Over the last few weeks, a peculiar remix of 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?” and Nicki Minaj’s “Beez in the Trap” has taken TikTok by storm, with everyone from Sabrina Carpenter and Demi Lovato to Malala Yousafzai and Simone Biles joining in on the trend.
The videos start with Linda Perry’s signature vocals on the song — “I wake up in the morning and I step outside” — before the catchy beat of Minaj’s Pink Friday classic sneaks in for the background. As Perry lets out the song’s high notes, Minaj’s rap voice — “Bitches ain’t shit, and they ain’t say nothing” — takes over. It’s one of the most-posted tunes this month, with TikTokers using it as a soundtrack to show off Halloween costumes, hard-launch relationships, and showcase having friends with very different personalities.
DJ Aux Lord, an Ohio-based college senior who made the remix and asked not to be identified ny name or gender, is behind the viral sound, which they made and posted back in August. Their reaction to the big moment? “I’m so gagged,” they tell Rolling Stone. “It’s just been so crazy.”
The silly remix was posted to their TikTok page months ago, receiving 50,000 likes but not really spreading from there. Aux Lord, who has a background as a classically trained pianist and is currently studying psychology, says they started the page to share their adventurous mashups with close friends — and never expected a remix to have a moment like this.
“I think it’s really fun to mix songs that don’t have to do with each other. There was no real reason why I chose to mix these,” they say. “I don’t know if they were in the same key or similar keys, but I thought it was so funny. The beat on ‘Beez’ is so catchy that it went so well with the vocals.”
Only Aux Lord’s close friends know who is behind the account, which has been viewed millions of times and used over 400,000 times on the platform, including by members of Katseye, Dancing with the Stars competitors, Marcello Hernández, and, most recently by Lovato, Troye Sivan, Rachel Sennott, and Adéla.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Linda Perry calls the remix “ridiculous in all the best ways,” saying it made her get on TikTok for the very first time. Earlier this month, she joined artist Sophia Treadway in a lip-sync video using the song.
“She convinced me, and then after we released the version of me doing ‘What’s Up’ and her doing ‘Beez,’ her followers were like ‘FLIP IT’ and honestly, I don’t know what that means,” Perry says with a laugh. “I mean, it’s pretty awesome, I must say. It’s out of control.”
The trend has sparked a massive spike in Spotify streams for Minaj’s track, which jumped 460 percent globally this month — with Gen Z listeners driving a 2,120 percent jump in discovery of Minaj’s music through the song, according to information from the streaming platform. Meanwhile, 4 Non-Blondes’ “What’s Up” saw a 75 percent boost. The boost might seem small, but it’s because it already saw a jump last month thanks to Cardi B and Lizzo’s “What’s Goin’ On,” which sampled the original.
Minaj, for her part, used the TikTok sound to share a carousel of photos and encouraged fans to support those doing the trend: “Barbz, show love to the ppl doing the trend. love you. You’re cute. Or whatever.”
DJ Aux Lord jokes that their close friends call them “Radio Rebel,” a nod to the secret DJ character played by Debby Ryan in the Disney Channel Original, since they’ve been spinning at parties at their college (including one this weekend) without anyone knowing they’re behind the viral trend. Beyond the Perry-Minaj mashup, they’ve also blended HorsegiirL with the Beatles, Taylor Swift with Charli XCX, and Chappell Roan’s “The Subway” with City Girls’ “Act Up” — all while using an app on their iPad called DJ Pro. (At parties, they clarify, they use their DDJ-FLX4.)
“A lot of people think music mixing and DJing are hard to get into as a hobby, but it goes to show you don’t need expensive equipment to reach a large audience. I think I’m going to keep doing it for fun for now. It’s a fun hobby, but I might branch out in the winter and see if I could DJ at gigs as a side hustle,” they say. “I didn’t think I was going to go this far.”
Linda Perry, for her part, is manifesting a real-life moment with the Queen of Rap: “I think everyone is trying to get Nicki and me to do one together,” she says. “It would be fun, and the best part is? ‘I love Nicki Minaj!’”
