WorldStarHipHop

About

WorldStarHipHop is an entertainment news and content aggregation site that features a variety of videos relating to hip hop music and urban culture, including freestyle battles, music videos and interviews with celebrity rappers, though it is most well known for hosting a large collection of public fight videos.

History

In 2005, WorldStarHipHop^[5] was launched by Queens, New York resident Lee ‘Q’ O’Denat as a hip hop mixtape distribution site. However, the website was destroyed by hackers shortly after its launch, prompting O’Denat to re-design and re-launch WorldStarHipHop as a shock content aggregation site for uncensored videos of public fights and sexually explicit acts. On November 8th, 2008, the WorldStarHipHopTV YouTube^[8] channel was created, gathering upwards of 21 million video views and 96,000 subscribers in the following six years. On April 23rd, 2010, the WorldStarCandy^[6] adult website was launched to host sexually explicit images and video. On March 31st, 2012, the /r/bestofworldstar^[6] subreddit was launched, which highlights notable videos from the website. On May 7th, 2014, Adult Swim announced they were collaborating with WorldStarHipHop for a new a live-action comedy show.

Parodies

Many YouTubers have filmed parodies mocking WorldStarHipHop public fight videos. On January 21st, 2013, YouTuber RoadToHollywoodTV uploaded a video titled “That Moment You Hear WorldStar,” in which a man subdues his attackers after realizing he is being filmed for a WorldStarHipHop video (shown below, left). On February 12th, YouTuber 4YallEntertainment posted a parody titled “He Sleep” in which a man cradles another man to sleep while the audience chants “WorldStar” (shown below). In the first two years, the videos gained over 320,000 and 980,000 views respectively.

On November 17th, the finale of the comedy television series Eastbound & Down was broadcast, in which the character Stevie Janowski (played by Steve Little) chants “WorldStar” while filming protagonist Kenny Powers (played by Danny McBridge) punch network executive Ronnie Thelman (played by Sacha Baron Cohen).

Highlights

Chopper City Suit

Chopper City Suit refers to a suit worn by aspiring rapper Young Choppa in a video uploaded to WorldStarHipHop on March 9th, 2009, in which he insults rival rapper Elliot Ness whom he competed against in the MTV reality television show Making Da Band.

Scarlett Johansson Leaked Nudes

Scarlett Johansson Leaked Nudes refer to nude photographs of actress Scarlett Johansson that were disseminated on WorldStarHipHop in September 2011.

“WorldStar” Chants

Public fight videos uploaded to WorldStarHipHop often contain references to the website by those filming the incident. The earliest known example was uploaded on November 7th, 2011, which featured a woman saying “WorldStar, baby!” at :49 seconds into a video of a man being beaten by three other men on a subway train in New York City (shown below).

On February 8th, 2012, ABC News^[3] published an article which noted how the website is referenced by those filming many of the fight videos hosted on the website:

“The theme is common in many of the fight videos, where bystanders egg on attackers and yell ‘World Star Hip Hop’ as the incident is ongoing, as if the purpose of the violence were to make it onto the website.”

On March 29th, 2012, CBS Atlanta^[4] published an article about the website titled “CNN Of The Ghetto,” noting how the phrase “WorldStar” is repeated by those filming fight videos for the site.

Chicago Teens Beating Video

Chicago Teens Beating Video is a fight video showing six young men beating an Asian male to the ground outside a school in Chicago, which was initially posted to WorldStarHipHop on January 16th, 2012.

Sharkeisha Fight Video

Sharkeisha Fight Video is a video clip of a young woman referred to as “Sharkeisha” sucker-punching an unsuspecting victim in the face in the middle of a heated argument, which was prominently featured on WorldStarHipHop after initially being uploaded to Instagram in November 2013.

Shovel Fight

Shovel Fight Video refers to an amateur recording which shows a teenage girl striking another girl in the back of her head with a shovel during a physical brawl. A full-length version of the video was posted to WorldStarHipHop in May 2014.

Traffic

As of May 2014, WorldStarHipHop has a global rank of 769 and a United States rank of 210 on the traffic analytics site Alexa.^[7]

Search Interest

External References