Meet HyceTheGreat, A Creator sharing Joy on TikTok With Memes and Music

Ugo Aliogo

Over the last two years, no platform has contributed as much culturally to Nigeria like TikTok has done. From a niche audience of content creators, it has grown to be the most popular app in the country, deftly cutting across a number of topics and subject matters. A direct effect of its popularity is the rise of a new generation of hybrid creators who are uniquely steeped in its meme culture while having other parts of them to offer. HyceTheGreat is one of these people, a musician who has taken to the meme culture on TikTok without a glitch.

He had always been a user of the app since its earlier days as Musical.ly. “I actually loved the app when there was a content creator whose name is Maraji used Musical.ly in creating skits and content way back 2016/17,” he said. “I loved the app, downloaded it, and signed up for it but I officially created a new account and started using the app fully as at last year.”

What endeared Hyce to TikTok was its video tool that opened a portal to a world he didn’t know existed prior to then. “The thing I literally enjoy most from the platform is the unlimited videos on the For You page where you can scroll and get unlimited videos not to talk of the challenges you can get when you hop on new music and sounds,” he explained. “I just love the app because of its versatility in comedy, music, sports, extreme games, educational videos, and much more.” Hyce’s feed is an endless supply of the trendiest memes and music, with an occasional nod towards his own music.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the TikTok experience is the multiplicity of features on its platform with a range of editing tools that make using TikTok really. The nexus of these tools and how they can be explored is what excites Hyce the most about TikTok. “The content that appeals to me are mostly transitions, bringing out the beauty in songs and making them look so beautiful either in skit making, content-creating, and other creations,” he says.

In addition to this, Hyce has noticed a slight change in the scope of memes that go viral on TikToK, pointing out that they have music at their foundation. “What I think we’ve seen more recently, with the rise of TikTok, is another evolution in mainstream meme culture. Whereas memes up to this point had most commonly consisted of image or video formats, TikTok has brought popularity to music-first memes,” he affirmed. “These memes all revolve around a shortened piece of a musical track. Usually, this is a 5 to 15 second cut of a popular song. Each song has its own format and references a particular meme.” Continuing, he added: “Secondly, users add their own touches to the meme, either through how they act along to the song or in some cases by using on-screen text.”

Since joining the platform, Hyce has built a followership of over 160,000 people and has received more than 1 million likes across his video. He has leveraged that platform to also share his music with his community on the platform. “One of the greatest impacts TikTok has had on my life is exposing me to a wider audience,” he noted. “Being a young artist I needed a platform to expose my art to the world so TikTok has really helped me greatly in that area.”

The rise of TikTok creators like HyceTheGreat hints at the evolving role of TikTok in the Nigerian creative landscape and how the app supports multi-pronged creatives. It’s an assertion that Hyce wholeheartedly believes in, pointing to the evolution of his career since he started using TikTok actively. “There are series of advantages of being popular on TikTok,” he remarked, rounding up. “Like I said above, it has literally exposed me to a wider audience and also created a fan base for me and also made my art known.

“The platform also helped me to be discovered by my fans and secondly has exposed me to brands who are in need of promotions to make their products go on a wider range and this has been a source of revenue for me so it has really been an advantage for me in all ways.”