"No Idea" is a song by American rapper and singer

Don Toliver Caleb Zackery "Don" Toliver ( ; born June 12, 1994) is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He released his first major label mixtape, ''Donny Womack'', in August 2018. He is known for his singles " No Idea" and " After Party", from his de ...

. It was released by Cactus Jack Records, Atlantic Records, and We Run It Entertainment on May 29, 2019, as the lead single from Toliver's debut studio album, '' Heaven or Hell'' (2020). It was produced by WondaGurl and

Cubeatz Cubeatz (sometimes stylized as CuBeatz) are a German hip hop production and songwriting duo from Sindelfingen, consisting of twin brothers Kevin and Tim Gomringer. Originally embarking on their careers within German hip hop in the 2010s, they ...

. The song gained popularity in December 2019 after going viral on video sharing app

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version o ...

Background

Don Toliver first gained prominence in 2018, after being featured on Travis Scott's '' Astroworld'' album, on the track "Can't Say". The song was later certified

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

and Toliver appeared as a supporting act on both legs of the Astroworld tour. He released his second mixtape ''Donny Womack'' (named after his alter-ego) the same month as the release of ''Astroworld'', August 2018. He returned with "No Idea" in May 2019. The song gained popularity on the video-sharing app

and rapidly started climbing charts thereafter. Toliver described the song as "the first chapter, the introduction, the real introduction to the chapter f a new project.

Composition

"No Idea" sees Don Toliver reference his alter-ego, Donny Womack (inspired by late R&B artist

Bobby Womack Robert Dwayne Womack (; March 4, 1944 – June 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Starting in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing gui ...

). Heran Mamo of '' Billboard'' magazine described Toliver's vocals as "soulful, gaseous moans", noting the lyrics for containing "the roots of

Southern rap Southern hip hop, also known as Southern rap, South Coast hip hop, or dirty south, is a blanket term for a regional genre of American hip hop music that emerged in the Southern United States, especially in Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Memph ...

". The song consists of a "dark, slinking beat", with Toliver delivering a "refreshing falsetto" during the chorus. Toliver spoke to ''

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'' about the concept of the song:

Critical reception

Frazier Tharpe of ''Complex'' magazine said the song is "everything you want from a Don Toliver song", complimenting the "earworm melodies" and Toliver's ability to showcase his growing talents as a writer. Nada Mesh of ''HotNewHipHop'' noted how the "dark trappy vibes of the beat" complement Toliver's rapping, described as "effortless flows".

Music video

The music video was also released on May 29, 2019, and directed by

Grant Singer Grant Taylor Singer (born July 23, 1985) is an American music video and commercial director known for working with artists such as The Weeknd, Sky Ferreira, Lorde, Sam Smith, Ariel Pink and Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 198 ...

. Toliver described the theme of the video: "I'm basically going back down a memory lane type situation, and it kind of fast forwards to right now 019 When you listen to the song, and as you get deep into it, you start to figure out. I'm kind of ranting on what's going on right now, you know?"

TikTok dance

Over 8 million videos have been made on

using the song, with over 6 billion plays as of June 2020. Popular TikTok users like

Charli D'Amelio Charli Grace D'Amelio ( ; born May 1, 2004) is an American social media personality. She was a competitive dancer for over 10 years before starting her social media career in 2019, when she started posting dance videos on the video-sharing pl ...

, who is currently the most-followed individual on the platform, helped to popularize the song on the platform. These videos usually consist of users dancing to a snippet of the song. It was the top TikTok song for December 2019.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{authority control 2019 singles 2019 songs Atlantic Records singles Songs written by WondaGurl Songs written by Kevin Gomringer Songs written by Tim Gomringer Song recordings produced by Cubeatz Songs written by Don Toliver Don Toliver songs