Key Takeaways
- Quavo celebrated going viral with Takeoff again by reposting their untouched 2022 A COLORS SHOW performance of “Hotel Lobby” and calling it “The Original.”
- The TikTok trend uses tools like Starrd, Summrs, and CapCut to replace the duo with cats, celebrities, and fictional characters while preserving their movements, lip-syncing, and original audio.
- Fans have criticized the memes for repurposing Takeoff’s likeness after his 2022 death, while raising broader concerns about consent, copyright, and how AI platforms use uploaded photos.
Quavo is reminding the internet where one of its latest viral trends came from.
An AI-generated meme format using Quavo and the late Takeoff's 2022 performance of "Hotel Lobby" on A COLORS SHOW has exploded across TikTok in September. The trend replaces the two Migos rappers with everyone from celebrities to fictional characters and even animals while recreating their movements and verses.
Quavo acknowledged the sudden resurgence on Sept. 23 by sharing the real performance across his social media accounts.
But as hundreds of thousands of versions circulate online, the trend has also sparked criticism over AI, Takeoff's legacy and the use of people's likenesses without their involvement. Check out our explainer of this viral trend below.
Where Did the Original "Hotel Lobby" Video Come From?
The clip comes from Quavo and Takeoff's 2022 appearance on A COLORS SHOW. Performing under their Unc & Phew moniker, the two stand against the show's bright orange backdrop and trade verses from the song using the same microphone.
The duo released "Hotel Lobby" on May 20, 2022, with production from Murda Beatz, Keanu Beats and Fabio Aguilar. Unc & Phew referenced Quavo and Takeoff's actual family relationship, with Quavo being Takeoff's uncle.
COLORS initially shared the performance in June 2022 and has brought it back several times since, including reposts in 2025 and 2026.
What Is the New 'Hotel Lobby' AI Trend?
The latest version reportedly began gaining traction in early September after several videos featuring two cats recreating Quavo and Takeoff's performance went viral on social media.
However, it didn't stop with cats.
Users began transforming the performance into an AI meme template featuring recognizable pairings and characters. Versions have included Barack and Michelle Obama, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad, Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe as their Spider-Man characters, and soccer stars Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham.
AI video tools including Starrd and Summrs can create the effect by mapping two uploaded images onto Quavo and Takeoff's performance. CapCut templates have also made the format more accessible. The resulting videos retain the rappers' movements, lip syncing and original audio while changing who appears to be performing the song.
The format requires two images, fitting the original video's back-and-forth dynamic between Quavo and Takeoff.
What Are People Saying About the 'Hotel Lobby' AI Memes?
For some people, the trend becomes more complicated because Takeoff is no longer alive.
The rapper, born Kirsnick Khari Ball, was shot and killed in Houston on Nov. 1, 2022. The AI trend is now recreating a performance he gave with his uncle just months before his death.
Some fans have pushed back against the memes in comment sections, arguing that the original performance should be treated as a memory of Takeoff rather than raw material for endless AI recreations.
“It’s upsetting that people decided to turn this into an Ai meme but even more disturbing that Takeoff is dead and even with that considered, y’all still circulated the erasure of that man for some dancing cartoon characters. Like come on man,” one user tweeted.
The trend has also fueled broader concerns surrounding AI-generated content, including questions about the use of people's faces, voices and copyrighted work without their permission.
Others have raised concerns about what happens to the photos people voluntarily upload to AI platforms.
"It's simple. They want us to accept and use AI," X user @HowTheyDidUs wrote. "They are binge collecting our images for face recognition and other things, everytime we put ourselves in an AI video."
What Has Quavo Said About the Viral 'Hotel Lobby' Trend?
Quavo hasn't publicly condemned the trend. Instead, his response has centered on reminding fans about the performance that started it all.
On Sept. 23, he reposted the unaltered COLORS video across various platforms and celebrated the fact that he and Takeoff were going viral together again.
"Aye Take we viral again The original!!! #HOTELLOBBY," he wrote on Facebook.
Calling it "The Original" also puts Quavo and Takeoff back at the center of a meme that increasingly features everyone except them.
Nearly four years after Takeoff's death, the viral moment has introduced "Hotel Lobby" to another massive online audience. But it has also turned what began as a straightforward performance between an uncle and his nephew into another example of the increasingly complicated relationship between AI, internet culture, and an artist's likeness.
