You know your song is growing increasingly hot when publications start lining up to do explainers on its rise, which is exactly the situation Blanco Brown now finds himself in with "The Git Up."
Last week, the track became Brown's first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, landing at No. 66 off the strength of a combined viral boost by way of TikTok and YouTube. In its second week, the song reached No. 51. Not unlike Lil Nas X's out-of-nowhere megahit "Old Town Road," which would go on to receive a Billy Ray Cyrus'd update and a high-budget video stacked with cameos, "The Git Up" has been positioned as a meme of sorts complete with a dance tutorial clip from Brown himself that's currently sitting at around two million views.
The track is also the latest to lean into the currently popular melding of country and rap elements, a complementary fusion for which Young Thug still deserves a great deal of credit.
Speaking with USA Today earlier this month, Brown (who was recently on the bill for a Spotify showcase at CMA Fest) characterized his take as more akin to "trailer trap." In the same interview, he named OutKast and Johnny Cash as among his artistic inspirations. As for the ensuing #GitUpChallenge, which is currently boosting both his chart numbers and his streaming stats (i.e. approaching three million monthly listeners on Spotify), Brown said at the time that he believes the bulk of the success is attributable to the joy he and his team had in the studio when crafting what would become the song.
Lainey Wilson, who appeared in a #GitUpChallenge clip with her fellow BBR Music Group signee in May, echoed that assessment.
"[The dance] is one of those things you can do anywhere and it brings people together for three minutes of good times and no worries," she said in the same interview.
As Brown said in another charts-celebrating Instagram update, he pulled this off with "no money behind my record."
For now, the top of the Billboard Hot 100 distinction is still held by the aforementioned Lil Nas X, whose new 7 EP (featuring Travis Barker and a Kurt Cobain interpolation) is notably set for a No. 1 debut.
