Getty Image / Lawrence Schwartzwald/Sygma/ Neilson Barnard
It starts with a seed and quickly blossoms into a forest. That is the best visual I can think of for how quickly these TikTok mashup songs take over your ‘For You’ page. And nothing has gone viral in recent weeks quite like the mashup of the 4 Non Blonde’s ‘What’s Up? (What’s Going On)‘ with Nicki Minaj’s ‘Beez in the Trap.’
What makes this What’s Up? x Beez in the Trap mashup such an earworm? The answer should be obvious!
This TikTok viral trend combined two insanely catchy songs in a way that matches up perfectly. If just one of the two songs was the type to get stuck in your head it wouldn’t work. If both songs were catchy but didn’t sync up perfectly it wouldn’t have reached the same level of virality. But here we are, weeks (months?) into the What’s Up? x Beez in the Trap TikTok trend still going strong.
‘What’s Up?’ x ‘Beez in the Trap’ TikTok Mashup Full Version
After what seems like months of hearing 15-30 seconds of this mashup on TikTok due to the trend, someone came through with a full version.
For the uninitiated, the trend involves one person lip syncing along to the 4 Non Blondes’ What’s Up? (What’s Going On) while staring into the camera and then the camera slowly pans around to reveal someone standing behind them, hidden, who then raps the Beez in the Trap verse from Nicki Minaj.
The trend was picked up by SNL who did it with Sabrina Carpenter and
Marcello Hernandez. Jimmy Fallon did the trend with Taliban shooting survivor Malala.
But now there is a full version of this TikTok mashup and I wish I could tell you I was capable of stopping listening to it today but I lack that self control. This has been on repeat all morning on the Sonos. There is no limit to the number of times this song will get played this weekend.
My biggest takeaway from all of this is the enduring legacy of Beez in the Trap by Nicki Minaj. Celebs like Samuel L. Jackson have been lip syncing it since 2012!
Linda Perry and the 4 Non Blondes’ What’s Up?! (What’s Going On) established itself as one of the best songs of the 90s from the moment it came out. But did we really expect Beez in the Trap to endure like it has when that first hit the airwaves? Maybe, maybe not.