Who is bbno$?

Picture this: it’s 2019, and you’ve just downloaded TikTok for the first time. You scroll through a few videos and find that there seems to be a trend that has something stuck in your head for the rest of the day, “Did I really just forget that melody?” and think, can I do that transition too?

The source of this would have been the song “Lalala” by bbno$ and Y2K, which certainly made the rounds on 2019 TikTok. This song accompanied multiple trends at the time. Namely, outfit transitions at the beat drop or a challenge where people used various hand symbols and gestures to match the song’s beat. Needless to say, this song put bbno$’s name on the internet, blowing him up as a seemingly one-hit-wonder. But who is he, and why do people still know his name?

Baby no money (bbno$), or Alexander Leon Gumuchian, is a Canadian singer and rapper who has been on the Canadian Top 100 charts and internet famous since he released the famous single mentioned previously, “Lalala.” Born in Vancouver, his mother always encouraged him to learn and practice playing the piano, but he struggled to learn to read music and understand music theory. He was more interested in becoming a professional swimmer. Because of a back injury, he turned to make music on SoundCloud with a group of friends called Broke Boy Gang – though, eventually, he became a solo act on the site, going by bbnomula. He quickly succeeded with this, gaining a large following and audience, especially in China, where a well-known member of the dance crew TFBoys danced to one of Gumuchian’s songs and posted it online.

Moving over to Spotify in 2017, bbno$ started gaining even more of a following after he released an EP with Young Gravy titled Baby Gravy. His popularity continued to grow the more he released music on Spotify, especially with continued features from Young Gravy, as well as Y2K and Trippy Tha Kid. Then his music started trending on TikTok, and we all know what happens from there. He has remained active on social media and in his music creation, but it seems like bbno$ is a name that will always be affiliated with peak 2019 TikTok.

So, what changed? Why has there been a sudden resurgence of interest in bbno$? Well, that answer is simple: his engagement with fandom culture. I’m a huge nerd, so naturally, one of my favorite shows of all time is Netflix’s Arcane, a show based on the popular League of Legends game. This show features a wide variety of characters from the videogame and highlights the queer relationships, both canon and not, in its episodes. One such pairing, popularly shipped together by Arcane fans, is between the characters Viktor and Jayce Talis. Stay with me. There’s a point to this, I promise.

Recently, bbno$ had been teasing fans interested in the couple mentioned above (dubbed Jayvik by fans) on Twitter (sorry, Elon, nobody calls it X). Then, in January, he caused an uproar by posting a cosplay of Viktor alongside popular streamer and content creator Will Neff, who cosplayed Jayce. With the Arcane fandom being as large as it is, this blew up. And I mean, it really blew up. It was all over Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram—name the site, and I guarantee someone posted about it there. Fanarts, fan cams, and hilarious reactions were posted of this now-viral cosplay, and it put bbno$’s name right back into the Internet Hall of Fame.

I hadn’t seen or heard of bbno$’s content for years before he started talking about his interest in Arcane. I’m sure some people will read this and say, ‘Fake fan! I’ve kept up with him all this time!’ And to you, random reader, I am very happy for you. But I digress. With this, as well as his more recent cosplay of famous Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku, bbno$ has once again gained popularity with his core audience, and in doing so, has successfully managed to promote his new music, not only making his songs “two” and “it boy” go viral on TikTok but also allowing them to skyrocket in listeners, currently capped at over 30 and 70 million streams, respectively, on Spotify.

I, for one, can say that I’ve missed bbno$, and I’m glad he’s back. It certainly doesn’t hurt that he’s fanservicing me and fellow nerds across the internet! Stream his new single, “Check” today!

Strike Out,

Writer: Samantha Getchell

Editor: Dani Hernandez

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