Turn Down For What

2013Catchphrase / viral song / video remix templatesemi-active

Also known as: TD4W · TDFW

Turn Down For What is a 2013 trap song by DJ Snake and Lil Jon whose massive bass drop and iconic yell became a viral meme template for chaos and refusing to calm down.

"Turn Down for What" is a trap song by DJ Snake and Lil Jon released in December 2013 that became one of the biggest memes of 2014. The track's simple structure, built around Lil Jon's signature yell and a massive bass drop, made it the perfect soundtrack for chaotic fail videos and over-the-top reaction clips across Vine and YouTube. Its surreal music video directed by Daniels passed 1 billion YouTube views in 2020, and the phrase itself became shorthand for refusing to calm down in any situation.

music memesvine memescatchphrase memesmid 2010s memesparticipatory video memes

Overview

"Turn Down for What" is a rhetorical question. To "turn up" means to party hard, get wild, lose control. To "turn down" means to stop, calm down, sober up. So "turn down for what?" is basically asking: why would I stop?5 The song strips that idea down to its most aggressive form: a pounding trap beat, minimal lyrics, and Lil Jon screaming the title phrase over and over.

The meme format typically involves syncing the song's build-up and bass drop to footage of something chaotic, destructive, or absurdly energetic. A speedboat full of people wiping out. Kittens headbanging. Someone faceplanting at a party. The structure is always the same: calm setup, Lil Jon yells, everything goes sideways. The dramatic pause before the drop functions as a blank canvas for a physical punchline2.

The phrase "turn down for what" predates the song. On October 14, 2013, Urban Dictionary user Blair Waldourf submitted a definition calling it a "rhetorical question" used to signal a desire to keep partying3. The phrase was already floating around hip-hop culture and social media before DJ Snake and Lil Jon gave it a beat.

DJ Snake, a French producer, and Lil Jon had connected years before recording together. DJ Snake sent Lil Jon a beat with a sample vocal, asking him to redo it with his own voice. Lil Jon heard the track and decided the beat was "too crazy" for the existing sample. "The first thing that came to mind was the phrase 'Turn Down for What!'" he said in an interview4. Columbia Records released the single on December 18, 20134. By the last week of that month, it had cracked the top 10 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic chart3.

On March 13, 2014, the official music video dropped on the DJSnakeVEVO YouTube channel3. Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the filmmaking duo known as Daniels, the video stars Kwan and dancer Sunita Mani in a surreal apartment building where residents burst through floors while performing aggressively sexual dance moves4. Kwan explained the concept: "For a while Daniel and I had been wanting to explore male sexuality in a really weird way... dudes are so pumped up on their own dicks, and they're so into their testosterone, that the way that they show that is by breaking shit with their dicks"4. Within three months, the video had over 55.5 million views3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Columbia Records (single release), YouTube (music video), Vine (meme spread)
Key People
DJ Snake, Lil Jon, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert / Daniels
Date
2013

The phrase "turn down for what" predates the song. On October 14, 2013, Urban Dictionary user Blair Waldourf submitted a definition calling it a "rhetorical question" used to signal a desire to keep partying. The phrase was already floating around hip-hop culture and social media before DJ Snake and Lil Jon gave it a beat.

DJ Snake, a French producer, and Lil Jon had connected years before recording together. DJ Snake sent Lil Jon a beat with a sample vocal, asking him to redo it with his own voice. Lil Jon heard the track and decided the beat was "too crazy" for the existing sample. "The first thing that came to mind was the phrase 'Turn Down for What!'" he said in an interview. Columbia Records released the single on December 18, 2013. By the last week of that month, it had cracked the top 10 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic chart.

On March 13, 2014, the official music video dropped on the DJSnakeVEVO YouTube channel. Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the filmmaking duo known as Daniels, the video stars Kwan and dancer Sunita Mani in a surreal apartment building where residents burst through floors while performing aggressively sexual dance moves. Kwan explained the concept: "For a while Daniel and I had been wanting to explore male sexuality in a really weird way... dudes are so pumped up on their own dicks, and they're so into their testosterone, that the way that they show that is by breaking shit with their dicks". Within three months, the video had over 55.5 million views.

How It Spread

The song hit the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2014, debuting at No. 38 before eventually peaking at No. 4. It was certified gold by February and sold its first million copies in the U.S. by March. But the meme life of "Turn Down for What" moved even faster than its chart climb.

On March 22, 2014, Redditor Wonderbotz posted the music video to r/videos, where it pulled over 16,200 upvotes. Vine creators immediately latched onto the format. The platform's 6-second loop was practically designed for the song's build-and-drop structure. Creators would film a mundane setup, let the tension build, then cut to chaos right as the drop hit.

On April 23, 2014, YouTuber TDFWFail uploaded a compilation of people falling off a speedboat set to the song, racking up 2.1 million views in six weeks. Two days later, Laina Morris (the Overly Attached Girlfriend) posted a vlog confessing minor transgressions punctuated by Lil Jon's yell. On May 4, TheFineBros featured the music video in their Teens React series, pulling 4.2 million views. On May 29, a video of two kittens bobbing their heads to the beat hit YouTube and jumped to Reddit's r/videos front page within hours.

A fan-made single-serving site, TD4WButton.com, offered visitors nothing but a big blue button that played the chorus on loop. It was the meme distilled to its purest form: one click, maximum chaos.

By mid-2014, the song had become the seventh best-selling track of the year in the U.S. with 3,449,000 copies sold. Three official remixes followed in rapid succession: one featuring Juicy J, 2 Chainz, and French Montana (April 26), a dancehall remix with Chi Ching Ching, Assassin, and Konshens (April 28), and a Lil Jon remix with Pitbull and Ludacris (May 7).

Platforms

RedditTwitterTikTokInstagram

Timeline

2013

Turn Down For What first appears online

2013

Gains traction on social media

2014

Reaches peak popularity

2015-01-01

Turn Down For What reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

2016-01-01

Brands and companies started using Turn Down For What in marketing

2018-01-01

Turn Down For What entered the broader pop culture conversation

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The classic "Turn Down for What" meme format follows a simple template:

1

Find or film a setup. This is usually a calm, mundane, or suspenseful moment. Someone standing on a boat. A cat sitting still. A person about to do something risky.

2

Sync the build-up. Let the tension from the song's rising instrumental play over the setup footage.

3

Cut to chaos on the drop. Right when Lil Jon yells "TURN DOWN FOR WHAT" and the bass hits, the footage cuts to (or reveals) something going spectacularly wrong, absurdly energetic, or hilariously destructive.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

The music video cleaned up at award shows throughout 2014 and into 2015. It won Video of the Year and Best Dance Video-International at the UK Music Video Awards in London. At the 2014 MTV VMAs, it took home Best Direction and received three additional nominations for MTV Clubland Award, Best Visual Effects, and Best Art Direction. The Grammy Awards nominated it for Best Music Video in 2015.

Critics largely embraced the song's stripped-down intensity. Rolling Stone ranked it the second best song of 2014, calling it "the year's nutsiest party jam" and "the perfect protest banger for a generation fed up with everything". The Guardian's Ben Beaumont-Thomas described it as "magnificently shallow," praising "Lil Jon's yelling as cement" holding together the track's relentless energy. The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll placed it at No. 9 for the year, tied with Beyonce's "Flawless".

Not everyone was sold. Billboard's year-end panel saw Caitlin White call it "cliched debauchery" and Jillian Mapes dismiss it as "totally one-note, almost a novelty song". Jon Caramanica of The New York Times acknowledged it as a "hyperkinetic banger" but noted it was "not the sort of song Lil Jon could have made on his own," crediting DJ Snake's production as the key ingredient.

The phrase escaped the internet entirely by late 2014. It showed up at sports events, in brand marketing, and across mainstream media. The Daniels, who directed the video, went on to direct Everything Everywhere All at Once, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2023. Their "Turn Down for What" video is often cited as an early showcase of their distinctive surrealist style.

In late 2020, seven years after release, the music video crossed 1 billion views on YouTube.

Fun Facts

DJ Snake described the collaboration by saying Lil Jon "absolutely blew my mind" when he sent back his vocal take.

The song is written in E Phrygian mode and set at 100 beats per minute, a relatively moderate tempo that makes the aggressive bass feel even heavier.

The music video's directors, Daniels, later won the Oscar for Best Picture with Everything Everywhere All at Once (2023), making "Turn Down for What" arguably the most chaotic entry on any Best Picture director's filmography.

The song earned eight platinum certifications in the United States.

Urban Dictionary had a definition for "turn down for what" two full months before the song dropped, showing the phrase was already in circulation.

Derivatives & Variations

TD4W Button

— A single-serving fan site (td4wbutton.com) with nothing but a clickable blue button that plays the chorus on demand[1].

Official remixes

— Three remix versions released in late April/early May 2014 featuring Juicy J, 2 Chainz, French Montana, Pitbull, Ludacris, Chi Ching Ching, Assassin, and Konshens[4].

Teens React episode

— TheFineBros featured the music video in their popular reaction format, pulling 4.2 million views and introducing the song to a younger audience[3].

Speedboat fail edit

— The TDFWFail YouTube channel's compilation of people falling off a speedboat synced to the song hit 2.1 million views and became one of the most-shared early edits[3].

Frequently Asked Questions

Turn Down For What

2013Catchphrase / viral song / video remix templatesemi-active

Also known as: TD4W · TDFW

Turn Down For What is a 2013 trap song by DJ Snake and Lil Jon whose massive bass drop and iconic yell became a viral meme template for chaos and refusing to calm down.

"Turn Down for What" is a trap song by DJ Snake and Lil Jon released in December 2013 that became one of the biggest memes of 2014. The track's simple structure, built around Lil Jon's signature yell and a massive bass drop, made it the perfect soundtrack for chaotic fail videos and over-the-top reaction clips across Vine and YouTube. Its surreal music video directed by Daniels passed 1 billion YouTube views in 2020, and the phrase itself became shorthand for refusing to calm down in any situation.

music memes vine memes catchphrase memes mid 2010s memes participatory video memes

Overview

"Turn Down for What" is a rhetorical question. To "turn up" means to party hard, get wild, lose control. To "turn down" means to stop, calm down, sober up. So "turn down for what?" is basically asking: why would I stop? The song strips that idea down to its most aggressive form: a pounding trap beat, minimal lyrics, and Lil Jon screaming the title phrase over and over.

The meme format typically involves syncing the song's build-up and bass drop to footage of something chaotic, destructive, or absurdly energetic. A speedboat full of people wiping out. Kittens headbanging. Someone faceplanting at a party. The structure is always the same: calm setup, Lil Jon yells, everything goes sideways. The dramatic pause before the drop functions as a blank canvas for a physical punchline.

The phrase "turn down for what" predates the song. On October 14, 2013, Urban Dictionary user Blair Waldourf submitted a definition calling it a "rhetorical question" used to signal a desire to keep partying. The phrase was already floating around hip-hop culture and social media before DJ Snake and Lil Jon gave it a beat.

DJ Snake, a French producer, and Lil Jon had connected years before recording together. DJ Snake sent Lil Jon a beat with a sample vocal, asking him to redo it with his own voice. Lil Jon heard the track and decided the beat was "too crazy" for the existing sample. "The first thing that came to mind was the phrase 'Turn Down for What!'" he said in an interview. Columbia Records released the single on December 18, 2013. By the last week of that month, it had cracked the top 10 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic chart.

On March 13, 2014, the official music video dropped on the DJSnakeVEVO YouTube channel. Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the filmmaking duo known as Daniels, the video stars Kwan and dancer Sunita Mani in a surreal apartment building where residents burst through floors while performing aggressively sexual dance moves. Kwan explained the concept: "For a while Daniel and I had been wanting to explore male sexuality in a really weird way... dudes are so pumped up on their own dicks, and they're so into their testosterone, that the way that they show that is by breaking shit with their dicks". Within three months, the video had over 55.5 million views.

Origin & Background

Platform
Columbia Records (single release), YouTube (music video), Vine (meme spread)
Key People
DJ Snake, Lil Jon, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert / Daniels
Date
2013

The phrase "turn down for what" predates the song. On October 14, 2013, Urban Dictionary user Blair Waldourf submitted a definition calling it a "rhetorical question" used to signal a desire to keep partying. The phrase was already floating around hip-hop culture and social media before DJ Snake and Lil Jon gave it a beat.

DJ Snake, a French producer, and Lil Jon had connected years before recording together. DJ Snake sent Lil Jon a beat with a sample vocal, asking him to redo it with his own voice. Lil Jon heard the track and decided the beat was "too crazy" for the existing sample. "The first thing that came to mind was the phrase 'Turn Down for What!'" he said in an interview. Columbia Records released the single on December 18, 2013. By the last week of that month, it had cracked the top 10 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic chart.

On March 13, 2014, the official music video dropped on the DJSnakeVEVO YouTube channel. Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the filmmaking duo known as Daniels, the video stars Kwan and dancer Sunita Mani in a surreal apartment building where residents burst through floors while performing aggressively sexual dance moves. Kwan explained the concept: "For a while Daniel and I had been wanting to explore male sexuality in a really weird way... dudes are so pumped up on their own dicks, and they're so into their testosterone, that the way that they show that is by breaking shit with their dicks". Within three months, the video had over 55.5 million views.

How It Spread

The song hit the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2014, debuting at No. 38 before eventually peaking at No. 4. It was certified gold by February and sold its first million copies in the U.S. by March. But the meme life of "Turn Down for What" moved even faster than its chart climb.

On March 22, 2014, Redditor Wonderbotz posted the music video to r/videos, where it pulled over 16,200 upvotes. Vine creators immediately latched onto the format. The platform's 6-second loop was practically designed for the song's build-and-drop structure. Creators would film a mundane setup, let the tension build, then cut to chaos right as the drop hit.

On April 23, 2014, YouTuber TDFWFail uploaded a compilation of people falling off a speedboat set to the song, racking up 2.1 million views in six weeks. Two days later, Laina Morris (the Overly Attached Girlfriend) posted a vlog confessing minor transgressions punctuated by Lil Jon's yell. On May 4, TheFineBros featured the music video in their Teens React series, pulling 4.2 million views. On May 29, a video of two kittens bobbing their heads to the beat hit YouTube and jumped to Reddit's r/videos front page within hours.

A fan-made single-serving site, TD4WButton.com, offered visitors nothing but a big blue button that played the chorus on loop. It was the meme distilled to its purest form: one click, maximum chaos.

By mid-2014, the song had become the seventh best-selling track of the year in the U.S. with 3,449,000 copies sold. Three official remixes followed in rapid succession: one featuring Juicy J, 2 Chainz, and French Montana (April 26), a dancehall remix with Chi Ching Ching, Assassin, and Konshens (April 28), and a Lil Jon remix with Pitbull and Ludacris (May 7).

Platforms

RedditTwitterTikTokInstagram

Timeline

2013

Turn Down For What first appears online

2013

Gains traction on social media

2014

Reaches peak popularity

2015-01-01

Turn Down For What reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

2016-01-01

Brands and companies started using Turn Down For What in marketing

2018-01-01

Turn Down For What entered the broader pop culture conversation

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The classic "Turn Down for What" meme format follows a simple template:

1

Find or film a setup. This is usually a calm, mundane, or suspenseful moment. Someone standing on a boat. A cat sitting still. A person about to do something risky.

2

Sync the build-up. Let the tension from the song's rising instrumental play over the setup footage.

3

Cut to chaos on the drop. Right when Lil Jon yells "TURN DOWN FOR WHAT" and the bass hits, the footage cuts to (or reveals) something going spectacularly wrong, absurdly energetic, or hilariously destructive.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

The music video cleaned up at award shows throughout 2014 and into 2015. It won Video of the Year and Best Dance Video-International at the UK Music Video Awards in London. At the 2014 MTV VMAs, it took home Best Direction and received three additional nominations for MTV Clubland Award, Best Visual Effects, and Best Art Direction. The Grammy Awards nominated it for Best Music Video in 2015.

Critics largely embraced the song's stripped-down intensity. Rolling Stone ranked it the second best song of 2014, calling it "the year's nutsiest party jam" and "the perfect protest banger for a generation fed up with everything". The Guardian's Ben Beaumont-Thomas described it as "magnificently shallow," praising "Lil Jon's yelling as cement" holding together the track's relentless energy. The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll placed it at No. 9 for the year, tied with Beyonce's "Flawless".

Not everyone was sold. Billboard's year-end panel saw Caitlin White call it "cliched debauchery" and Jillian Mapes dismiss it as "totally one-note, almost a novelty song". Jon Caramanica of The New York Times acknowledged it as a "hyperkinetic banger" but noted it was "not the sort of song Lil Jon could have made on his own," crediting DJ Snake's production as the key ingredient.

The phrase escaped the internet entirely by late 2014. It showed up at sports events, in brand marketing, and across mainstream media. The Daniels, who directed the video, went on to direct Everything Everywhere All at Once, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2023. Their "Turn Down for What" video is often cited as an early showcase of their distinctive surrealist style.

In late 2020, seven years after release, the music video crossed 1 billion views on YouTube.

Fun Facts

DJ Snake described the collaboration by saying Lil Jon "absolutely blew my mind" when he sent back his vocal take.

The song is written in E Phrygian mode and set at 100 beats per minute, a relatively moderate tempo that makes the aggressive bass feel even heavier.

The music video's directors, Daniels, later won the Oscar for Best Picture with Everything Everywhere All at Once (2023), making "Turn Down for What" arguably the most chaotic entry on any Best Picture director's filmography.

The song earned eight platinum certifications in the United States.

Urban Dictionary had a definition for "turn down for what" two full months before the song dropped, showing the phrase was already in circulation.

Derivatives & Variations

TD4W Button

— A single-serving fan site (td4wbutton.com) with nothing but a clickable blue button that plays the chorus on demand[1].

Official remixes

— Three remix versions released in late April/early May 2014 featuring Juicy J, 2 Chainz, French Montana, Pitbull, Ludacris, Chi Ching Ching, Assassin, and Konshens[4].

Teens React episode

— TheFineBros featured the music video in their popular reaction format, pulling 4.2 million views and introducing the song to a younger audience[3].

Speedboat fail edit

— The TDFWFail YouTube channel's compilation of people falling off a speedboat synced to the song hit 2.1 million views and became one of the most-shared early edits[3].

Frequently Asked Questions