The fun thing about TikTok music discovery is that even when it feels like youâre hearing something new, you can guarantee that about a million other people have already heard it. Humbling. These songs have massive streaming numbers, especially YouTube views, but they donât typically make their way onto the Billboard charts organically (see: Tekashi 6ix9ineâs recent lesson on the math behind it). But 2016âs âRosesâ by Saint Jhn is an outlier. The 2019 DJ Imanbek remix of the R&B song has the streaming numbers, with over 100 million views on YouTube; it has several TikTok trends amassing over 3 million videos; and on June 15, it hit no. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
âRosesâ was released by Brooklyn rapper and songwriter Saint Jhn in 2016. But the remix thatâs gone viral on TikTok just came out in 2019. Nineteen-year-old Kazakh producer Imanbek took Saint Jhnâs slow-moving, hypnotic rap and turned it into a bouncy, high-pitched banger. Lyrics âI walked in the corner with the body screaming dolo / Never sold a bag but look like Pablo in a photo / This gonâ make âem feel the way like Tony killed Manolo / You already know though, you already know thoughâ become basically indecipherable. And thatâs why it works on TikTok. With no real language barrier, people all over the world can not only vibe to the song but also reinterpret it, remix it, and create something new.
The âRosesâ remix is the soundtrack to a few mainstream TikTok trends, but also works for ⌠pretty much anything you can think of. Recently, it helped popularize the now-infamous TikTok hip sway. The beat change has also been used as a dance/scenario going from something positive to something awkward, as denoted by the âIâm shyâ fingers, peace signs, middle fingers, and/or a hand hiding your face. That trend coincides with the hugely popular (well, what isnât on TikTok?) Character Select Challenge and the Shy Boy trend, where you similarly kind of ⌠rotate like a video-game character. Look, it makes sense when most of your generationâs reference points are visual. But if youâre just trying to make a TikTok skateboarding, or to spread info, or emphasize something, the almost-instrumental âRosesâ remix works for that, too.
Though the Imanbek remix accounts for a huge amount of the songâs success, the original âRosesâ is no slouch. The music video has nearly 36 million views. It also doesnât hurt that thereâs yet another âRosesâ remix, one featuring Future that dropped on May 29. Combining the remixes and the originalâs success, âRosesâ has hit No. 1 on several international charts this year, including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 in March, right when stars like Charli DâAmelio and Jason Derulo started using it in TikToks. On June 8, it reached No. 10 on the Hot 100, jumping four spots on its 11th week, and landing Saint Jhn his first top ten. Now at no. 7, âRosesâ is looking at a run for the top five, adding it to a list of TikTok breakout hits, including fellow remix-rule scammer âOld Town Road.â The songâs journey from Saint Jhn, across the world to Imanbek, and then everywhere on TikTok is kind of just a miracle of the internet. People (especially teens) know good music when they hear it.
This post was updated with the latest chart data for âRoses.â