New Orleans has a way of turning a simple vibe into a global movement without even trying. You've seen it with the bounce era, you saw it with No Limit, and then, seemingly out of nowhere, you saw it with a teenager named Lil Elt. If you spent any time on TikTok or Triller around 2020, you couldn't escape the infectious, chaotic energy of Lil Elt Get the Gat. It wasn’t just a song. It was a rhythmic explosion that felt like a block party condensed into a few seconds of audio. But here is the thing: the song wasn't new. Not even close.
It’s actually a decade-old track that found a second life through the sheer power of internet nostalgia and the "Get the Gat" challenge.
Most people think viral hits are manufactured in a lab by record executives or high-paid influencers. That is rarely the case with New Orleans music. The city breathes a specific type of syncopated rhythm that is hard to fake. When the LSU football team started dancing to it in the locker room after their 2020 National Championship win, the world took notice. That was the spark. But the fuel? That was years of New Orleans bounce culture finally catching a digital wave that was big enough to carry it across the globe.
The Long Journey of a 2010 Anthem
Let’s get the timeline straight because accuracy matters. Lil Elt, whose real name is Elton Simon, originally released "Get the Gat" back in 2010. He was just a kid. At the time, it was a local hit, the kind of track you’d hear at a playground or a graduation party in the 7th Ward. It lived on MySpace and local mixtapes. It was grassroots.
It stayed local for ten years. Think about that.
For an entire decade, "Get the Gat" was a regional secret. Then, the internet did that weird thing it does. In late 2019 and early 2020, the song resurfaced. It started with a dance challenge. People weren't just listening; they were moving. The dance involves a specific shoulder-heavy bounce, a rhythmic thrust that mimics the beat's stuttering percussion. It's deceptively simple but hard to master if you don't have that "New Orleans in your bones" kind of feel.
The song itself is a masterclass in the bounce genre. It utilizes the "Triggerman" beat—the foundational DNA of New Orleans rap—specifically the "Drag Rap" sample from The Showboys. If you hear that boom-chk-boom-chk, you’re hearing the heartbeat of the city. Lil Elt’s vocals are raw. They aren't polished by Auto-Tune or heavy engineering. It’s a call-and-response style that feels like he’s standing right in front of you, yelling over a loud speaker at a parade.
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Why the LSU Locker Room Video Changed Everything
You can't talk about Lil Elt Get the Gat without mentioning the LSU Tigers. After Joe Burrow and the crew secured the national title, a video emerged from the locker room. It showed the players, including stars like Justin Jefferson and Ja'Marr Chase, absolutely losing it to this song. It was pure, unadulterated joy.
That video went everywhere. It wasn't just sports news; it was a cultural pivot.
Suddenly, people in Oregon and Maine and London were asking, "What is this song?" They were searching for those specific lyrics. The "gat" in the title refers to a gun, which is common in the vernacular of Southern rap, but the song's context in the viral trend became more about the "energy" and the "hit" of the beat than anything else. It became a celebration anthem.
The White House even got a taste of it. When the team visited, the players performed the dance on the lawn. It was surreal. A song born in the projects of New Orleans was being danced to at the seat of American power. That is the power of a hook that refuses to quit.
The Anatomy of a Bounce Hit
So, why did this specific song work when thousands of others failed? Honestly, it's the tempo. "Get the Gat" sits right in that sweet spot where your brain can't help but sync up with the rhythm.
- The Tempo: It’s fast enough to be high-energy but slow enough to allow for exaggerated dance moves.
- The Repetition: The chorus is a loop. It stays in your head. It’s an earworm that feeds on itself.
- The Authenticity: You can tell Lil Elt wasn't trying to make a "hit" for the charts. He was making a song for his neighborhood. People can smell a "packaged" viral attempt a mile away. This felt real.
Lil Elt himself seemed as surprised as anyone. In interviews following the resurgence, he was humble. He was a man who had moved on with his life, only to find out he was the biggest thing on the internet ten years later. It’s a testament to the fact that good art—or at least, catchy art—doesn't have an expiration date.
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The song eventually made its way to official streaming platforms, racking up tens of millions of plays. For a brief moment, New Orleans bounce wasn't just a subgenre; it was the soundtrack to the world.
The Cultural Impact and the "New" Viral Blueprint
What Lil Elt Get the Gat taught the music industry is that the "back catalog" is a gold mine. Labels started scouring old regional hits to see if they could spark a TikTok trend. But you can't force it. The "Get the Gat" challenge worked because it was organic. It started with the people who actually grew up with the music.
The song also highlighted the disparity in the music business. While the song was blowing up, there were questions about royalties and ownership. When a decade-old song goes viral, the legal paperwork is often a mess. Lil Elt had to navigate the transition from a local legend to a global streaming artist, which isn't as easy as it looks.
It also brought a spotlight back to the originators of the sound. It reminded people that the sounds they hear in Drake songs or trendy pop tracks often have deep roots in Black Southern culture. The "Triggerman" beat isn't just a sample; it's a legacy.
Misconceptions About the Lyrics
There is a lot of noise online about what the song is actually saying. Because it’s New Orleans bounce, the slang is thick.
People often misinterpret the energy as being purely aggressive. If you look at the "Get the Gat" videos, though, they are almost exclusively about community and humor. You see grandmas doing the dance. You see police officers (sometimes controversially) joining in. You see kids in school hallways. The song became a bridge.
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The phrase "Get the gat" is used more as a rhythmic punctuation than a literal directive. In the context of the dance, it's the "drop." It's the moment the energy peaks.
How to Lean into the Legacy
If you're a creator or just a fan of music history, there's a lot to learn here. The success of this track wasn't about marketing budgets. It was about a specific feeling.
- Focus on the feeling, not the polish. Lil Elt's recording is gritty. That grit is what makes it feel human. In an age of over-processed AI music, that raw human element is becoming more valuable.
- Understand regional roots. If you want to understand modern pop, you have to look at the regional sounds of cities like New Orleans, Memphis, and Detroit.
- Patience is a weird virtue. Sometimes your best work just hasn't found its era yet. 2010 Lil Elt was ahead of his time. 2020 the world finally caught up.
The "Get the Gat" era might have peaked in terms of daily TikTok trends, but the song has officially entered the pantheon of New Orleans classics. It joins the ranks of "Choppa Style" and "Back That Azz Up." It’s a song that will be played at weddings and second lines in Louisiana for the next fifty years.
To truly appreciate the phenomenon, you have to look past the 15-second clips. You have to listen to the full track and feel the weight of the production. It’s a relentless, pounding piece of music that demands your attention. It doesn't ask you to dance; it commands it.
The story of Lil Elt is a reminder that the internet is a chaotic equalizer. It can pluck a kid from the 7th Ward and put him on the global stage a decade after he thought his moment had passed. It's a bit of digital magic that happened to find the perfect beat.
Next Steps for Music Enthusiasts
To get the most out of this sound, you should dive deeper into the Hosea 'Pimp Daddy' Porter and DJ Jubilee catalogs. These are the architects of the sound Lil Elt perfected. Exploring the "Triggerman" beat's history through the documentary "Take It To The Streets" will give you the necessary context on why this specific rhythm resonates so deeply in the American South. Don't just watch the memes; understand the movement.