It's Been A Decade Since Antoine Dodson Warned Us To 'Hide Yo Kids, Hide Yo Wife'

It's tough to believe that it's been a decade since Antoine Dodson went viral on social media for his incredible speech.

The actual circumstances that resulted in the Alabama man's clip going viral are pretty upsetting.

A news team assembled outside the Huntsville man's home in late July 2010 after his sister was nearly raped by an unknown person in July 2010. When they asked Antoine, then just 24 years old age, about his thoughts on the tragic and upsetting encounter, he didn't hold back.

He said point blank to the camera: "Well, obviously we have a rapist in Lincoln Park. He's climbin' in yo windows, he's snatchin' yo people up, tryin' to rape 'em. So y'all need to hide yo kids, hide yo wife, and hide yo husband cause they rapin' err'body out here."

It didn't take long for the moment to burst into every meme format available and, as was popular at the time, it was transformed into an autotuned song.

While there have been songs made out of viral moments in the past, Antoine and The Gregory Brothers 'Bed Intruder Song' managed to make its way onto the Billboard Hot 100. The team who put it together have claimed to have sold more than 100,000 copies since.

The original video became YouTube's most popular clip for 2010, receiving a whopping 147 million views and 1.1 million likes since it was uploaded on July 30, 2010.

Loads of people seemed to lap up the video when it first went viral, however there were some who thought the world wasn't paying attention to the right thing.

The Onion's Baratunde Thurston told NPR: "As the remix took off, I became increasingly uncomfortable with its separation from the underlying situation. A woman was sexually assaulted and her brother was rightfully upset.

"People online seemed to be laughing at him and not with him (because he wasn't laughing), as Dodson fulfilled multiple stereotypes in one short news segment. Watching the wider Web jump on this meme, all but forgetting why Dodson was upset, seemed like a form of 'class tourism.'

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"Folks with no exposure to the projects could dip their toes into YouTube and get a taste. The creativity unleashed has been amazing, and what mitigates my fears of people minimising the gravity of the situation is how Antoine himself has responded and taken charge of his own meme."

Antoine did certainly take hold of the meme that he had accidentally created.

Dodson sat down with BET for its I Went Viral series and explained how he moved to Los Angeles after becoming a viral sensation.

MSN announced a reality TV show would follow him and his family as they settled into Tinseltown. However, the city proved to be too much and they moved back home after a while.

He's been able to sell merchandise related to the meme and he's been included in several popular culture tidbits over the years.

Thankfully though, the money he made from the 'Bed Intruder Song' allowed him to move his family out of subsidised housing. It also allowed him to follow his passions and he's now giving back to the community by working in the Huntsville School District.

Topics: Viral, Entertainment

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie