The "Human Beings in a Mob" TikTok Trend Blends Favorite Characters and Kanye

The creators on TikTok are always finding new ways to utilize music in their videos, and the latest trend is no exception. Using lyrics from Kanye West and Jay-Z's song "No Church in the Wild," fans of popular television shows and movies have incorporated the music to highlight certain characters, films or television shows in a type of video known as a "fan edit."

What is the "human beings in a mob" TikTok trend? Here's everything you need to know.

According to Mashable, a fan edit is a video "typically set to music that slice together clips of a celebrity or character." The outlet also notes that the first fan edit can be traced back to 1975 when Star Trek fan Kandy Fong "made a slideshow of Star Trek outtakes inspired by The Beatles' music video for 'Strawberry Fields Forever.'"

Since 1975, fans have posted fan edits everywhere on the internet, so it's no surprise they eventually became popular on TikTok. A fan edit is not to be confused with a fan cam, which typically uses shorter clips and only features one character or celebrity. Fan edits can be used to re-contextualize scenes from shows to highlight certain friendships or relationships or even certain themes from the chosen piece of pop culture.

The "human beings to a mob" fan edit trend uses the Kanye West and Jay-Z collaboration song "No Church in the Wild," which also features Frank Ocean and The-Dream. The song was released in 2013, and there have been other instances outside of TikTok where the chorus is used in fan edits across YouTube and Tumblr. The chorus states, "Human beings in a mob / What's a mob to a king / What's a king to a god / What's a god to a non-believer? Who don't believe in anything."

TikToks using this sound include edits of Marvel's Moon Knight, Princess Diana, and even Breaking Bad. Other TikToks using the sound include fan edits of The Hunger Games, Get Out, Squid Game, Shadow and Bone, and more. The purpose of the sound is to highlight unbalanced power dynamics between characters or people.

The song "No Church In The Wild" is not the first nor the last song that has been used for popular fan edits. Since Strange Things Season 4, the use of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" has been popular with fans as well. It depends on the individual, but you can find fan edits just about anywhere on the internet with the use of a hashtag and the word "edit" behind whichever fandom you desire!

Ultimately, TikTok is yet another space that encourages creativity in fandom, and if you are having fun, that's what counts.