Eye Of Rah

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Published July 30, 2026

Eye of Rah is a photoshopped image of TikToker Rashad Bowens with a single cyclops eye and one red dreadlock standing straight up like a flame. Created by TikToker Jeremiah Springfield in November 2024, the edit went viral in early January 2025 as part of the brainrot and sludge content wave, often stacked with I Bought a Property in Egypt and Chopped Chin.

Overview

Eye of Rah is a photoshopped image of TikToker Rashad Bowens turned into a cyclops with a single red dreadlock jutting straight up from his scalp like a flame1. The edit takes his deadpan reaction face and pushes it into cryptid territory, and it rode the brainrot and sludge content wave that dominated TikTok and Instagram Reels in early 20252. The name is a pun on the ancient Egyptian Eye of Ra symbol, though the meme carries no actual mythological meaning beyond the wordplay3.

Bowens, a would-be professional boxer who posts on TikTok as @lilbotheme and on Instagram as @bothemess, is known for blunt reaction stitches and red dreads that sometimes stick straight upward on their own3. The Eye of Rah image is almost always paired with his line "Ay, yo, chill the fuck out, yo," pulled from a 2022 stitch of his4. Creators layer CapCut fire effects, dramatic gong hits, and glowing eye animations over the still, pushing the edit into deliberately surreal territory that made it a staple of the Hood Irony format5.

Origin & Background

Platform
TikTok (source video) / TikTok and Instagram Reels (viral spread)
Creator
Jeremiah Springfield
Date
2024

On December 11, 2022, Rashad Bowens (@lilbotheme) posted a stitch of a man reacting dramatically to a cucumber being salted, cutting in with the flat delivery "Ay, yo, chill the fuck out, yo"4. That clip drew over 597,700 plays and 66,500 likes across the following two years, but it had no cyclops framing at that point4. It was just a Bowens reaction video, one of many.

On November 26, 2024, TikToker Jeremiah Springfield (@frightenedsheep25937582) posted his edit of that clip, giving Bowens a single cyclops eye and a solitary red dread pointing straight up1. Springfield later told the Daily Dot the idea grew out of the Hood Cryptids trend and that he wanted to turn Bowens into a mythical figure1. The TikTok upload pulled 1.7 million plays and 283,800 likes within two months, and the Instagram cross-post picked up another 622,100 likes4. Two days after the edit dropped, TikTok user @zketchum left the comment "eye of ra ✌️" underneath, and that comment collected 21,000 likes and locked in the meme's name4.

How It Spread

The edit picked up momentum through late December 2024. On December 22, Instagram user @skaxta posted a version stripped down to Bowens delivering his catchphrase with a single CapCut flame frame flashing the cyclops face, and that video pulled 451,100 likes in 15 days4. Around the same time, edits started blending with other trending TikTok formats, specifically I Bought a Property in Egypt and Chopped Chin, forming the layered sludge stack that defined early 2025 brainrot TikTok2.

January 4, 2025 was the tipping point. TikToker @.bob911_ posted a mashup of Eye of Rah, I Bought a Property in Egypt, and Chopped Chin that hit 1.8 million plays and 285,500 likes in two days4. The meme jumped platforms the next day when X user @Craftiest_ reposted an Eye of Rah edit captioned "We're meant to be the most intelligent species BTW," pulling 5,500 likes overnight4. Springfield went back to the well on January 5 with a new edit built on the King Von Anti-Piracy Screen format, which scored 974,800 plays and 155,000 likes in a single day4.

Mainstream explainers followed almost immediately. India Today, Dexerto, and Geo.tv all ran breakdowns of the meme within the same week325. On January 10, 2025, Know Your Meme published a joint interview with Springfield and Bowens4. Bowens told the site he wanted to bring positivity through the meme and had never really felt normal, saying he always wanted to be something in life4. Springfield, meanwhile, told the Daily Dot he loved seeing the remixes but felt he was not getting enough recognition as the original editor1.

How to Use This Meme

A typical Eye of Rah video reuses the same cyclops still of Bowens with the upward red dread, either pasted over trending audio or dropped as a punchline frame with a Chinese gong sound effect2. Creators often stack the still on top of I Bought a Property in Egypt narration or Chopped Chin edits, forming a layered brainrot format where none of the references have to logically fit together1. CapCut fire effects, mystical music, and the original "Ay, yo, chill the fuck out, yo" audio underneath are the common conventions, along with fake lore captions treating the cyclops as an actual cryptid3.

Cultural Impact

The Eye of Rah run made Rashad Bowens a recognizable face well beyond his boxing content and reaction stitches, and it turned his catchphrase into one of the most-quoted lines of the early 2025 brainrot cycle3. In early January 2026, a sequel edit called Eye of Horus started spreading as users tried to force it into being the "first meme of 2026," a callback specifically framed around the original Eye of Rah run4. Springfield's public complaint that he was underrecognized for making the original edit also fed into a broader conversation about credit attribution in fast-moving TikTok trends1.

Fun Facts

Rashad Bowens is a would-be professional boxer, not a full-time creator, and he posts under @lilbotheme on TikTok and @bothemess on Instagram3.

The name 'Eye of Rah' came from a random TikTok comment by @zketchum posted two days after Springfield's edit went up4.

Springfield told the Daily Dot he loves seeing the remixes but feels he is not getting enough recognition for creating the original cyclops edit1.

Bowens told Know Your Meme the meme fulfilled a lifelong feeling of wanting to be 'something in life' and said he always wanted to bring positivity4.

The clip that got edited was originally Bowens interrupting a stitch of a man salting a cucumber, a 2022 reaction video with no cyclops framing at all4.

Derivatives & Variations

Eye of Horus

A sequel edit that emerged in early January 2026 as users attempted to make it the 'first meme of 2026'[4].

King Von Anti-Piracy Screen crossover

Springfield's own January 5, 2025 riff mashing Eye of Rah with the King Von Anti-Piracy Screen format, which pulled 974,800 plays in a day[4].

Chopped Chin / Property in Egypt stacks

The dominant format through early January 2025, layering Eye of Rah frames onto other brainrot audios for compound absurdity[2].

Frequently Asked Questions