Here Is Who Really Started The “Slick Back Challenge” — And Meet The Korean Popularized It

The “slick back challenge” is one of the most popular dance challenges on shortform platforms currently. It features the challenger doing a modified moonwalk that makes them look like they are floating in midair. The motion is done in a circular path, to the song “A Pimp Called Slickback” by LAKIM. Check out ZEROBASEONE’s Yujin doing it below.

FINALLY YUJIN SLICK BACK CHALLENGE pic.twitter.com/QuieHCnglS

— iel (@O7O1hs) October 20, 2023

The challenge was popularized after a video of a South Korean teen doing it went viral. He posted a video to TikTok on October 15, 2023 to his account @wm87.4. The video now had over 230 million views. He posted a second video to his Instagram @hyxceol which gained over 2 million views. Many are still calling him the “top in the world” in terms of the dance challenge, despite the millions of participants that have come after him.

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The young teen is called Lee Hyo Cheol. He has been interviewed by many outlets following the craze, including an appearance on Yoo Jae Suk’s You Quiz On The Block.

He is a mere middle schooler, who filmed the challenge for fun after downing a hearty bowl of gukbab. He came across the challenge online when it was not yet popular, and racked up the views in just a few days. He is known as the person who popularized the challenge in South Korea, and later the world.

So who created the challenge? While the creation of the challenge to the song “A Pimp Named Slickback” is unknown, the dance was created by a TikTok creator under the username @jubi2fye in February 2022.

He consistently continued to upload him doing the slide to the song “Aye Bay Bay,” garnering under a million likes by March 2022. He named the dance the “Jubi Slide” after himself. Here’s a compilation of people doing the challenge.

Who knew that the dance would be modified and reused to a different song just a year later? The current challenge has gotten way more likes and views than the original “Aye Bay Bay” challenge, but the dance move should still remain credited to @jubi2fye. Lee Hyo Cheol’s young age and explosive popularity later helped it gain traction as Korean celebrities began attempting it, spreading it further.