Close-up selfie portrait of rapper IceJJFish smiling

IceJJFish

2014viral videoclassic

Published August 31, 2026

IceJJFish is the stage name of Daniel Mcloyd, a singer-rapper who became internet-famous in early 2014 for a run of YouTube music videos featuring earnestly off-key vocals. His track 'On the Floor' hit Reddit and the Huffington Post that February, turning his sincere but tuneless serenading into a widely shared 'so bad it's good' clip.

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Overview

The IceJJFish appeal centers on the disconnect between how seriously Mcloyd performs and how his vocals actually sound. His videos usually show him deadpan-serenading a woman while singing high-pitched, wildly off-key notes over slow R&B beats, with the confidence of someone who thinks he is delivering hit material2. Viewers cannot fully tell whether the whole thing is a bit or a real bid at music stardom.

The catalogue includes original tracks like 'On the Floor' and 'No Topping You' alongside covers of mainstream hits like Drake's 'Hold On, We're Going Home'3. The YouTube description for 'On the Floor' infamously called Mcloyd 'comparable to the second coming of Jesus.. maybe even 2pac,' a claim the Huffington Post mocked in its writeup by asking whether the video was 'a real effort from a real person'1. That combination of straight-faced grandiosity and comically bad execution is what turned him into a recurring reference point rather than a one-off clip.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (viral spread on Reddit)
Creator
Daniel Mcloyd
Date
2014

Daniel Mcloyd uploaded his first YouTube video on December 20th, 2011, a cover of Juvenile's 1999 hip hop track 'Back That Ass Up'4. He followed a week later with a rap song called 'DMoney – Higher Than an Airplane,' then pivoted in early 2012 to singing clips like 'The Best Singer Ever to Live' (January 11th) and 'The Most Talented Singer Ever' (January 20th), both featuring high-pitched vocals over hand-drummed beats3.

How It Spread

IceJJFish's audience started expanding in late 2013. His November 18th, 2013 cover of Drake's 'Hold On, We're Going Home' pulled in more than 555,000 views and over 2,200 comments in the three months that followed5. On January 6th, 2014, the channel dropped a music video for 'No Topping You,' with a shirtless Mcloyd embracing a woman while serenading her3.

The real breakout came in February 2014. On February 6th, he uploaded the music video for 'On the Floor,' showing him wooing a young woman across a string of locations2. The next day, Reddit user mrpinenutz submitted the clip to /r/videos, where it collected more than 1,700 upvotes and 280 comments, while Mcloyd's 'The Famous Ice JJ Fish' Facebook page (launched December 3rd, 2013) picked up over 25,600 likes inside two months3. On February 9th, the Huffington Post covered the video, calling it 'mind-blowingly terrible (and terribly hilarious)' and pointing to reaction footage from the model in the video as a sign that everyone involved understood the kitsch value1.

How to Use This Meme

IceJJFish is a person and a music catalogue rather than a template, so 'using' the meme usually means sharing one of his tracks, typically 'On the Floor' or the Drake cover, as a go-to example of earnest but wildly off-key singing. His clips often get dropped into threads about the worst music videos ever made, or paired with straight-faced captions that mirror the tone of his own 'Jesus.. maybe even 2pac' description.

Frequently Asked Questions