What It Is (Jiafei)

The meaning of "Alekisok - What It Is (Jiafei)" is entirely divorced from the original intentions of its source materials and exists purely within the context of internet meme culture. The track is a mashup of Doechii's confident R&B/Hip-Hop song "What It Is (Block Boy)" and a sped-up, high-pitched version of the Mandarin pop song "Yě huā xiāng" by Guo Mei Mei. The latter became known as the "Jiafei song" after it was widely used in a TikTok trend involving bizarre product advertisements posted by bot accounts, many of which used the name "Jiafei".

Therefore, the song's meaning is not found by analyzing the lyrical synergy, as there is none. Instead, its meaning is symbolic. It represents the pinnacle of "Floptok" or "Stan Twitter" culture, a subculture that revels in absurdity, inside jokes, and the chaotic remixing of disparate cultural elements. The song is an anthem of this specific online community, a sonic manifestation of its chaotic, humorous, and often nonsensical nature.

The juxtaposition of Doechii's assertive, street-smart lyrics with the frantic, almost childlike sound of the "Jiafei" sample creates a feeling of joyful absurdity. It's a celebration of decontextualization, where sounds and songs are stripped of their original meaning and repurposed to create a new, shared cultural artifact. The meaning, in essence, is the meme itself: a shorthand for a specific type of online humor that is hyperactive, ironic, and deeply self-referential.

The sonic tapestry of "What It Is (Jiafei)" is not a singular narrative but a chaotic and joyful collision of two distinct lyrical worlds, reflecting its nature as an internet mashup. At its core, the track weaponizes the recurring, confident, and confrontational hook from Doechii's "What It Is (Block Boy)". These English lyrics paint a picture of a self-assured woman who knows her worth and is unapologetically herself. She addresses a potential partner, a "block boy" or a street-smart man from the neighborhood, laying out her terms. Lines like, "What it is, hoe? What's up? Every good girl needs a little thug. Every block boy needs a little love," establish a dynamic of mutual need and confident attraction. The narrative is one of modern romance rooted in authenticity and a blend of sweet and street sensibilities. Doechii's verses celebrate her own success, independence, and desirability, asserting her position and refusing to be taken for granted. It's a story of empowerment, playful dominance, and the fusion of seemingly opposite personas—the "good girl" and the "thug"—finding common ground.

Smashed against this assertive hip-hop narrative is the high-pitched, sped-up sample of Guo Mei Mei's Mandarin pop song, "Yě huā xiāng" (野花香), which translates to "Scent of Wildflowers". This song, in its original form, tells a completely different story. Its lyrics are those of a classic love ballad, expressing a vulnerable and almost desperate longing. The singer describes the pain of wanting to appear strong and stubborn in front of a loved one but ultimately succumbing to her deep feelings. The recurring line, "Měi cì dōu xiǎng zhuāng zuò hěn juéjiàng," translates to "Every time I want to pretend to be stubborn." It speaks of an internal conflict between pride and the overwhelming power of love. The song uses natural imagery, like the scent of wildflowers, to evoke a sense of pure and untamed emotion. It's a narrative of romantic vulnerability, the struggle of maintaining a facade, and the ultimate surrender to love's pull.

In the hands of Alekisok, these two narratives are deconstructed and reassembled into something entirely new. There is no attempt to merge their stories logically. Instead, the retelling becomes one of pure, unadulterated internet chaos. Doechii's confident English phrases are interrupted by the frantic, chipmunk-like Mandarin pleas. The confident assertion of "What's up?" is answered by a seemingly nonsensical, high-energy burst of another language and emotion. The 'story' of the mashup is therefore not lyrical, but cultural. It's the story of how online communities, specifically the "Floptok" subculture, create meaning from absurdity. The juxtaposition is the point: the confident swagger of American hip-hop crashing into the earnest, sped-up melodrama of C-pop creates a third, entirely new feeling—one of hyperactive, ironic, and strangely euphoric energy. It's a narrative about the breakdown of context, the joy of nonsensical pairings, and the creation of a unique anthem for a digital generation that thrives on such chaotic energy.

The creation of "Alekisok - What It Is (Jiafei)" is a story of internet-era musical evolution, combining two independent songs and a viral meme. The mashup was created by the artist Alekisok and released in 2023.

Component 1: Doechii - "What It Is (Block Boy)"
The primary track and title source is "What It Is (Block Boy)" by American rapper and singer Doechii, released on March 17, 2023. The song, which features a sample of TLC's "No Scrubs" and an interpolation of Trillville's "Some Cut," quickly gained popularity, particularly on TikTok, and became Doechii's first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Its catchy hook provided the core structure for the mashup.

Component 2: Guo Mei Mei - "Yě huā xiāng" & the Jiafei Meme
The second component is a sped-up and pitch-shifted sample from the Mandarin pop song "Yě huā xiāng" (野花香), originally performed by Singaporean singer Jocie Guo Mei Mei. This sound became iconic through the "Jiafei" meme, which started around May 2021. Chinese bot accounts on TikTok began flooding the platform with absurd videos advertising various products. These accounts often used the name "Jiafei" (a portmanteau of K-pop stars Meng Jia and Wang Feifei) and a specific profile picture, which was later revealed to be a selfie of a Chinese model named Dai. The sped-up version of "Yě huā xiāng" was the background music for many of these bizarre ads, cementing its status as the unofficial "Jiafei song". Parody accounts soon took over, solidifying the sound's association with the "Floptok" subculture.

Component 3: Alekisok's Mashup
Seeing the viral potential of both sounds, artist Alekisok combined them. By laying the iconic "Jiafei" vocal sample over the beat and structure of Doechii's hit, Alekisok created the definitive mashup. The release on platforms like YouTube and Apple Music in late 2023 formalized the track, giving a name and official artist credit to a sound that was already becoming a staple of TikTok edits and memes. Alekisok themselves claims on their Cameo profile to have "sort of started the Jiafei trend".

The rhyme and rhythm of "What It Is (Jiafei)" are a composite of its two sources, dominated by the rhythmic structure of the Doechii track.

Rhythm:
The song's foundational rhythm is lifted directly from Doechii's "What It Is (Block Boy)". It features a bouncy, mid-tempo hip-hop beat with a prominent bassline and crisp percussion. The tempo of the mashup is generally high, reflecting the sped-up nature of many viral TikTok sounds. The primary rhythmic drive comes from this beat, creating a constant, danceable pulse. Over this, the Mandarin sample from "Yě huā xiāng" is chopped and placed not just as a melodic element, but as a rhythmic one. Its fast, syllabic delivery acts as a form of syncopation against the main beat, adding to the track's frenetic and chaotic feel. The interplay is between the steady, confident groove of the hip-hop beat and the wild, unpredictable bursts of the sped-up pop vocal.

Rhyme:
The rhyme scheme is exclusively derived from the looped lyrics of the Doechii sample. The central hook, "What it is, hoe? What's up? / Every good girl needs a little thug / Every block boy needs a little love," uses a simple AABB rhyme structure with near-perfect rhymes ("up"/"thug"/"love" in the context of rap delivery). This straightforward and memorable rhyme scheme is key to its catchiness and is a staple of pop and hip-hop hooks. There is no lyrical rhyme or interaction from the Mandarin sample, which functions purely as a melodic and rhythmic motif in this context.

The primary stylistic techniques are musical and production-based, as the song is a fan-made remix rather than a traditionally composed piece.

• Mashup/Sampling: The entire track is built on the technique of mashup, which involves blending two or more pre-existing songs. It directly samples the beat and vocal hook from Doechii's "What It Is (Block Boy)" and the melodic vocal hook from Guo Mei Mei's "Yě huā xiāng".
• Pitch Shifting & Time-Stretching: The defining characteristic of the "Jiafei" sound is the extreme pitch-shifting and time-stretching (speeding up) of the original Mandarin vocal sample. This "chipmunk effect" transforms the original's emotional tone from earnest balladry to frantic, hyperactive energy, which is crucial for its comedic and memetic effect.
• Juxtaposition: A key literary and musical technique is the stark juxtaposition of tones. Doechii's vocal delivery is smooth, confident, and rhythmic, while the Jiafei sample is high-pitched, frantic, and melodic. The constant, jarring switch between these two styles creates a sense of chaotic energy and surprise that is fundamental to the track's appeal.
• Looping/Repetition: The song relies heavily on looping the most infectious parts of both source tracks—Doechii's "What it is, hoe, what's up?" and the main melodic phrase of the Jiafei sample. This repetition makes the track incredibly catchy and perfectly suited for the short, looping format of TikTok videos.

The cultural influence of "Alekisok - What It Is (Jiafei)" is immense within the sphere of internet subcultures, particularly on TikTok. Its impact is not measured by traditional chart performance but by its viral spread and its role as a cultural touchstone for the "Floptok" community.

The Anthem of a Subculture: The song quickly became the unofficial anthem for Floptok, a niche community on TikTok known for its surreal humor, inside jokes, and stan culture-like devotion to a pantheon of meme figures, with Jiafei as a central 'queen'. The track's chaotic energy and nonsensical pairing of sounds perfectly encapsulated the community's absurdist aesthetic.

TikTok Virality: "What It Is (Jiafei)" became a massively popular sound on TikTok, used in countless edits, memes, and videos. Its high energy and distinct, recognizable sound made it perfect for short-form video content. The hashtag #jiafei has billions of views on the platform, and this sound is one of the most prominent associated with it. Its popularity helped propel the underlying Doechii song, "What It Is (Block Boy)," to greater mainstream success.

Solidification of a Meme: While the Jiafei meme existed before this mashup, Alekisok's track solidified its sonic identity. It created a definitive, shareable piece of media that was more than just a background sound in bizarre ads; it was now a structured 'song'. This gave the meme a new level of permanence and recognizability, allowing it to spread beyond its original niche and become a more widely understood piece of internet culture.

Legacy in Remix Culture: The song is a prime example of modern, user-generated remix culture. It demonstrates how creators can take disparate elements of mainstream and obscure media and combine them to create a new cultural artifact that, within its community, becomes more significant than the original source materials. It highlights a participatory and transformative approach to media consumption that defines the current digital era.

The symbolism and metaphors in "What It Is (Jiafei)" are not lyrical but cultural and structural. The song itself is a metaphor for the internet's chaotic and multicultural landscape.

• Cultural Collision: The most significant symbolic element is the aggressive mashing of two completely unrelated cultural products: a confident, contemporary American hip-hop track by Doechii and a melodramatic, sped-up Mandarin pop song by Guo Mei Mei. This collision symbolizes the decontextualized nature of global internet culture, where geographical and linguistic barriers are meaningless. It represents a digital melting pot where disparate elements are fused together to create a new, hybrid form of expression.
• The Meme as a Symbol: The "Jiafei" vocal is not just a sample; it's a symbol of a whole universe of internet lore. It represents the absurdity of online advertising bots, the creative power of parody, and the birth of niche online communities like "Floptok". Hearing the sample evokes the entire history of the meme, from bizarre product videos to its adoption as an anthem for the community.
• Deconstruction and Reconstruction: The act of taking two songs, breaking them down to their most recognizable hooks, and rebuilding them into something new is a metaphor for how content is consumed and created online. Original context is often discarded in favor of immediate impact and recognizability, mirroring the fast-paced, remix-heavy nature of platforms like TikTok. The resulting track is a collage, symbolizing a generation's relationship with media as something to be manipulated and personalized rather than passively consumed.

The entire song is constructed from two powerful, recurring motifs that have become iconic within their respective contexts.

• Musical/Lyrical Motif 1: "What it is, hoe? What's up?" This is the primary lyrical hook from Doechii's original song. It's a confident, confrontational, and catchy phrase that serves as the anchor for the mashup. Its repetition provides the track's structure and title. In the context of the meme, this phrase acts as a familiar, mainstream entry point before being interrupted by the chaos of the second motif.
• Musical/Lyrical Motif 2: The "Yě huā xiāng" Melody The sped-up, high-pitched vocal phrase from Guo Mei Mei's song is the song's most defining and recognizable element. This melodic fragment, originally a heartfelt line from a love song, is transformed into a burst of pure, chaotic energy. It functions as the song's main instrumental hook, even though it is a vocal sample. Its recurrence is what brands the track as a "Jiafei" song, instantly signaling its connection to the vast lore of the meme. The repetition of this bizarre, decontextualized sound is the core of the song's identity and comedic value.

The significance of their repetition is to create an incredibly memorable and potent sonic loop, perfect for the attention economy of social media. The interplay between the two motifs—the call from Doechii and the chaotic response from Jiafei—is the central dynamic that defines the track's structure and viral appeal.