Chart Climber: Sheck Wes’ “Mo Bamba” Can’t Stop Getting Bigger

Harlem rapper Sheck Wes‘ breakout hit “Mo Bamba” didn’t arrive with a bang. In fact, its lyrics weren’t even transcribed on Genius until nearly two months after its release. Now, the song is racking up tens of millions of streams and steadily climbing the Billboard Hot 100, reaching a new high of No. 31 on this week’s chart. Although it’s been buzzing since early 2018, “Mo Bamba” feels like it’s just getting started.

Sheck Wes quietly uploaded “Mo Bamba” to SoundCloud on June 16, 2017, but its story on Genius begins two months later, when it was finally transcribed on August 18. Throughout the entirety of 2017, the song managed to earn about 2,300 pageviews, or less than half of what it’s averaged per day in September 2018. In fact, “Mo Bamba” didn’t really start to take off until February 2018—a date that coincides with two major events. First, it was just one day after Sheck dropped the “Mo Bamba” video. Second, he announced on Twitter that he inked a joint deal between G.O.O.D. Music and Cactus Jack under Interscope, putting him under the wing of both Kanye West and Travis Scott.

From there, “Mo Bamba” started to exhibit slow but steady growth. It averaged 250 daily pageviews in March, 320 in April, and over 560 by May. In June, it really started to take off, crossing one thousand daily pageviews for the first time on June 3. The song saw continued gains throughout the summer, and was averaging over 4,000 daily pageviews by August. As The New York Times points out, this coincided with high-profile placements on the soundtracks for NBA 2K19 and The First Purge. Although the song was already a hit, it didn’t debut on the Billboard Hot 100 chart until September 8, launching at No. 82. Four weeks later, it sits at No. 42.

Just when it looked like the song couldn’t get any bigger, it experienced a massive spike on September 24. The song earned over 17,000 pageviews in one day, marking its most popular day on Genius by far. This likely comes thanks to a recent viral video, which showed the ceiling of a house party collapsing due to the weight of people dancing to the song:

The video also underscore’s “Mo Bamba”’s multiple meme moments. Sheck’s booming baritone on the song’s chorus has been a frequently cited line:

I got hoes calling a young nigga phone (ring ring)
Where’s Ali with the motherfucking dope? (bitch, bitch)

About halfway through the song, Sheck’s only verse also begins with lyrics that have attracted outsized attention:

Oh! Fuck! Shit! Bitch!
Young Sheck Wes and I’m getting really rich (ching-ching)

As Denzel Baptiste of the production duo Take A Daytrip explained to The New York Times, these lyrics came about completely by accident after his laptop froze during the recording session. “I could see the playhead moving and then everything freezes and then there’s no music,” he said. “So [Sheck] was like, ‘Fuck! Shit!–’ and then right when he said ‘Bitch!’ everything just unfroze. It was like he did a triple backflip and landed perfectly on his feet.”

Then there’s the title, which is named after Orlando Magic center Mohamed Bamba, whom Sheck knew growing up. “My friend Mo Bamba, who was a draft pick [at the time], asked me to put his name in the song or somethin',” Sheck explained to Genius during his Verified interview. “But, then I started freestylin' but I was freestylin' about all the people callin' me, and I guess it was just what I was talkin' about, and I was frustrated about and I made this one-take freestyle about Mo Bamba and how I’m like Mo Bamba, like I’m a athlete. I was being recruited the same way as athletes do.”

With “Mo Bamba” making another big jump up the charts this week and the NBA pre-season kicking off on Friday, the song seems poised to climb even further. It’s set to appear on Sheck Wes' upcoming debut album MUDBOY, which is expected to drop sometime before the end of the year. Over a year after its release, “Mo Bamba” is still on the ascent.

Catch up on all the lyrics to Sheck Wes' “Mo Bamba” on Genius now.