SpotemGottem

Submission 40,035

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About

SpotemGottem is an American rapper from Jacksonville, Florida known best for his 2020 single "Beat Box" and its remix featuring rapper Pooh Shiesty, "Beat Box 2." The song inspired TikTok's Junebug Challenge in late 2020 throughout early 2021. Around the same time, the rapper became the subject of jokes across social media surrounding his name and a tweet about the rapper "linking up" with Shiesty.

History

Music Career

On November 23rd, 2018, 17-year-old aspiring rapper SpotemGottem posted his first track, "Run For It," to SoundCloud,^[1] gaining over 679,000 listens in two years (below).

SpotEmGottem · Run For It

On December 16th, SpotemGottem released a single titled "Street Gossip" alongside a music video on YouTube,^[2] garnering over 1.6 million views in two years and helping the rapper grow his fanbase (shown below).

"Beat Box" and "Beat Box 2"

On April 20th, 2020, SpotemGottem released the song "Beat Box" alongside a music video on YouTube^[3] (shown below). The video gained significant attention, garnering over 23 million views in a year and becoming the rapper's most well-known track.

On December 18th, SpotemGottem released his first LP, titled "Final Destination," including a remix of "Beat Box" titled "Beat Box 2," featuring fellow rapper Pooh Shiesty. A music video for the song was released to YouTube^[4] the same day, garnering over 33 million views in four months and helping the song became a viral hit (shown below).

Online Presence

Junebug Challenge

On November 5th, 2020, TikToker^[5] @dganttt uploaded a video performing an original dance to "Beat Box" including exaggerated arm movements (shown below, left). The video gained over 79,000 views in five months. The TikToker continued to perform the dance in several videos over the course of the next few months, including an upload on December 3rd, garnering over 877,000 views in four months (shown below, right).

On December 23rd, TikToker^[6] @juneelite__, known as Junebug, uploaded a video performing an exaggerated version of the dance to "Beat Box" in a number of different locations, including a shower and an elevator, garnering over 4.4 million views in four months (shown below). The video is set to a new Original Sound (titled "Junebug Challenge") of the same song, leading many to incorrectly believe @juneelite__ invented the dance.

The trend took off over the course of the next two months, resulting in a number of viral videos of TikTokers performing the dance. On January 25th, TikToker^[7] Lil Huddy uploaded a video performing the dance, garnering over 7.7 million views in two months (shown below, left). On the same date, comedian and TikToker^[8] Kevin Hart performed the trend, garnering over 20 million views in the same span of time (shown below, right).

SpotemGottem and Pooh Shiesty Linked Up

On November 12th, 2020, Twitter^[9] page Saycheese TV posted, "Spotemgottem & Pooh Shiesty linked up! need it or keep it??!" along with a photograph of the two rappers posing side-by-side (shown below). The post gained over 1,300 likes and 2,400 quote tweets in five months.

Many commenters^[10] reacted with confusion, wondering who either of the rappers was. Quote tweets echoed the same sentiment, also mocking the image, the phrasing of the tweet and the state of rap as a whole based on it (examples shown below).

The image and tweet also became the subject of jokes on 4chan^[12] for the same reasons starting in February 2021, where users started to use Sneed's Feed and Seed references in association with the image. On March 15th, Redditor u/radmark posted a "He Will Never Have a Girlfriend" meme referencing the tweet to /r/spotemgottem (shown below).

On March 24th, 2021, following the success of the "Junebug Challenge," YouTuber^[11] Egg White posted a parody of "Beat Box" titled "HotPocks" by SneedEmFeedEm, in which the lyrics are changed to reference popular 4chan terms and memes, most notably Sneed's Feed and Seed, garnering over 7,200 views in five days (shown below).

Sneed posts soon took over the comments section of the music video for "Beat Box 2" (example shown below, left). On March 28th, Twitter^[13] user @bartsimsonreal posted a photoshopped version of the image in which the rappers look like characters from The Simpsons (shown below, right).