Jersey City — Gen Z rapper Latto broke the internet this week after releasing a remix to her hit-single "Put It On Da Floor,” featuring Cardi B. Prior to the Bronx-raised rapper hopping on the track, Latto’s original version of “Put In On Da Floor" placed No.1 on Billboard’s Hot Trending Songs Chart, which is powered by Twitter to track global music trends in real time.
When Billboard first reported on the song placing No.1, it was credited to Latto’s pre-release buzz on social media. Latto has an Instagram following of 10M+, a TikTok following of 6.6M and a personality that goes viral nearly every time she posts.
Latto’s virality is not only credited to her talent as an artist, it also helps that she partakes in TikTok challenges and dances that her fans make to her music. On top of that, she creates challenges for her fans to recreate and takes the time to post them.
This creates a give take dynamic between Latto and her listeners, which is an approach a lot of artists should consider.
See this example of Latto and friends running to the original “Put In On Da Floor" (which has been used over 110.7K posts on TikTok) and another example of the same friends using props at Walmart as an added promotion.
After “Put In On Da Floor" was performed at Coachella earlier this year, there was no stopping the virality that Latto put into place. Between the social media buzz and the hard-hitting performance, the song alone is a guaranteed banger.
Bringing on Cardi B as a feature on the remix and announcing it on Instagram in yet another viral take on the song lyrics, only further cements Latto’s impact. By leaning on technology and using social media apps like TikTok and Instagram to her advantage, Latto has cracked a serious code when it comes to going viral.
While I was excited to hear the remix, I was more amazed to see that Latto also dropped an instrumental to the song at the same time. This allows for the song to be used in a multitude of more creative ways on the internet, as most TikTok DJs who create the viral tracks that make TikTok videos possible rely on implementing instrumentals into their mashups.
Now, Latto has created three different ways to get the “Put In On Da Floor" streams up;
- With the original version of the song and the subsequent TikTok challenges
- With the Cardi B remix
- With a instrumental release, allowing added opportunity to go viral
Keeping it gee, Latto’s intentionality and attention to detail is phenomenal. She meets the needs of her followers by methodically planning rollouts that are always a guarantee to go viral. I anticipate that younger artists will begin to explore similar rollout methods to Latto, ultimately allowing their music to scale on tech-fueled social platforms in ways we have yet to see.
Miranda Perez (she/her/hers) is a Jersey City, NJ-based journalist who covers the tech industry. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram: @mimithegee.
Edited by NaTyshca Pickett