How TikTok Created the "Hotel Lobby" Challenge To Honor the Memory of Takeoff

Upon the tragic news of the unexpected passing of Takeoff last month, the TikTok community has come together over the course of these past couple weeks to pay tribute to the young legend who was only just beginning his reign. If your “For You Page” has looked anything like ours recently, then you already know that there’s not one, but two different “Hotel Lobby” challenges happening on the platform at the moment, putting the song in a rare company of tracks that have had two viral trends happening simultaneously.

The two trends are very different from one another, but will leave you smiling no matter how many times they pop up in your feed. Now you may be wondering what these challenges are and how you can take part. We’ll get into that in just a few, but first let’s do a quick dive into the history of the song. Let’s get it (Takeoff voice).

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“Hotel Lobby” was released on May 20th, 2022 as the both the first release for Quavo and Takeoff as the duo Unc & Phew, and as the lead single off their album Only Built For Infinity Links (which has gone onto to be considered one of the top albums of the year). The song was produced by Murda Beats and Keanu Beats and Aguilar, and reached No. 12 on the U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart.

The accompanying video was released not too long after the single, and paid homage to the cult classic 1998 film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is fittingly about a duo who initially travel to Las Vegas for journalism purposes, but wind up going through a journey of the city under the influence of psychedelics.

In the video, Quavo and Takeoff took on the role of the movie’s main characters Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo, where they hilariously reinterpreted the film by driving through the desert, picking up hitchhikers, and passing out in a hotel seriously messed up. This video was actually quite creative, and deserves to be recognized more for its brilliance.

Unfortunately the two didn’t get the opportunity to do very many live performances of the song together, but they did get a chance to do a performance for A Colors Show back in June, which is where one of the TikTok challenges stems from. The show was the first in a series celebrating Black Music Month, and was created in collaboration with Motown Records. While the performance was considered great then, it has now been forever immortalized with a legacy of its own thanks to the TikTok platform.

As we mentioned earlier, there’s two different “Hotel Lobby” challenges happening at the moment, with this one being a recreation of the performance from A Colors Show. It can be done with a partner or solo, and requires you to take on the role of either Takeoff or Quavo if doing by yourself, or both if being done with a partner.

Most people doing the challenge solo have opted to take on the part of Quavo due to the spontaneous dance moves he busted out during Takeoff’s verse, but we have seen a few doing the part of Take as well. And while the solo videos are definitely magic, the duo videos have another level of genius to them because the roles of Quavo and Takeoff are both covered.

The second challenge going on in the app is one where you are basically lip-syncing Quavo’s ad-libs to Takeoff’s verse while re-enacting a potential scenario. Now this one can be anything you want it to be. We’ve seen people using the track to describe their day dealing with different individuals at work, we’ve seen folks use it as a way to describe what it’s like when their children have done something bad and are trying to plead their case.

We’ve seen doctors use it as a re-enactment of them asking patients to describe what’s wrong. While most are doing this challenge solo dolo, you can grab a friend and make it a duo challenge if you want.

Once again the TikTok community has done their job in paying respect to a music icon. Long live Takeoff.