Redbone is a 2016 Childish Gambino single that became a Twitter remix format in May 2017 after user @chloestixx posted a heavily muffled version captioned as what the song would sound like from a house party bathroom. The joke spawned dozens of situational audio remixes that flipped the sensual R&B track into an absurd sound design exercise.
Origin
"Redbone" was released on November 17th, 2016 as the second single off Awaken, My Love!, and Donald Glover's original video was uploaded to YouTube the same month[4]. It became Childish Gambino's first top 40 hit and later played over the opening and closing credits of Get Out[1].
The meme itself started on May 14th, 2017, when Twitter user @chloestixx posted a heavily muffled edit of the track with the caption "What Redbone would sound like while you're making out in the bathroom of a house party." The tweet pulled in tens of thousands of retweets and set the template for everything that followed[5][1].
- Platform: Twitter
- Creator: @chloestixx
- Date: 2017
Overview
Redbone is a Childish Gambino song from his 2016 album Awaken, My Love! that became a Twitter audio-meme format in May 2017[1]. The joke rides on a specific sonic quality: heavy low-pass filtering and muffled reverb that makes the track sound like it's playing through a wall. Users caption these edits with increasingly specific scenarios, most of them set in the bathroom of a house party[2].
The format works because Redbone's slow, bass-heavy groove already sounds moody and distant, so cranking the muffled effect up sells the bit instantly[3]. Once @chloestixx set the template, remixers stacked new sound layers over the muffled audio, urination sounds, video game noises, rapper adlibs, so each variation reads as a mini sound-design gag rather than a straight repost[2]. The song was already culturally charged from its use in Jordan Peele's Get Out, which helped keep it lodged in listeners' heads through the spring of 2017[1].
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Redbone?
Redbone is a 2016 Childish Gambino song that became a Twitter audio-remix meme in May 2017, built around muffled edits captioned as the track playing from a house party bathroom[1].
Where did Redbone come from?
The meme started with a May 14th, 2017 tweet from @chloestixx that captioned a heavily muffled edit of the song as what it would sound like while making out in a house party bathroom[5].
What does Redbone mean?
Outside the meme, "redbone" is slang used within Black American communities for a light-skinned person with red undertones, and historically for a specific tri-racial group in Louisiana[8]. In meme context, it's shorthand for the Childish Gambino song and its muffled-audio remixes[1].
How do you use Redbone?
The format typically takes a muffled edit of the song and adds a caption placing it in a specific scenario, often a bathroom setting, sometimes layered with extra sound effects or rapper adlibs like @YungMondi's Famous Dex version[2].
Is Redbone still popular?
The muffled-bathroom Twitter format peaked in May 2017 during the initial remix wave, and the song itself is still a widely recognized Childish Gambino hit thanks to its Get Out placement and top 40 chart run[1].
