Keyon Elkins is the voice behind some of the most viral tweets and TikTok sounds

by Brent G. Oneal

This profile is part of our Culture Shifters series, which highlights people changing how we think about the world around us. Read about film archivist Maya Cade and rapper Latashá.

Keyon Elkins got his first phone when he was 13 years old. It was “a rundown” piece of Metro PCS, but it was what his mom could get and pay for.

Elkins said he felt like he was lagging behind his peers, digital natives who received their first phones before they were teenagers, but he took the Android and ran with it. He remembers turning on the camera and filming videos in his room. But because he was afraid that people would see his true self, he never shared them with anyone. Elkins, who uses he and she pronouns, was still trying to navigate identity and adolescence.

Keyon Elkins is the voice behind some of the most viral tweets and TikTok sounds

“I was still trying to reinvent myself,” he said. “As a black gay growing up in the South, you must hide many things. I was just myself in those videos and didn’t share anything about it. I’ve kept it a secret the longest.”

Elkins posted his first YouTube video at 14. “Ugh, I hope nobody does that,” he told HuffPost, cringing at how much time he’s spent on the internet.

Now 21, Elkins is the voice behind some of the funniest tweets and TikTok sounds (most notably “It’s because I didn’t have an iPad” in February 2021), a source of viral joy and a driving force in digital culture. With over 500,000 Twitter followers and 66,000 YouTube subscribers, he doesn’t call himself a culture critic or even a social media personality. In his eyes, he is someone who ‘just posts everything and wants to make people laugh’.

The Shreveport, Louisiana native has been creating content for nearly a decade, engaging in photography and styling, and providing witty, quirky commentary on television, film, and various pop culture trends. He rose to popularity after a revelation he tweeted about in December 2019. (Elkins hilariously realized that Hamburger Helper doesn’t come with meat in the box.)

Although Adele calls Elkins the judge of what’s hot and what isn’t, he sees himself as “this Louisiana kid who talks about what he wants to talk about, and people just watch it.” he has also picked up several famous fans along the way. Adele mentioned Elkins in her Rolling Stone interview in November 2021; she said, “If something explodes on Twitter, I always go straight to that account.”

After the fake album announcement “featuring imaginary duets by Beyoncé and Ariana Grande,” she searched Twitter for “@keyon” to see his response, Rolling Stone reported. Elkins knew the track listings were fraudulent and pointed out that Adele normally doesn’t use any features.

However, that day was incredibly nerve-wracking for Elkins. He woke up early, at 8 am, to study for an exam he had a few hours later – then his phone started buzzing incessantly. His home screen was flooded with a flood of Twitter notifications and mentions.

“All I saw was Adele, Adele, Adele. I think she may have put out a new song or album earlier,” Elkins said. “But I see, ‘Adele mentioned you in Rolling Stone.’ I’m like, wait a minute. Someone is joking with me.”

He was in shock when he visited Rolling Stone’s Twitter page, which mentioned him.

“I was excited. It was bittersweet. Adele doesn’t do those kinds of interviews, so being mentioned in one of those interviews distracted me,” he said. “Later that day, I couldn’t even concentrate on my exam. IAdele mentioned me, but at the same time, I bombed my exam.”

Keyon Elkins in Natchitoches, Louisiana. He said he grew up in northwestern Louisiana and early got the message that being queer “isn’t good.”

Growing up, Elkins found a safe place online. He looked at the biggest names that defined and shaped Black YouTube in the early 2010s, such as Kingsley and Tre Melvin. He saw himself in those content creators and how they were affirmed, valued, and accepted, inspiring Elkins to branch out.

In conservative, ecclesiastical northwest Louisiana, Elkins grew up hearing that being queer “isn’t right.”

He remembers being bombarded with questions like “Why are you talking like a girl?” so he shuts himself off and keeps to himself. The school was an isolated place where Elkins often felt alienated and unsupported by children in his neighborhood. However, his mother — his best friend and his rock of strength — always encouraged him, he said, and Elkins tried to find community in other ways: online.

“I don’t need anyone to accept me, but every child should feel valued. I posted my first YouTube video, and the response has been super positive,” Elkins said. “I wasn’t even nobody else – I was myself. As a 14-year-old, I needed that.”

Nevertheless, he is incredibly proud to be from the South, the blackest part of the United States. Like Megan Thee Stallion posing for Houston and Flo Milli in Mobile, Alabama, he proudly wears Louisiana on his sleeve. Elkins applauded Flo Milli for unabashedly celebrating her Southern roots in her music — with lyrics like “Bitch, I’m from Alabama” — and his followers were surprised. Some even replied, “Why would anyone be proud to come from there?”

Elkins replied, “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I love the South, and I think this world would be nothing without black southerners. The way we speak, the way we act, the way we move, the way we dress,” Elkins said. “It’s something to be proud of. I love us.”

“At one point, I was a little scared to be like, ‘Oh, I’m from Louisiana.’ The South has its history, and of course, we cannot ignore it,” he added. “You grow up in the South, and you’re so ashamed. Then you have to remember, I’m not just from the South; I’m a black from the South. What we have and what we have made is special.”

Keyon Elkins says, “I love the South, and I think this world would be nothing without black Southerners. The way we speak, the way we act, the way we move, the way we dress.”

That creativity has taken Elkins to the point where he’s literally made a name for himself online. After stagnant growth on YouTube, Elkins created his Twitter account in 2015 under the name ‘HOOD VOGUE is tired of poverty’. The handle dates back to his time on Tumblr, where he saw various images from his back-to-back feed, ranging from haute couture in Vogue magazine to black creatives in the hood.

“I just came up with something random,” Elkins said. “The ‘tired of poverty’ came from me growing up poor, still not rich. I just added that to be funny. I wanted to change it, but everyone said, ‘Oh my God, no!’ So it just stuck with me now that I have this platform. I wanted to change it to ‘Keyon’ before I got followers, but it’s too late,” he laughed.

Elkins attended school during the COVID-19 pandemic and said he couldn’t make friends until the fall of 2021. Now, as a rising senior at Northwestern State University, classmates have greeted him only twice with, “OMG, you’re Keyon!”

Elkins said the most important thing for her is that her child is safe online. His mother only knows about his YouTube channel because his older brother told her. When he told her his account had been verified, she said, “What? Okay… whatever that means.”

It’s a double-edged sword. Elkins, a team of one, manages his Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, email, and anything he puts his face on online. By working on this visibility alone, he said he feels the weight and pressure of the public’s expectations of him.

“It’s tough being a black person with visibility,” Elkins said. “You should always limit what you say to a certain extent. People follow us because we keep it real, but I think we should limit ourselves to a certain extent because we get harassed. If you don’t say what people want you to say, that’s a problem. They like to say, “You hate having fun. You are miserable. You’re a hater.’”

As much as he likes to share his opinion, Elkins says, he knows he doesn’t want to stay on Twitter forever. He wants to expand into music, return to photography, make his first love, and much more. Ironically, with all his creative talent, Elkins is studying accounting with a minor in computer information systems.

“If you come from a low income, you can’t just succeed in everything. You have to set your thinking limit, like what will give me that financial stability I need? I studied accountancy, and I am good at that.”

Keyon Elkins is studying accountancy with a minor in computer information systems at Louisiana’s Northwestern State University.

In addition, Elkins understands the volatility of digital media and the barriers that exist for black creatives. Despite producing so much viral content, he hasn’t been picked up by any management team yet. According to a report by PR firm MSL in conjunction with The Influencer League, there is a 35% racial pay gap between white and black influencers.

Forbes’ top-earning TikTokers report of 2022 consists only of white content creators, many of whom constantly usurp black culture and are rewarded with endorsement deals and brand contracts. This dynamic led to a strike by Black TikTokers at the end of June 2021. Unfortunately, Elkins said his “iPad video” was a good example.

“I couldn’t even enjoy that video going off because half the comments in that video were people making fun of how I talk,” Elkins said, pointing to his Southern accent. “But the next day, you have a non-black person who tries to mimic how I speak, and they get praised for it. Now you see people yelling at non-black people because they have a “blackened” and things like that – thank goodness. But for the longest time, you can’t complain about that without appearing jealous.”

Elkins hopes people can laugh at his videos while understanding that he is a real, ordinary person.

“I wish people would take it easy on me sometimes, no Adele,” Elkins said with a laugh. With graduation approaching, he wants to travel the world after school and pursue his dreams, such as hosting “Saturday Night Live” one day or shooting a magazine cover.

After finally purchasing his iPad in October, Elkins is well on his way.

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