It's the lifecycle of a meme. Now, "I Got Like Hella Money" creator said he won’t stop singing just because the popular people are being contrarians.
TikTok creator Kell Martin, @shutthekellup, wrote a viral song that quickly became a meme as social media users added the song to their content in January 2026. Now Martin says “the fun police” showed up to proclaim, “joke’s over.”
TikTok creators danced and added their own context to Martin’s song that emphasizes the feeling that you’ve got “hella money,” when in fact you have just a little bit.
Martin’s original post, shared on Jan. 2, 2026, featured a $5 bill that he sang and beatboxed about.
He repeated the lyrics, “I’ve got like hella money,” and joked that others are “poor.” The hilarious post quickly accumulated millions of views, and its sound has been used over 125 thousand times on TikTok. Martin held up a 5 dollar bill while beatboxing. He sang the lyrics, “I’ve got hella money.”
Martin said he won’t stop singing just because the popular people are being contrarians.
Martin discussed the lifecycle of a meme in a clip shared on Jan. 16, 2026. He said, “You know, every meme has a cycle. And it's kind of funny now being the victim of one of those cycles.”
He referred to the I’ve got hella money meme he launched and said, “I think we've reached the point now where everyone who hated it all along are coming out of the woodwork. The fun police have come to crash the party.”
“Um, hot take: Hella money was never funny,” Martin suggested. He went on to claim that the phrase, “And jokes over” is “popular person human.”
“It's the same way every time,” he explained. “There are genuinely people who find it unfunny, which is normal. Then there are just people who want to be contrarian and ruin the fun for everyone. Then enough of those people raise their voice loud enough that everyone's like, yeah, we're done. And then they move on.”
He continued, “The memes don't last forever. But you guess what? I will. Because I'm immortal.”
People in the comments respected the mic drop and shared support for Martin's creativity.
“Don't worry, King, they don't understand you as we do,” said one in response. "It’s ok cuz u got hella money n they don’t," jokes another.
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