted a thread titled "We president now." On August 6th, 2015, a post asking about where the popular Counter-Strike phrase "We CoD now boys" originated in a post on /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[2]

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