Saucy Santana Has Cracked the Code to Viral Longevity

For the past two years, the coveted TikTok algorithm has cranked out viral hits at a dizzying rate, flinging a bevy of artists into mainstream popularity — most by way of a Gen Z-choreographed dance challenge. In the time since the early pandemic "Renegade" phase until now, some artists have faded into obscurity as quickly as they emerged from it after their songs were propagated by the bots.

And then there's Saucy Santana, the Tallahassee-bred rapper whose infectious hits and personality have become ubiquitous on social media.

Open either TikTok or Instagram and it won't take long before you come across someone using his likeness or songs as their video's soundtrack: a celebrity strutting in tune to "Walk" to show off their high fashion getup; a TikToker re-enacting his infamous "Caresha please!" ki with friend and half of City Girls, Yung Miami; or someone rehearsing the moves to his signature dance.

With over 2.4 million followers on TikTok, Santana understands the power of virality.

When he debuted his first hit, "Walk Em Like a Dog," in July 2019, the song amassed one million streams in the first week. So, during a Zoom call with New Times, when he responded with nonchalance to a question about his Instagram page being taken down at nearly one million followers for a second time, he solidified just how big his platform is.

"It's kind of like, 'Eh, it's a thing,' but it just shows the impact that I have even for me to make a second account in July and have 647,000 before I got disabled again. That's over 100,000 followers a month," he explains. "Just even my power on TikTok and all social-media platforms — I haven't been sweating it that much, but I am going to come back."
The significance of his presence isn't just in the numbers. He defies the hetero-male-dominated genre with his trademark snatched-waist ensembles, stiletto nails, long lashes, and trimmed beard. His gender-fluid image redefines an industry historically freighted with homophobia and expands the opportunity for more nonbinary and LGBTQIA+ rappers to emerge on their own terms.

Raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut, until age 10, Santana relocated with his family to Tallahassee, where he was introduced to music from endemic artists like Trina, Plies, Khia, Jacki-O, and Uncle Luke. He attributes these artists and other Southern rap aficionados like Gucci Mane to having the most impact on his sound and the confidence he exudes. But Santana's je ne sais quoi — his personality and style — is something he embraced long before the fame, and it's also the magnet that's pulled millions into his online orbit.

When he came out to family and friends at 17, he had already begun his metamorphosis into Saucy Santana.

"That's when I started wearing makeup, nails, and girl clothes," he recalls. "You just had to have an attitude of: This is what I want to do, and this is what makes me happy, and I don't give a fuck. It takes balls to walk into Walmart with lashes on, a full set, and a beard and people looking at you like, 'What the hell?' I always had the confidence of: This is me."

It would take a little longer for Santana's foray into rapping. He had already built some notoriety as the City Girls' makeup artist and friend, but it wasn't until he recorded a "Thotiana" remix for his podcast's theme song in February of 2019 that he considered becoming an artist.

"When we put the song out, I got a lot of good feedback. People were like, 'I didn't know you knew how to rap?'" he says. "It was a talent I didn't know I had."

That year, his online presence exploded after he released "Walk Em Like a Dog" and "Material Girl." A symbiotic relationship between Bad Bitch Energy and knocking Miami bass-style beats, his tracks pushed him to the top of the ranks of up-and-coming Florida rappers. What seems aspirational to most artists was a complicated ascension for Santana.

Violence often spurred by homophobia threatened to eclipse his career when he and two friends were targeted in a drive-by shooting outside the Miami strip club the Office. Santana, who was shot in the arm, and his friends sustained nonlife-threatening injuries, but it reified the lack of acceptance for queer artists navigating the music industry.

Santana admits he's a lot more careful when he's out at clubs since that incident, but it hasn't stopped him from pursuing music.

"I just carry myself in a different way from when I first started rapping," he says. "I always have my security with me, and I'm in places I'm supposed to be in. I still like to go out to the club, but when I'm in the club, I make sure I'm secure. I don't really feel like I'm in places where I'm not safe."
In 2020, he proved he was much more than a one-hit artist when he dropped three back-to-back albums, Imma Celebrity, Pretty Little Gangsta, and It's a Vibe. Each of those projects birthed some of his most popular tracks, "Up and Down," featuring Latto; "Back It Up," featuring LightSkinKeisha; and "Walk." Teaming up with New York producer Tre Trax, the pair "call ourselves Shaq and Kobe," Santana says.

"We just built a relationship with his talent of making beats and us putting our creative juices together. Ninety-five percent of my music is produced by him," he adds.

Santana and Trax kept that stride when Keep It Playa dropped last fall, months before Gunna had everyone proclaiming they were "pushin' P." Throughout the album, he employs raunchy quips and pretty-girl attitude on tracks like "Shisha" (featuring City Girls), "On My Body," and "Too Much."

As he continues to expand his platform on TikTok, he's far outgrown initial critiques of his music being a gimmick and has commanded the attention of artists who would've once counted him out as a potential peer.

"A lot of my hits are by myself, so it makes people respect you as an artist," he explains. "Now straight men are kind of looking at me as a business move. Outside of being who I am, you gon' respect my pen and my music and artistry and what I bring to a record."

Last summer, he performed to his biggest crowd when he hit the Rolling Loud Stage in Miami, and currently, he's preparing to go on tour with Atlanta native and collaborator Latto. As his music continues to reach a wider audience, he envisions himself carving out a lane for trans, queer, and nonbinary artists who don't fit the heteronormative scope of rap. Many fans may define him as a pioneer, but the pressure doesn't faze Santana.

His authenticity has aligned with impact, making him one of the most powerful viral artists to come out of this TikTok era. While some may need a marketing strategy to reach his level on social media, Santana has bypassed perfunctory tactics.

Or, as the trendsetter himself puts it: "I'm just busy being Saucy Santana."