Who Sings The Mannequin Challenge Song?

It's the dream of every musical artist to have their music take off thanks to a viral social media trend. The Mannequin Challenge is the trend everyone's talking about right now, not least because of the catchy music which has helped accelerate its popularity — so who sings the Mannequin Challenge song? It may surprise you to know that the artists responsible for the catchy rap track now associated with the viral freeze-and-pose phenomena have actually had their song floating around a while. "Black Beatles" is the name of the tune, by hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd; it first arrived as a track on their album SremmLife 2, which was released on Aug. 12, 2016. The music video for "Black Beatles" appeared on YouTube on Sept. 22.

According to The Independent, the first Mannequin Challenge video that's believed to have started them all came from students at Edward H. White High School in Jacksonville, Fla. For social media reasons unknown, "Black Beatles" quickly became the go-to track for choreographed stillness around the world, with the brothers themselves even jumping on their own bandwagon at a performance in Denver (well, you would wouldn't you?) and Nicki Minaj releasing her own remix of the track this week (see below).

In case you haven't heard of Rae Sremmurd here's your lowdown on the mega-successful rapping brothers.

Rae Sremmurd Are A Hip Hop Duo Born In California & Raised In Mississippi

They consist of brothers Khalif "Swae Lee" Brown and Aaquil "Slim Jxmmi" Brown. Although they moved to Tupleo, Miss. at an early age, they now reside in Atlanta, Ga.

They're Really Young

Swae Lee was born on June 5, 1995, while Slim Jxmmi's birthday is Dec. 29, 1993. That makes the younger of the brothers 21 and the older 22. You know, in case you want to wallow about how much you've achieved since leaving college, or something.

"Black Beatles" Is From Their Second Album

The brother's second album, SremmLife 2, was released on Aug. 12, 2016. It's enjoyed a pretty impressive second wind in the past few weeks thanks to the Mannequin Challenge; "Black Beatles" was the third single from the album.

Their First Album Was Big, Too

SremmLife came out in January of 2015 and spawned the singles "No Flex Zone" and "No Type" — the latter of which was definitely my jam.

They Hit Number One On The Billboard Charts This Week

A whole two months after their second album's release, "Black Beatles" rocketed to number one on the U.S. Billboard 100.

Nicki Minaj Rates Them

What's more flattering than having the world's most famous female rapper remix your track? Nicki just added her distinctive voice to "Black Beatles," according to MTV — and seeing as the singer-rapper has worked with the brothers previously on the 2015 tune "Throw Some Mo'," I have a feeling this is going to be good, too.

These Boys Are Creative

Yo — their name is "ear drummers" spelt backwards.

And They Know How To Hype Themselves

Check the video above of the boys doing their very own version of the Mannequin Challenge at a concert in Denver.

Images: Getty Images; Giphy (4)