A rapper and Hip-Hop dancer named Dlow came out with this video in September of last year. This video took the internet by storm making this dance a popular trend in society. The artist challenged his fans to a “dance off” against his crew shown in the Youtube video above. This became an interesting use of fan engagement because it challenged his fans to try and do what he is a professional at doing. This video represents one of the first viral hashtags involved with music and dancing that has hailed world attention. The #BetYouCantDoitLikeMe hashtag circulated all social media sites that prompted people to go watch this video and copy each of Dlow’s dance moves. If you can see by the viewer count, this video was viewed over 82 million times, which is outrageous.
Even though this video was made primarily for the dancing aspect, the popular trend of this video encouraged clubs and social gatherings to play this song. When this song comes on, everyone tries to implement the moves performed by Dlow in the video. This hashtag was all over Twitter as people from all over the country made their own video like Dlow’s. Most importantly, professional athletes even made these videos adding legitimacy to this video. The dance moves were most commonly seen when NFL players did their Touchdown celebrations. The distribution and spread of Dlow’s video was carried by the hashtag and legitimized by other athletes and the mass participation in the challenge.
This goes against the traditional ways of advertising by adding fan participation, while also promoting product and brand. This strategy has been used several times after this video was introduced with challenges like “Mannequin Challenge and JuJu on that Beat.”
Here is a link to the video (website wouldn’t allow me to post it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hl0aTooA90
The Use of Social Media in the Rap Game 