Kanye East

About

Kanye East, known best for his track "Fortnite Balls," is the alter ego of rapper Mike Manik and a parody of Kanye West who gained significant popularity on TikTok in 2021 for videos in which he raps using absurd lyrics that reference meme culture. He is also known for his improvised TikTok live rapping and rapping of follower comments in which he raps whatever his viewers comment in the chat in the style of Kanye West. A number of his videos have resulted in viral sounds on TikTok.

History

On July 21st, 2020, TikToker^[1] and rapper Mike Manik, using the username @the_kanye_east, posted his first video presenting as Kanye East, a bizarro parody of Kanye West. In the video, East reads a number of famous Kanye West tweets like West might (shown below).

Manik continued to post videos as Kanye East over the course of the year, growing a small following on TikTok. On January 29th, 2021, East posted his first significantly successful video to TikTok^[2] in which he asks viewers to answer in the comments, "Who Was In Paris?," garnering over 900,000 views in four months (shown below).

Fortnite Balls, Obama Hamburger Sussy Balls (Rap Your Comments)

On March 3rd, 2021, Kanye East posted a video announcing that he was going on TikTok^[3] live to rap users' comments as they come in. East has since become known for this, with clips of him rapping user comments both live and on previous videos often going viral on TikTok. For example, on April 24th, TikToker @antijax posted a clip of East rapping comments including, "Fortnite balls, I'm gay, I kidnapped autistic kids, Lil Mosey is white," garnering over 500,000 views in two months (shown below, left). On April 25th, TikToker official_roaster2 posted a similar video titled "Obama Hamburger Sussy Balls" (shown below, right).

These audio clips became colloquially known as "Fortnite Balls" and "Obama Hamburger Sussy Balls." On April 26th, @antijax uploaded another video of East rapping comments (shown below).

On April 28th, a YouTuber^[4] uploaded a compilation of Kanye East rapping making mention of "Fortnite Balls" in the title, garnering over 158,000 views in two weeks (shown below).

On the same date, East posted a video to TikTok rapping comments, garnering over 2.3 million views in two weeks (shown below).

Fortnite Ballz

On April 30th, 2021, Kanye East dropped an official studio recording of his first song "Fortnite Ballz," named after a phrase commenters frequently make him say on his "Rap Your Comments" live streams (shown below).

Know Your Meme Interview

On July 6th, Know Your Meme^[6] published an interview with East where he reveals that rapper DMX and a producer who worked with him stole beats from East, particularly one used on the song "Fire" (shown below).

Online Presence

Kanye East has garnered a significant following on TikTok, with over 390,000 followers as of May 2021. A number of videos of his live streams taken by other users have gone viral on TikTok, becoming popular sounds and sparking trends. For example, some TikTokers make videos presenting the lyrics to a given Kanye East song via text, ticking off or ranking the lyrics as if they're options as they're rapped (examples shown below, left and right).

On May 8th, Instagram^[5] user @startup.mp4 posted a 21st Century Humor edit using a clip of East rapping "Fortnite Balls," garnering over 33,700 plays and 11,100 likes in three days (shown below).

Search Interest

External References