
The now viral tik tok video has been reposted by almost every major celebrity, athlete and News outlet. TJ responds in a slow smooth sexy voice, “Wassup, baby? Take me out to dinner.” NEMS: “What do you want to tell Joe Byron, right now?” Whose the President?” to which TJ replies: “BYRON” The 54 second video NEMS asks the man,- who we now know as TJ In Episode 81, Brooklyn Born Rapper GORILLA NEMS, interviews residents in his neighborhood where the people know him as the Mayor of Coney Island. It all began NYU students Jack Byrne and Trent Simonian & their platform Sidetalk that has over 1.2 million followers on Instagram and 3.4 million followers on TikTok. The term, first was coined by Gorilla NEMS in early 2020, had gone viral as part of a TikTok trend literally overnight. It’s the catchphrase heard around the World! After grinding for over 2 decades as an unsigned artist in the NY Hip Hop Scene, all it took was one Moment & a Million Dollar catch phrase to turn Gorilla Nems into an overnight success! BING BONG! The Official Winner of 2021 I’m replacing all the bad karma that I created in my younger years with good karma.The Most Viral Headline of 2021 goes to Coney Islands Very Own Self Proclaimed Mayor & The Biggest Battle Rapper to ever do it for New York City: GORILLA NEMS. People would cross the street when they saw me.

“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. “In the first episode I hosted, I said ‘bing bong’ and it just became a theme,” Nems explains.
