How MuchDank Won Over A Million Subscribers By Dunking on 6ix9ine and SoundCloud Rap

By Luke Winkie


MuchDank noticed its muse in Tekashi 6ix9ine. The 22-year-old rapper, who is now beyond bars and facing in life in federal prison on racketeering and firearms bills, and in 2015 pled guilty for use of a child in a sexual efficiency, came with an explosive mixture of ingredients. A catalogue of testy interviews with The Breakfast Club. A Gushers-dyed perm. A peppering of dadaist ink. These pointed to a desperate, uniquely millennial thirst for a very specific kind of depressing viral fame. So, as Tekashi scaled the mountain, and made his enemies, and mustered a Trumpian refusal to ever back down, (even as they were hauling him off to court), MuchDank enjoyed a wonderful 2019. The YouTube channel currently stands at over one million subscribers, a lot of which is add onto the transformative power of making fun of 6ix9ine.


For the uninitiated, the MuchDank methodology is simple: They morph the hottest tracks in our current wave of SoundCloud rap into a lightheaded slurry, laying bare the fundamental absurdity of the bars. Here, for instance, is 6ix9ine's "BILLY," with the "RRRAH-RRRAH-RRRAH" part stretched out into apocalyptic extremes. Here's the "FEFE" video, with uncomfortably realistic ice cream sound effects dubbed over the feast. Here's that famed grilling on Hot 97's infamous Breakfast Club morning show, made even more hallucinogenic by MuchDank's cautious editing. ("I LET MY NUTS HANG.") If the music industry feels particularly delirious now, take some solace in knowing that, at the very least, MuchDank is in on the joke.


"[6ix9ine] knew to succeed at the level he is at, he required to embody the meme he was," says one of the principle members who makes MuchDank's videos over email. (To this day, they remain totally anonymous.) "The hair, the tattoos, his humor, and the image he portrayed has made him such a memorable character plus it seems that he knew this so he continued to push this to the absolute allowance. And, naturally, it worked."


Two years prior, MuchDank barely existed. The channel was one of the several ghost ships bobbing around YouTube's crowded seas with a scant 27 subscribers. That changed soon after they became fascinated by a painfully awkward interaction between Joe Budden, then a host of Complex’s Everyday Struggle, and the Migos. The clip in question is an all-timer, especially if you are a connoisseur of obtuse rap interviews. The three of these sit on a BET Awards red carpet, shades on, full-drip, while DJ Akademiks is left lost-in-translation as he questions Takeoff about why he didn't appear on the group’s trajectory-altering hit "Bad & Boujee." (“Say again? What'd you say?”) Although it touched on a fundamental truth: interviewing Migos is a hard job. That was MuchDank's eureka moment, and so they got to work fleshing out a prehistoric incarnation of their craft. The MuchDank-ified version of the exchange was hilarious and weird, and 1.2 million views later, the team had a directive.


"From there we wanted to capitalize on the views and popularity that video gained by creating similar content and gradually adding our own twist with each upload," he says. "In all honesty, we think this brand of humor resonated with us because we just like foolish shit."


In the years since, MuchDank has gotten odder and more esoteric — recent highlights include this expert flip of Post Malone's "Psycho," as well as a tribute to Drake's instant-mantra verse on Travis Scott's "Sicko Mode" — yet by and large, the success of the channel is attached at the hip with the unconventional arc of SoundCloud rap as a whole. We reside in a global of superstars like Lil Pump, 6ix9ine, Smokepurpp, and Sheck Wes — authentic, mealy-mouthed misfits who are radically redefining what hip-hop is. Because the MuchDank creator tells it, a guy like 6ix9ine clearly understood the currency in reforming oneself as a human meme, and in a global where a long-established star like Kanye is dressing up like a water bottle on SNL and creating a regrettable, yet rather bloggable) Trump turn, it definitely feels like that nihilistic ethos has infected the rest of the culture. No one can prove definitively that "Mo Bamba's" immediately iconic "HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOES," or "Gucci Gang's" titular brain-melting refrain were put on this Earth to be memed, yet there's no way that's not piece of the calculus. MuchDank is a required reciprocation. The sole force contextualizing the absurdity in the way it ought to be: memes during the time of Lil Xan.


"Memes follow culture, not matter how obscure that culture is. Hip-Hop is currently the most-listened to genre of music. Memes are right now such a big segment of the world wide web. So it only makes sense to put these two things with each other says the MuchDank creator. "Rappers are certainly beginning to notice it. Although it’s hard to know how several of those music memes are intentional, by the artist label, and why several are made on social media by a random person. 6ix9ine as an example, was certainly both. He was a meme, however random people also made memes based on his music, appearance & personality. That was probably the key to his success."


The MuchDank team says they never make videos to "hate on" anyone, and they've never obtained any explicitly negative feedback from any of the rappers they've poked fun at. (If anything, the responses have been mostly positive.) The creator tells me that one notable fan the channel has is Logic, which was a relief, because a assortment of MuchDank videos concentrate on Logic's biracial identity and may be conveniently taken the incorrect way." Yet in a recent interview Logic clarified his status: "I love MuchDank dog, I fuck with you MuchDank, you're hilarious." This was a relief for the crew. "We're pleased to hear we didn't offend him," he says. "Because that wasn't the intention."


"We attempt to not prey on the person yet more so make the scenario weird and awkward or perpetuate an existing joke," explains MuchDank further. "With the Logic video we were trying to take the meme that Logic routinely talks about his race and push it to the point of absurdity. The joke was never about what Logic's race is."


In fact, the MuchDank creator tells me that occasionally they've been contacted by various labels and PR businesses looking to have their artists featured in one of their videos. Usually, MuchDank declines those possibilities, nevertheless they'll some days accept if they think the "video they're proposing has the potential to be cool," along with because it means they won't have to worry about any copyright issues with the source material for the clip. (They also tell me that they never accept payment for any of those collaborations: "I'm not really sure why we don't. Yet I think a big factor is that we come from a time on YouTube once making cash and 'selling out' just wasn't cool.")


It is abnormal to think that music industry executives would look to a meme channel — which has built an entire empire on making rappers look dumb — as a way to elevate the stature of their customers, nevertheless MuchDank tells me that that's never been a concern for the label heads that reach out. "They've never straight up said if they like or want their clientele to be memed on," he says. Yet they've never been against, so I guess that's what they're looking for."


The music industry is a fossil that's never been able to keep up with the internet; independent rappers have clearly realized this, and creators like MuchDank have stepped up to issue a madcap commentary that follows a certain demented logic in the millennium's frazzled state of being. In 2019, the only way to stay on top is to prepare ensure you're being made fun of the most.