"Savage" is released

Why it matters

"Savage" came out March 6, 2020, on 1501 Certified Entertainment/300 Entertainment. Megan Thee Stallion (Megan Pete) was a Houston MC who had been building her catalog since the late 2010s. The song was produced by J. White Did It (the same producer behind Cardi's "Bodak Yellow" three years earlier). The song would not have become the cultural event it became without TikTok. A 19-year-old Atlanta choreographer named Keara Wilson created a six-step dance routine to "Savage" and posted it to TikTok days after the song dropped. The dance went viral. By April, the choreography was the most-imitated dance challenge on the platform, with millions of users posting their own versions. Megan added a remix featuring Beyoncé in late April, which sent both versions of the song to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The "Savage" trajectory is the prototype of a 2020-era hit: short, hooky, choreography-ready, TikTok-amplified. You can hear the post-TikTok rap structure starting to crystallize on this single. The next four years of commercial-rap singles would be built on the template.