The phrase "six-seven" migrated from a Philadelphia drill rap track to Vatican City, transforming a lyric with no fixed meaning into one of the most pervasive memes in modern internet culture.
What began as a rhythmic hook in Skrilla's December 2024 song "Doot Doot (6 7)" has since colonized classrooms, sports arenas, video games, and political campaigns, culminating in Pope Leo XIV performing the meme's signature hand gesture during a May 2026 audience with young pilgrims.
Skrilla, the Philadelphia rapper behind the track, has repeatedly declined to assign meaning to the phrase. "I never put an actual meaning on it, and I still would not want to," he stated. The ambiguity proved to be the engine of its spread.
The meme first gained traction on TikTok when creators paired the song's hook with footage of NBA player LaMelo Ball, who stands exactly 6 feet 7 inches tall. The visual pun caught fire in early 2025, and the audio soon detached from basketball entirely.
How a basketball game turned a chant into a movement
On March 31, 2025, YouTuber Cam Wilder posted a video from a youth basketball game in which a boy later identified as Maverick Trevillian lunged toward the camera, yelled "six seven," and performed an upward-palm hand gesture that would become the meme's physical signature. Trevillian, instantly nicknamed the "67 Kid," became the human emblem of a phrase that children were already shouting in hallways and classrooms.
The gesture and chant proved irresistible to short-form video culture. By October 2025, the adult animated series "South Park" devoted a plot point in its season 28 premiere to children brainwashed by the meme. Major video game franchises followed: "Clash Royale" added a 6-7 emote in October, "Overwatch 2" announced one in November, and "Fortnite" incorporated the reference into its Chapter 7 update later that month.
Corporate adoption accelerated. McDonald's in the United Arab Emirates ran a promotion in November 2025 distributing seven chicken nuggets in six-piece boxes stamped with "6(7)" stickers during the 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. window. Pizza Hut sold wings for 67 cents. Domino's offered one-topping pizzas for $6.70. Restaurant chain In-N-Out removed the number 67 from its ordering system after teenagers screamed the meme whenever the order was called.
From Word of the Year to political miscalculation
In December 2025, Dictionary.com named "67" its Word of the Year, describing the interjection as "nonsensical and playfully absurd" and noting that its online usage in October 2025 had multiplied sixfold compared with all of 2024. Steve Johnson, director of lexicography for the dictionary's parent company, called it "part inside joke, part social signal and part performance."
The meme's political penetration has been less successful. In February 2026, former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris rebranded her social media campaign account as "Headquarters 67" in an effort to mobilize young voters ahead of the midterm elections. The handle lasted one day before her team removed the reference after commenters mocked the effort as out of touch.
The most recent and unlikely endorsement came in May 2026, when Pope Leo XIV performed the 6-7 hand gesture during a Vatican meeting with young Catholic pilgrims from Genoa. Video of the moment, posted by internet personality Don Roberto Fiscer, showed the pontiff mirroring the children's gesture after they encouraged him to participate.
What happens next for a meme that has already conquered fast food, sports, politics, and the papacy remains an open question. For now, the chant continues to function exactly as its creator intended: as a sound without a dictionary definition, propelled by the simple social currency of being in on the joke.