Nathaniel B

About

Nathaniel B, also known as Ain't You Nathaniel B?, refers to a viral video of a humorously bad rap freestyle and roast where a kid tries to rhyme "you can't handle me" with "hold up, ain't you Nathaniel B?" After it was reposted to TikTok in mid-2022, Nathaniel B became a memetic character and the video's audio became a notable sound, however, the original video was posted in 2020. People humorously speculated as to Who Is Nathaniel B? in the following days.

Origin

On July 31st, 2020, TikToker^[1] oscar_dozzz posted a "Part 5" video of a rap freestyle roast battle occurring between members of his high school football team. The freestyler wearing an orange shirt and neon headband in the video rapped, "That shit was trash. You can't handle me. Hold up, ain't you Nathaniel B?" and then shrugged as his friends jeered and laughed. Over the course of two years, the video received roughly 2.7 million plays and 397,000 likes.

On August 5th, 2022, oscar_dozzz's account was removed from TikTok, therefore deleting the original Nathaniel B video on the platform. However, reposts of the entire roast battle were made in mid-2022, therefore preserving the Nathaniel B lore. For instance, on August 1st, 2022, TikToker^[10] jacob_2828 uploaded a video that included all six freestyle videos from oscar_dozzz, earning roughly 314,600 plays and 31,000 likes in three days (shown below). At the 0:54-minute mark, the Nathaniel B clip starts.

Spread

The original Nathaniel B TikTok received lots of engagement in early August 2020, with commenters like TikToker chadio saying, "This is one of my worst fears," earning roughly 1,000 likes in two years. TikToker xavier_0213 commented, "My favorite is the 'what he say?'😭" earning over 80 likes in a similar timeframe.

Despite a 2020 origin, the Nathaniel B TikTok became a notable trend in mid-2022 when viral reposts of it resurfaced. On July 6th, 2022, TikToker^[2] kindfellow3 uploaded a repost with text overlay reading, "Who tf nathaniel b???" and gained roughly 2.3 million plays and 384,800 likes in four weeks (shown below).

On July 8th, 2022, YouTuber ^[3] TheMightyFerim uploaded kindfellow3's TikTok,^[2] gaining roughly 24,000 views and 1,800 likes in three weeks. On July 13th, Twitter^[9] user bappyKG tweeted a video that cut from the Nathaniel B freestyle to the profile picture of YouTuber Nathaniel Bandy, earning roughly 3,700 views and over 430 likes in three weeks (shown below). On July 15th, Instagram^[4] user willawanna reposted the Nathaniel Bandy video, earning roughly 14,700 views and 3,600 likes in two weeks.

pic.twitter.com/yPfluDgY7s

— ً (@bappyKG) July 13, 2022

Continuing into July and August 2022, the Nathaniel B video earned shitpost style edits across TikTok. For instance, on July 30th, 2022, TikToker^[4] dlx_cherry shared an esoteric edit that flashed imagery from the anime Azumanga Daioh, earning roughly 29,900 likes in one day (shown below, left). On July 31st, TikToker^[5] 27bplz408v91njkw3uo uploaded a Nathaniel B shitpost, earning roughly 243,500 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).

Overall, meme creators and TikTokers speculated in their videos who Nathaniel B was. They'd layer image macros showing screenshots of internet users named Nathaniel B.

Who Is Nathaniel B? / Nathaniel B Explained

The freestyler who said "Ain't you Nathaniel B?" in the original video was revealed to be TikToker^[6] princemaj3. He posted a duet^[7] with 27bplz408v91njkw3uo's TikTok^[5] on July 31st, earning roughly 400,300 plays and 42,800 likes in less than a day (shown below, left).

On August 1st, 2022, TikToker^[8] princemaj3 posted an "explanation" video. He said he was a high school freshman when the video was recorded and it was the end of the football season. At the time, he was a "known Soundcloud rapper at the school," so he was ushered into the rap battle circle to face an upper-classman. According to him, Nathaniel was the name of the upper-classman's younger brother and he added "B" just to rhyme, being an abbreviation of the word "Bro." Princemaj3's "explanation" TikTok received roughly 174,500 plays and 34,000 likes in four hours (shown below, right).

Continued Spread

The Nathaniel B concept continued to spread in memes across social media, transcending outside of video content and becoming an image macro caption. For instance, on July 31st, 2022, Twitter^[11] user CoweyBee captioned the Stressed Homelander video with, "me after almost saying 'ain’t you nathaniel b' at the dinner table," earning roughly 1,000 likes in four days (shown below)

me after almost saying “ain’t you nathaniel b” at the dinner table pic.twitter.com/Y33uHRITsT

— jolene (@CoweyBee) August 1, 2022

On August 1st, 2022, Twitter^[11] user peenapples captioned the Sitting Wolf Meme with, "he wasn’t nathaniel b," earning over 1,000 likes in three days (shown below, left). On August 2nd, 2022, Twitter^[13] user blackzoronoa tweeted, "Why Nathaniel B is actually probably the most intelligent and well thought out line in rap history 🧵," and received over 3,000 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Blackzoronoa then started a thread to defend their satirical point, posting a reply^[14] that levied their first defense:

The name nathaniel b has a certain mystique about it. if he named him to be some infamous celebrity, it wouldn’t be the same. because no one knows who nathaniel b is, presumably other than the original speaker. this means that he is able to say that this nathaniel b has committed…
The most heinous and horrific things. This suggests a couple things. I could go into the many things this would imply but for now I'll go with the 3 most obvious theories. Theory one: This man had, effectively, created Nathaniel B. and referring to his opponent as nathaniel b…
Makes it evident Nathaniel B in itself is a concept created within the lyricists own mind. Nathaniel B isn't any man or woman or ideology. Basically, he is trying to convey the fact that he created his opponent and basically owns him…

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References