It’s over, friends. We can no longer “do it for the Vine” after Twitter announced it’s shutting down its little video pet project that turned virtual “nobodies” into overnight stars with short, six-second video loops.
We can’t say we didn’t see it coming, though, especially, when Instagram and Snapchat got into the video-sharing service game and started to take over. Plus, Twitter still couldn’t figure out a way to monetize a service like Vine. These rappers did though because after six seconds of their little-known songs got viral, so did their stock.
Bobby Shmurda — “Hot N*gga”
It’s possible that no rap song ate off Vine’s popularity like Bobby Shmurda’s “Hot N*gga.” After a clip of Bobby’s Shmoney dancing to his 2014 smash hit Vine, it was a wrap! The song ended up everywhere and everyone from Beyonce to Drake were shmoney dancing. 2014 was lit AF.
P.T.A.F — “Boss Ass Bitch”
P.T.A.F. (Pretty and Taking All Fades)’s “Boss Ass Bitch” was so huge in 2014 that even Nicki Minaj hopped on for a remix which resulted in the group scoring a record deal.
OG Maco — “U Guessed It”
Web star Reggie Couz was one of the first early adopters to feature OG Maco’s “U Guessed It” in a Vine called “The Excited Bipolar Teacher.”
YG — “My N*gga”
President Obama shaking Kevin Durant’s hand to the tune of YG’s “My Nigga” went viral and caused other “My N*gga” viral Vines, turning the song into a smash.
K Camp — Cut Her Off
Savages couldn’t get enough of K Camp’s “Cut Her Off” to denote that it was “nothing to cut that b*tch off.”
Young Thug — “Stoner”
Kids figured out pretty quickly that Young Thug’s “Stoner” was the perfect song to Nae Nae to and soon turned Thugga’s cut into a hit.
O.T. Genasis — “CoCo”
O.T. Genesis probably wasn’t looking for Vine fame when he came up with the incredibly infectious hook to his 2014 song, “CoCo,” but “Baking soda! I got baking soda!” was ripe for Vine viralness.
Silento — “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)”
This is almost cheating but “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” from Silento was sorta, kinda engineered to be a viral hit. Basically, a company co-founded by Madonna called DanceOn creates viral dance hits by paying its social media influencers to make videos of themselves dancing to songs. Silento’s “Whip/NaeNae was one of them. By the end, the 50 videos the company commissioned generated over 200 million views.
Young Dro – FDB
Young Dro climbed out of irrelevancy when Viners got their hands on his song, “FDB (F*ck That B*tch).”
