Jamaica-born, Brooklyn-based artist/producer Kris Yute's song "I Did It" is taking off. In September of 2019, actor Penn Badgley (from You and Gossip Girl) posted a short video of himself and Yute dancing to the song on Instagram, and the homemade moment was all it took to get the song's contagious chorus and uplifting message to spread. That clip has been reposted and shared across every social media platform, and "I Did It" now has over three million streams on Spotify alone.
We—probably like many of you—are skeptical of most viral songs and celebrity-driven career launches, but it's hard to hate on "I Did It." There's a magical simplicity to it, an effortless charm that oozes through Yute's soft-spoken delivery, plus the unorthodox production keeps things interesting. Yute is mostly inspired by dancehall and reggae artists, but also counts Young Thug and Kanye West as influences. He wrote and produced "I Did It" himself and released it independently, and the Penn Badgley connection sounds like it came naturally—the two have apparently been friends for years.
Based off this anomaly of a song, it's hard to predict what's next for Kris Yute, and he's not giving away too much. "'I Did It' is a pretty good representation of where I'm at right now," he says. "I'm currently working on a debut project that's definitely gonna expand on that sound in surprising ways."