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Chocolate Rain

You might remember it as Tay Zonday Chocolate Rain, I move away from the mic to breathe in

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2007·Early YouTube·nostalgic

A song about racism that the internet adopted for the voice it was sung in, and whose author kept saying so.

The line people quote“I move away from the mic to breathe in”

At a glanceThe facts

Remembered as
Tay Zonday Chocolate Rain
First known
2007
Began as
A video upload
Made by
Tay Zonday
Uploaded by
TayZonday
Format
Video
Era
Early YouTube
Performed by
Tay Zonday, who wrote and recorded it in his Minneapolis apartment in March 2007
What it said
The on-screen caption “I move away from the mic to breathe in”
Origin
Likely original upload
Available
Playable from the source

What this wasThe story

Tay Zonday sings into a condenser microphone in a small studio, in a much deeper voice than his appearance leads a viewer to expect, cutting occasionally to him playing a digital piano. A caption early on reads "I move away from the mic to breathe in", explaining why he keeps stepping back.

It won a 2008 YouTube Award, was covered by John Mayer and Green Day’s Tre Cool, and appeared in South Park and The Office. Zonday has continued to give interviews about what the song is actually about.

Why it matteredWhat changed

A song about racism, sung in a very deep voice by a graduate student in his flat, was passed around as a joke and became one of the first songs whose audience was built entirely on YouTube.

TimelineIn order

  1. Posted

    Tay Zonday uploads the song to his YouTube channel.1

  2. Mainstream

    Zonday performs it on Jimmy Kimmel Live!1

  3. Remixed

    He releases Cherry Chocolate Rain, a version of his own song made to advertise a Dr Pepper drink.1

  4. Record

    It wins the YouTube Award for music.1

  5. Came back

    South Park’s episode Canada on Strike features the song, and the video gains more than a million views.1

  6. Later

    Phish open a concert at Madison Square Garden with it.1

What people misrememberSet straight

Commonly remembered asA nonsense song.

ActuallyZonday wrote it as a metaphor for racism against African Americans.1

LegacyWhat it left behind

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Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later

Where it came fromWhat we know

High-confidence original source.

View original on YouTube

Earliest known source: YouTube

Created by Tay Zonday. Originally uploaded by TayZonday. Established by research, not by who posted the copy shown here.

When
Originally published April 2007.

More from 2007You were there

SourcesWhat was read

  1. Wikipedia — Chocolate Rain

Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things

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