“Thotiana” is a hit. After much disbelief and apprehension, Blueface has capitalized on a viral moment that started to gain steam throughout the latter half of 2018. Earlier this week, the track debuted at number 75 on the Billboard Hot 100, almost a year after the original was released. The Los Angeles rapper dropped the music video for “Thotiana” remix featuring YG to keep the momentum going.
The humorous Cole Bennett-directed visual is partially based on the rapper’s real life. Johnathan Porter, better known as Blueface, was the starting quarterback for the Arleta football team — Bill Coan told the Los Angeles Times that Porter was “very coachable” and lead the team to a 2014 East Valley League championship. As far as musical mini-biopics go, the video for the “Thotiana” remix takes numerous liberties. It’s hard to imagine that Blueface’s high school football coach was screaming, “It ain’t no fun if the coach can’t have none.”
One of the reasons Blueface — and by extension “Thotiana” — has become a surging hit is because of its divisiveness. The Cash Money West rapper employs a flow that looks at the beat as a suggestion, instead of something to be followed.
“Everybody say I’m offbeat. I wrote that motherfucking song to the beat,” he told Genius in December. “I wouldn’t have had a ‘Thotiana’ if I didn’t hear the beat first. The first thing that start crack the song was Thotiana. I had that word that was going to be in the song regardless. It was like a puzzle. I had Thotiana. I just had to fill in the blanks.”