If the phrase “another one” instinctively reminds you of a man on your phone, you may already be familiar with DJ Khaled. A hip hop record producer turned Snapchat icon, DJ Khaled may be the man of the moment on social media. His influence is seen anywhere from the motivational hashtags inundating Facebook newsfeeds (people have never felt more “smart,” “genius,” and appreciated) to the lingo of teens and 20-somethings everywhere.
On the surface, this unconventional fame is nothing new in the world of social media, memes, and reality shows. But a closer inspection suggests that DJ Khaled is different—it is his real-person appeal, agency over his qualities, and egalitarian communication style that contribute to his celebrity. Furthermore, our attraction to DJ Khaled is facilitated by the tradition of an uncritical approach to mass media. While many would rather enjoy the escapism offered by social media than closely analyze it, the influence it has on our lives is significant enough for it to warrant a more critical analysis.
DJ Khaled vs. Social Media, Memes, and Reality Shows
Motivational soundbites like those of DJ Khaled are not original—they have long been popular on social media sites like Twitter. In 2015, the 8th most retweeted tweet was Kanye West’s carpe diem-type reminder to his fans: “Please: Do everything you possibly can in one lifetime.” Yet as much as these tweets resonate with followers, they for the most part maintain the traditional boundaries of celebrity-fan communication. For one, fans receive no context for Kanye’s tweet—where he was, why he said it, and how he said it. The specifics of his life are left to the imagination and to the paparazzi. These ambiguities make up the mystique that has has always surrounded celebrities.
DJ Khaled deflates that mystique, and does so in all his white-robed glory. Snapchat followers see him jamming in his car when he reminds them “don’t ever play yourself,” and they see yet another meal made of chicken sausage, egg whites, and water when he encourages his fans to ignore the never-identified “they” who don’t want you to eat (or do anything for that matter). Occasionally the details get excessive, like all the times he promotes the importance of applying lotion by demonstration. But seeing these details also makes him real in a sense—you probably know more about his morning routine than that of your best friend. Very little is left to the imagination, and no one with a smart phone has to try very hard to get a personal view of his life.
The signature slogans of DJ Khaled are also not novel—their catchy and easily imitable nature puts them in the same family as memes. But on this point, the 40-year-old musician also differs. While memes of Drake’s Hotline Bling dance became omnipresent this year, ranging from his demonstrating the sodium-potassium pump to innovating upon the bachata, they were created and driven by the audience. The New York Times may speculate on Drake intentionally making himself meme-friendly, but the public will never hear him talk about those intentions.
On the other hand, DJ Khaled has complete agency over his meme-like abilities—and he takes that power seriously. He created phrases like “bless up” and “major key,” and he works hard to perpetuate them. While followers are entertained and may repeat them in humor, the record producer always maintains a solemn demeanor when he provides heartfelt yet meme-able advice on exercising, the road to success, and other big questions of life. This contradiction—the comical nature of the content and the seriousness of the speaker—makes the slogans all the more funny and the celebrity all the more appealing.
DJ Khaled’s Snapchat fame also seems comparable to the fame of reality stars like the Kardashians. Yet, while both are based on the celebrities’ personal lives, DJ Khaled provides a different type of reality for followers. As much as the audiences get to see the intimate close-ups of Kim’s breakups on the television screen, they are still on the sideline, engaged in a type of voyeurism. When it comes to DJ Khaled and Snapchat, the followers are directly facing him on their phone, as they would while Facetiming an out-of-the-state cousin. There are no camera crews, no makeup artists, no hidden scripts. Only him, his phone, and the follower. Though the projection is still one-directional, the celebrity-fan relationship feels more egalitarian.
The DJ and the Philosopher
While the above three factors help explain the novelty of the King of Snapchat, an important question that remains unanswered is why we are so receptive to this phenomenon. In Critical Theories of Mass Media: Then and Now, Paul Taylor and Jan Harris use the allegory of prisoners in a cave from Plato’s The Republic to analyze public treatment of mass media. Originally spelled out by Plato to highlight the philosophical challenge of uncovering truth, the allegory describes prisoners who have been in the cave since they were children and whose legs and necks are fastened so they can only look straight ahead at the wall of the cave in front of them. Behind and above the prisoners are a fire and some puppeteers; the prisoners see only the shadows the puppeteers created on the wall.
The shadow reality the prisoners see is not unlike the reality we see on our screens. According to Plato, when the prisoners call an object on the wall “book,” they’re not truly referring to a book—to them, “book” means a book-shaped shadow, as they have never seen a real book. This is not to say we are prisoners, per se, but nevertheless it is easy to confuse the private chef, the hot tub, and the jet ski of DJ Khaled—and the countless other lives we see via social media—as reality. It is easy to forget that such “reality” is created, mediated, and maneuvered by people we cannot see.
But the public would rather rejoice in our collective engagement in DJ Khaled’s Snapchat stories than think of ourselves as prisoners of social media. Indeed, criticisms of mass media are often seen as “pessimistic, conservative, out-of-touch,” according to Taylor and Harris. As the authors explain, the public would rather “celebrate […] the rude health cultural life and agency within mass media” than be critical of it. The widespread influence of DJ Khaled’s slogans is seen as yet another sign of connectivity and technological progress in the new age.
This uncritical approach is prevalent also because social media is often the principal channel of escape and relief from reality. For a few minutes, we are afforded the luxury of being uncritical and completely immersed in an alternate reality so entertaining and different from our own.
However, having a critical approach to social media, though unpopular, is important. It is necessary to maintaining our grasp of unmediated and mediated realities and the differences between the two. The more we dismiss the notion that we can be prisoners of social media, the more we put ourselves at risk of its unanalyzed influence—from the time it consumes to the relationships that it affects. We can criticize our participation in Snapchat and Instagram while still enjoying and celebrating their benefits. We can turn away from the cave wall—and the screen—without being pessimistic technophobes. And perhaps, as we apply a more critical approach, we can still take DJ Khaled’s advice to “be a star, a superstar.”
Image credit: Flickr/Meghan Roberts