Joeyy is the biggest anomaly in rap world and has a deep cult following. From fans doing nod pits at his shows, trolling On The Radar, people accusing him of being alt-right, and his intensely facetuned photos, Joeyy is the future of meme rap.
Who is Joeyy
The producer and artist was born in 1996 and is from Massachusetts. He has around 200k listeners on spotify a month. His song “THANKS” was the first song I came across. It is a pleasant beat with a laid back melody from Joeyy. Very typical stuff from an underground rapper.
Upon a surface level look into Joeyy, you will see an overweight man mumbling about drugs and high fashion. This is not new a schtick and we have it seen a million times, but the more you look the more obscure things become. The first example is song “VLONE”.
The song literally opens up with the trapaholics voice saying “What the f**k….Holy f**king Sh*t….I love God” followed by “I am severely addicted to opiates”.
It is so absurd that it was the only thing I could think about for a couple days. I later found another song called “SFOGLIATELLE”. The song sounds like it would be a classic Yeat-esc and new trap song, which it is, but it throws a huge curveball.
The song opens up with the trapaholics tag yet again, but this time proudly stating, “Jesus turned water into wine…I turn that Sprite into a pink oil.” It is a true WTF moment and made me want to take a deeper look into the artist behind these absurd ideas.
If this has you in awe and wanting to know why, or what, or even how, you are not alone. Most would think there is no real audience for this. You would think it is just a meme or troll artist like Yuno Miles. However, you would be completely wrong. The Joeyy subreddit has around 15k members and it is very active. He has 208k followers on his instagram and is going on an American tour with 23 stops. His shows are full, people post about him, and there is truly a die hard fanbase.
It makes little to no sense but that is what people are drawn to.
Shed Theory and Joeyy’s Other Odd Connections
Joeyy is a part of two rap groups called 1team and Shed Theory which includes other rappers such as Marlon Dubois and Ricky Chix. The Shed Theory collective has the same cloud rap, drug infused chaos that Joeyy is known for.
Surprisingly however, Joeyy also has ties to controversial comedic figure Sam Hyde.
Sam used to have a TV show on Adult Swim called World Peace which was cancelled after Sam was deemed too problematic for the network. Sam has also been allegedly tied to Nazi groups by supposedly donating 5,000 dollars to the Daily Stormer, a huge site for Neo-Nazism. Joeyy has been featured in many Sam Hyde videos and even his podcast a few times. He was also interviewed in a youtube documentary done by another controversial creator named idubbbz about Sam Hyde.
The connection is showed to run deep as Sam Hyde and Joeyy hop on a track called “GOOe” which is definitely supposed to be an ironic take on rap and music as a whole.
It is just as absurd and crazy as you would it would think be.
These type of stunts and connections have landed Joeyy with some criticism, but it has not hurt his career, in fact it has helped make it. From the outside looking in it seems like he is putting on an act but the deeper you dig, it seems like that is who he is. He is ironically being ironic which makes it seem like there is a joke and none at all.
The New Generation of Meme Rap
Meme rappers have been popularized by the “Godfather of Rap” and Berkley’s finest Lil B aka Lil BasedGod. He has had a cultural significance from helping out A$AP Rocky with the beginning of his career to his hit songs like “I Am God”, and putting a curse of Kevin Durant and James Harden. Lil B transcended his music and became a Hip-Hop icon. Whether it’d be a joke or giving props, most Hip-Hop enthusiasts and creators within the space can recognize the greatness he has done for the genre.
Joeyy was an avid Lil B fan and there is evidence all over the internet to prove it, including a photo of the two at one of Lil B’s concerts in the early 2010s.
In a way Joeyy is taking the torch from Lil B. Many people don’t understand it and I think that is the point. You are so confused and wanting more you stay and watch. People are ride or die fans for Joeyy. Whether people are there for the music, the meme, or both he has a significant audience. At shows, Joeyy has hundreds of his fans doing “nodding pits” where they act like they are nodding off from copious amounts of drugs.
To most people it makes no sense, and that is a fair statement. But if you don’t understand something artistically, it is not for you. Joeyy is an enigma of irony wrapped in a ball of Gen Z humor. The schtick works and all we should do is enjoy it, whether it be the music or culture surrounding this generation’s Lil B.
