Metaphorically unmasking the DJ whose viral videos soundtracked this year.
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Guess what, bitch?
Cardi Bs shriek echoes until it resembles a siren.
A hi-hat-heavy beat comes in on the rappers frantic warning: Shit is real!
The year looked bleak until iMarkkeyz (real name Brandon Markell Davidson) remixed it.
(Even in non-COVID times, the mask is his signature look.)
But somebodys gotta make people not live in fear.
I was going through a depressive phase because I thought it was it, he recalls.
January, February, I was still in recovery mode.
I wasnt going anywhere, so I didnt really do nothing but make remixes.
In March, just when he was getting back on his feet, Coronavirus made it to No.
9 on the iTunes hip-hop chart within hours of its release, and it hit No.
1 in several countries.
A packed club in Rio blasted it unironically.
The track now has tens of millions of views across YouTube.
Like the rest of the world, he first saw theCardi clipon Instagram.
Then people started tagging him and begging him to remix this.
He took another seven to ten minutes to splice together the medley of dance clips.
Like todays TikTok stars, iMarkkeyz had his first brush with fame thanks to a video-sharing platform.
Seven years ago, he turned a Vine into the infectious Jersey-club mix Rounds.
Both the original clip, by Carl Garrett, and iMarkkeyzs remix went viral.
When Vine died, iMarkkeyz took his talents toInstagram.
Why cover your face with a mask when youre on the cusp of fame?
iMarkkeyz says he wants to keep the focus on his music.
If you love my art, then Im not gonna be important, he says.
He also just wants to be able to go to the grocery store with his mother.
His aunt introduced him to dancehall and reggae, while his grandmother played him soca and oldies.
(These days, he wanders around Fresh Creek beatboxing to himself.)
Making music felt familiar to him, like riffing with his friends as a kid.
I could find music out of anything, he says.
Its been with me like that since, like, public school, junior high school.
Floyds death was particularly bitterfor iMarkkeyz, who is the nephew of Eric Garner on his fathers side.
Like Garner, Floyd had repeated the wordsI cant breathecountless times before his death.
Because its the same exact thing that my uncle went through in Staten Island.
What makes you think this is not going to keep happening?
But the cadence here was all Charles.
It was shocking to us, he says.
I told her sister, Okay, Im gonna make a GoFundMe page.
it’s possible for you to get access to the account.
[Im gonna] make a ringtone.
And then [shell] get shares in the song.
We wanted to ensure she was situated and off the streets.
Charles and her 4-year-old son have now moved into their own home, and shes expecting another baby.
Basically, we changed someones life, iMarkkeyz says, still in disbelief.
Lose Yo Job injected hope into the fight for justice, but its not a PSA.
Racists dont give a damn, he says.
I dont want to waste my energy to just get a point across when nobodys gonna really listen.
