You may thank rapper Yeat if you dressed up for the #Gentleminions TikTok trend.
You weren't alone if you stumbled across a group of suit-wearing youngsters this weekend, discreetly debating the aesthetic qualities of Minions and muttered about "counting money." Gentleminions have been dressing up in suits, buying tickets to Minions: The Rise of Gru, and treating the animated children's flick like it's a sophisticated Broadway play at movie theaters throughout America. You might be asking when and how the Minions franchise become high-brow entertainment at this point. It didn't work out. This is the work of sardonic TikTok adolescents. On the first day of release, a fan called Bill Hirst videotaped himself and a bunch of buddies in suits and ties viewing The Rise of Gru. In only a few days, his TikTok video had over 30 million views, and hundreds more people joined in on the joke, watching Minions with the reverence normally given to classical symphonies. Because audiences were getting too unruly, some cinemas even started prohibiting formalwear, and now the habit is adding to eye-popping box office numbers: The Rise of Gru just broke the record for the highest picture opening over Independence Day weekend, with $125.1 million.
Hirst told NBC News that the trend is heavily influenced by "nostalgia," stating that The Rise of Gru "brings back memories of viewing the Despicable Me movies with family" for teens like himself. And since the beginning of the franchise, the whimsical Minions characters have endeared themselves to online humor, so this isn't the first time they've been meme'd. But there's another force at work here as well: Yeat. The 22-year-old rapper's song "Rich Minion" is playing in the background of every Gentleminions TikTok video, and fans are moshing to it inside theaters. In the three-minute song, Yeat refers to the Minions as his children while they babble nonsensical words in the background, before boasting hilariously about how much money he made from the collaboration. He even hands the mike to a Minion at one point, who says, "Ha (Huh? ), hey Mel, la basic hi/ La papaya, du la potato (Yeah, la potato, oh, yeah)."
" We already had somebody locked and ready to go, but I said, 'Guys, I have this feeling right now that I want to pivot.' 'There's this artist, and a lot of his discography is about things that don't fit with the Minions' look,' I thought. He talks about drugs, money, and all sorts of other things. But I believe he's the right fit for this. He grew up watching Minions, he has a sound that somehow compliments Minions, and I can convince him to write a PG song about Minions for this trailer."
Bennett had grown close to Yeat after filming his music videos for "Poppin" and "Countin" earlier in the year, and he thought the rapper's internet-friendly brand would be a perfect fit for Minions. The executives at Illumination were skeptical at first, but Bennett persisted and eventually convinced them to take a risk on it, so he approached Yeat's team and offered the idea. “Cole called me and was like, ‘I’m doing this Minions trailer. What do you think about Yeat doing it?’ And I told him I thought it was genius,” says Field Trip Records co-founder Zack Bia, who signed Yeat and helps oversee his career. “The idea of Yeat and the Minions movie collaborating is just so left field, but at the same time, it inexplicably makes sense. There’s the meme aspect of it and the fact that Yeat could tackle it in a way that would make it something fun and viral.”
Yeat has become one of the most talked-about new artists in rap over the last year, receiving awards such as RapCaviar's Rookie of the Year award and amassing hundreds of millions of streams. Yeat's music has been a continuous presence on TikTok (and every other part of the internet) in 2022, thanks to a series of ultra-viral events, such as exclaiming "this song was already turned but here's is a bell" on "Gt Busy." Despite the attention, he has remained elusive, preferring to be cautious about chances such as brand partnerships, collaborations, and interviews. "We've turned down a lot of things—pretty much everything," Bia admits. "We've always done things our own way, passing up interview opportunities in favor of producing our own magazine, or passing up festivals in favor of our own smaller tour run to create the experience we desired." But the Minions' chance was too good to pass up, so they worked hard to make it happen, even though Yeat was on the road and didn't have much time.
“I had to give him a sharp deadline,” Bennett recalls. “So he recorded it in his hotel room and sent it the next morning. I’m not sure what state he was in, but he was on tour, woke up, and recorded it in his hotel room.” Bia adds, “He turned the song in at the last minute and it all worked out in this magical way. He sent it to me and we were like, ‘This is genius,’ so we just ran with it.”
Everyone participating in the cooperation believed it would have an impact, but the actual strength of the idea didn't become apparent until it was widely disseminated and the Gentleminions movement began. "We knew that the internet would love it, and we knew that the song would probably do well, but to claim that we anticipated this to happen? Bennett adds, "There's no way." "It was the greatest thing to witness a trend that needs people to pay tickets and go to a movie theater, and the entire song is released around advertising a movie."
The accident The combination of Gen Z's nostalgia for Minions and Yeat's virality created a perfect storm that exceeded everyone's expectations. "I believe we knew it was going to be a moment, for sure," Bia recalls, "but things like this viral, you can't force." "In that sense, it has to be democratic." With Yeat's virality, the appropriate foundation was laid. He has such a strong core, cult fandom, and everything he releases, kids TikTok, and anything. Then there are Minions, which has become an online sensation because of its nostalgic and amusing characters. Everyone jumped on it because it was so ludicrous."Brands are always attempting to create viral moments by appealing to Generation Z these days, but "Rich Minion" is a rare example of significant cooperation that came together organically. And, according to Bia, it's because of the pre-existing ties between everyone involved. "In an era of over-collaboration, I believe we're witnessing what occurs when there's something with genuine synergy and significance behind it," he says. "Cole is the true bridge, and he's been helping us construct it for the last year and a half." He merely completed Yeat's videos, and Yeat is a fan of the movie franchise.
I believe it is a true tribute to the moment that Yeat has created for himself online, as well as the genuine cult and online presence that he possesses. It's amazing that at a time when movie theaters were in their twilight years, here comes a whole new online moment that's actually becoming so popular that youngsters are now being refused from movie theaters while people are yearning to sell movie tickets."Bennett believes that the cooperation would not have been a success if Illumination and Universal had not trusted him to go outside the box and take a bet on the music. "Seeing Minions, Universal, and Illumination put their faith in me and allow me to execute exactly what I wanted," he continues, "was what made it so satisfying." "With Lyrical Lemonade, we're reaching a stage where corporate corporations and significant people see the significance and influence that we can bring to things." They notice the magnitude and originality, and it's the nicest feeling in the world to be respected and trusted."