“Coco” by PewDiePie
PewDiePie’s “Coco” serves primarily as a diss track against a YouTube channel called Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes. The reason that PewDiePie is once again on the musical attack is because Cocomelon, like T-Series before them, is another channel which appears to be on the verge of surpassing his seemingly-insurmountable subscriber count.
You see PewDiePie is the single most-popular figure in the world as far as YouTube followings are concerned. In other words, as of the release of this track, his personal channel boasts of nearly 110 million followers. Concurrently, Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes has approximately 105 million and by all indications is closing in on him fast. And again, those familiar with the YouTuber knows that he doesn’t take kindly to his subscriber dominance being threatened, even if indirectly.
PewDiePie verses T-Series
The last time such happened, when the aforementioned India-based channel known as T-Series was on the verge of surpassing his subscriber count (and supplanting him as the most-subscribed channel), PewDiePie went on a tirade by dropping a couple of diss tracks, “B**ch Lasagna” (2018) and “Congratulations” (2019), against T-Series. Both outings were laced with what can be deemed as racist language, with the latter especially raising some eyebrows.
But at the end of the day, despite PewDiePie’s supporters being more vocal, T-Series still went on to surpass his subscriber count – and then some (with over 170 million followers as of the release of “Coco”).
So with that particular experience in mind, perhaps it can be argued that he is once again facing the inevitable in his own unique way. And he handles this by dissing the damn out a ‘competitor’ whose official followers are on the verge of outnumbering his own.
PewDiePie verses Cocomelon
With T-Series, PewDiePie’s lyrical target was largely Asians, since they are the one who mostly follow the channel. But as it name implies, Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes specialize in content primarily marketed to children. So this time around it is such individuals who lie in the crosshairs of the ever-controversial YouTuber.
So after referring to Cocomelon as “a stupid f***ing b***h-a*s melon” in the intro and accusing them of “f***ing with (his) mojo” in the chorus, PewDiePie turns his attention to their child viewers also. Thus he begins the first verse by first dissing their parents. But this particular passage is still primarily focused on the channel itself.
PewDiePie personifies Cocomelon as an entity which, once again, he is in competition with, as in the channel conscientiously being out to overtake him. So he disses their content in addition to their audience, as well as mocking the idea of being bested by them. And for whatever reason he brings the first verse to a close by making an unflattering reference to rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine. As far as the world knows, he and Tekashi don’t have any type of beef. However, PewDiePie is on record as having dissed 6ix9ine in the past. And the way he goes about initially doing so in this song is by advising the child viewers of Cocomelon not to “be a f***ing snitch… like 6ix9ine”.
Why is PewDiePie attacking Children in “Coco”?
With the above being noted, this would perhaps be a good time in our analysis of “Coco” to point out that a mature listener at least should never be under the impression that PewDiePie is actually out to harm or really negatively influence children. Even more so than being a musician, he is a comedian, and those familiar with his content know that he is one of those types whose style can sometimes be offensive.
Verse 2
This is important to keep in mind as we delve into the second verse. For here the rapper is, from an artistic standpoint, addressing the underage viewers of Cocomelon directly. And in once again allowing us to interrupt the flow of this article, let it be known that “Coco” was obviously conceptualized with Eminem’s 2000 masterpiece “The Kids” serving as its primary lyrical inspiration. For in the latter Slim Shady also addresses children – in a frank, fictitious and comical manner – for their own good under his estimation. And anyone who is familiar with said tune will likely note similarities between it and “Coco”. For instance, they both start off with directly addressing children in mentor/teacher-like fashion.
But that being noted, the YouTuber once again commences the second verse by dissing the parents of small children (who patronize Cocomelon). And once again his tone is very reminiscent of a turn-of-the-century Eminem, who is like a predecessor to the White rappers who followed. That is to say that PewDiePie getting his message across – and of course causing heads to turn in the process – is the priority over being politically-correct and cordial.
So in the name of upsetting his intended victims, he not only curses their parents but reveals that Santa Claus is fake. He also states that their mothers lie when calling them smart. Furthermore, he points out that the dead family dog, whom the parents say is “in heaven”, is in actuality “rotting in the yard”. Additionally PewDiePie takes a moment to voice his opinion on ‘J.K. (Rowling) spoiling Harry Potter’ and to once again diss Tekashi 6ix9ine.
Verse 3
During the third verse, he turns his attention back towards Cocomelon, i.e. the channel itself, in a more-straightforward fashion. He starts off by marveling over their large viewership and concluding that “babies must be viewing [the channel] when their mommy (are) asleep”. Or stated differently, he attributes their success to the fact that the targeted viewership is very young and thus unable to make educated choices in terms of what to watch.
PewDiePie further goes on to imply that Cocomelon may be cheating in terms of their posted viewership count. In stating this, he also mentions that they unscrupulously market content towards children.
2nd Eminem Reference in “Coco”
Then to bring it all home, PewDiePie makes another indirect reference to Eminem. This solidifies the theory that this track has been influenced by the works of Marshall Mathers. He does so by more or less apologizing to Cocomelon – a common Slim Shady device after spending an entire track dissing the damn out of someone. However, he does not reserve the same level of “love” for Tekashi 6ix9ine. He even goes as far as to challenge the “rainbow b**ch” (6ix9ine) to “a legal fight”. And the very-last line concludes with a notion we alluded to earlier, as in wondering why PewDiePie is “dissing 6ix9ine” in the first place.
Conclusion
So there you have it, folks. In this day and age, songs such as these are basically a brand of adult humor, especially in terms of those which are dropped by individuals who are primarily YouTubers. Also for better or for worse, many an early-21st century White rapper has been heavily influenced by the works of Eminem. In other words, in relation to this song for instance, they tend to be totally against biting their tongues and/or practicing political correctness.
But that being said, if you are an adult who isn’t easily offended by tasteless humor, truth be told “Coco” does have its entertaining moments. Also people who aren’t particularly fond of Tekashi 6ix9ine, of which there are quite a few, might take pleasure in this track.
“Coco” Writing Credits
This song was written by PewDiePie alongside another YouTuber/musician called Boyinaband. Boyinaband also worked with PewDiePie on the aforementioned “Congratulations” (2019) diss track. And the producer of Coco is another musician(s) that goes by the name of Oxygen Beats.
PewDiePie’s YouTube Success
For those who don’t know, PewDiePie (real name Felix Kjellberg) has long held the title of owning the most-subscribed to English-language YouTube channel in the world. At one point in time (during the mid-2010s) his channel was even the most-subscribed to outright. He eventually lost that general title to that of the aforementioned T-Series. By they way, T-Series is an India-based entertainment label. But as of the release of this track, on 14 February 2021, he is still holding down second place overall with 109,000,000 subscribers.
Is PewDiePie’s beef with Cocomelon real?
No. PewDiePie is apparently on record as stating that he doesn’t have any sort of actual beef with Cocomelon. He is just more or less capitalizing on the moment as his previously-dropped diss tracks proved to be quite popular.
Reportedly PewDiePie had been teasing this song for about a year prior to its release, with the YouTuber declaring war on Cocomelon during June of 2020.
“Coco” Backlash
PewDiePie has suffered a backlash as a result of “Coco”, though it’s not due to the content of the song per se. The backlash is based on accusations of the YouTuber enlisting children to render curse words on the track’s music video. By virtue of this, many netizens called for his cancellation.
Moreover it has been noted in terms of who are offended by the song itself, that it isn’t so much the subject matter that has turned them off as it is the heavy usage of curse words. And some listeners have also accused PewDiePie of picking on Cocomelon due to the lack of the likelihood of the family-friendly YouTube channel striking back.
Success of “Coco”
But in regards to how Coco was received in general, it was a huge success for PewDiePie. Within six hours of being released, it managed to achieve 3,000,000 views on YouTube.
