A Fortnite-based 'American Boy' parody has taken over TikTok
- A Fortnite-based "American Boy' parody song is exploding in popularity on TikTok.
- The song, "Chug Jug With You," was originally uploaded to YouTube in 2018.
- Now, TikTokers are obsessing over the song's catchy lyrics, making memes and videos.
A Fortnite-based parody of Estelle and Kanye West's 2008 hit "American Boy" has exploded on TikTok, propelled by memes and seemingly genuine adoration of the song itself.
"Chug Jug With You" was first uploaded in 2018, and slides new lyrics about Fortnite - the massively popular battle royale video game - over "American Boy's" iconic beat. Its title references a Fortnite item, called a Chug Jug, that's used to heal; while it currently isn't available in-game, it's still a pretty iconic symbol.
"Number one victory royale / yeah Fortnite we bout to get down (get down) / ten kills on the board right now, just wiped out Tomato Town," the lyrics of "Chug Jug With You," sung by a YouTube creator known as LeviathanJPTV, go.
Despite being over two years old, "Chug Jug With You" is having what seems to be its biggest moment in the spotlight (despite a bout of virality in January 2019) on TikTok after crossing over to the app.
The most popular upload of the sound appears to have been uploaded to TikTok by the user @roughanfeatherstone in a January 23 video that has over 63,000 likes. From that moment on, the sound has slowly grown in popularity on TikTok over the course of January and February, with references to it appearing on other social media like Twitter as well.
However, as Inverse reported, "Chug Jug With You" has a storied history that precedes its current TikTok fame. The song was first uploaded to YouTube back in 2018 on the LeviathanJPTV channel. That particular upload now has over 2.4 million views, a number that seems to be rapidly climbing as the song's viral popularity increases on other corners of the internet.
As Leviathan told Inverse, "Chug Jug With You" was actually adapted from another Fortnite-related "American Boy" parody: a September 2018 video titled "Let's Play Fortnite!!!!" uploaded on the channel CM SKITS. Leviathan, 13-years-old at the time, expanded on the chorus from "Let's Play Fortnite!!!!" to write and record the lyrics to "Chug Jug With You," crediting the chorus to CM Skits in the description of the YouTube video.
While parts of the YouTube upload of the song were cut out due to a copyright claim (according to a comment from Leviathan on the video itself), you can still listen to the full song on SoundCloud.
Leviathan · Chug Jug With YouOn TikTok, a number of popular users, including the TikTok-famous Willy Wonka cosplayer and Minecraft YouTuber GeorgeNotFound, have amassed hundreds of thousands of views using the sound.
For the most part, "Chug Jug With You" isn't soundtracking any larger trends - it is the trend, and one that TikTokers are commenting on and vibing along to with glee.
While the meme's origins may be somewhat complicated, its popularity isn't. "Chug Jug With You" is blowing up on TikTok because it totally slaps.