“But I lived on the wrong side of life for a long time. “I’ve been clean and sober for 12 years,” he says with deep pride. In some ways, Nems views the recognition as a reward for rebuilding his life from the ground up. “I look back at those days now and, and think, ‘Yo, let’s say I would’ve signed to a million-dollar deal, I might have killed myself doing drugs. “I had record deals with Shady Records and Def Jam, and I lost them going in and out of jail, and being addicted to drugs.” Not that he has any regrets. “My whole life, I always thought I messed up,” Nems confesses. It’s a remarkable reversal of fortune for an artist who thought he had blown his shot. “People always ask, ‘Don’t you get tired of saying ‘bing bong?’’ or ‘Does it annoy you when people want to take pictures?’ No, I love it! I’ve been waiting for this my whole life.” YOOOO It’s the commercial breakthrough Nems has been waiting for. It feels good that the President of the United States knows who I am.”Īs soon as “bing bong” caught on among his core fanbase, Nems recorded a song called “Bing Bong” for his 2021 LP, “Congo.” It turned out to be a wise move, with the track now garnering radio play across the country. “But it’s awesome that he’s in the video. “When the video shows him, the line is supposed to say, ‘Hey, yo,’ but he didn’t do it,” he jokingly laments. He just wishes POTUS had delivered some of the dialogue. Their video even features a cameo from President Biden, which Nems considers the pinnacle of his newfound success. Just when you thought “bing bong” had reached its zenith, the Jonas Brothers took it to the White House. Says Nems: “I already knew it was big, but once I saw all those celebrities do it, I knew it was really taking off.” BONG! The resulting video amassed more than 64.5 million views. “If I’m not saying it, somebody associated with me is saying it because it took off in my neighborhood.”Īudio from “Sidetalk quickly” went viral on TikTok due to the colorful characters of Coney Island, Nems’ trademark mispronunciation of Joe Biden (“Joe Byron”) and the liberal use of his signature phrase, “bing bong.” It then went on to soundtrack hundreds of thousands of TikTok videos, including Lil Nas X’s all-star rendition recorded at Variety’s Hitmakers event in December.Īt the Hitmakers event, he called on fellow attendees and honorees Olivia Rodrigo, Avril Lavigne, Normani, Anitta, Tinashe, Jack Harlow and Chloe Bailey to help him recreate the Sidetalk episode. The “bing bong” joke got added visibility in October, when a Sidetalk video of New York Knicks fans going bananas after a win against the Celtics went viral, featuring a fan looking directly into the camera and saying, “Bing bong.“In the first episode I hosted, I said ‘bing bong’ and it just became a theme,” Nems explains. Since then, “Byron” and “bing bong” have travelled quickly to the heart of the meme machine. (Each Sidetalk video opens with a the signature “bing bong” that accompanies the New York subway doors opening and closing, and Nems released a song called “Bing Bong” in August.”
#Sidetalk tj series
In a series of videos recorded in the Coney Island neighbourhood in September, rapper and content creator Gorilla Nems interviews a homeless man named TJ, who spouts the famous line about “Byron,” and a number of different people say “bing bong” into the camera. The audio in the White House clip comes from the viral web series Sidetalk, created by New York University students Trent Simonian and Jack Byrne, which features (often deeply NSFW) man-on-the-street style interviews with the many characters who call New York City home.
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