Quavo Responds as 'Hotel Lobby' AI Memes Explode

An AI meme trend recasting Quavo and the late Takeoff's 2022 COLORS performance has gone viral, drawing pushback and Quavo's pointed response.

According to Complex's reporting via Yahoo, an AI-generated meme format built on Quavo and the late Takeoff's 2022 "Hotel Lobby" performance on A COLORS SHOW exploded across TikTok in September. The trend replaces the two Migos rappers — performing as Unc & Phew against the show's bright orange backdrop, sharing one microphone — with everyone from celebrities to fictional characters and even animals, while retaining the original audio, movements and lip syncing. Versions have reportedly featured Barack and Michelle Obama, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe's Spider-Men, and soccer stars Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham.

The surprising engine of the trend, per Yahoo's explainer, is how low the barrier to entry has become: AI video tools including Starrd and Summrs map two uploaded images onto the performance, and CapCut templates have made the format even more accessible. The format reportedly began gaining traction in early September after videos of two cats recreating the routine went viral, then escalated into a template built for recognizable pairings — the two-person back-and-forth dynamic of the original video doing the structural work. What was once a straightforward uncle-and-nephew performance has become raw material for endless recreations featuring everyone except the two rappers themselves.

Yahoo reports that the trend has drawn criticism because Takeoff, born Kirsnick Khari Ball, was shot and killed in Houston on November 1, 2022 — meaning the AI wave keeps recreating a performance he gave with his uncle just months before his death. Some fans have pushed back in comment sections, arguing the original performance should be treated as a memory of Takeoff rather than material for dancing cartoon characters. "It's upsetting that people decided to turn this into an Ai meme but even more disturbing that Takeoff is dead and even with that considered, y'all still circulated the erasure of that man," one user tweeted, per Yahoo. Broader concerns about likenesses, voices and copyrighted work used without permission have followed.

Quavo has not condemned the trend. We have to be thoughtful about the impact it's having on our Earth and on future generations." The moment has introduced "Hotel Lobby" to a massive new audience while sharpening the debate over AI, likeness rights and an artist's legacy.