How Slowed + Reverb Remixes Became the Melancholy Heart of Music YouTube
In 2017, Jarylun Moore uploaded his second-ever video to YouTube: a homemade remix of Lil Uzi Vert’s “20 Minutes” accompanied by a looping animation of a pink skeleton. The 20-year-old had digitally slowed the song down to about 85 percent of its original tempo, rendering the vocals thick and elongated, something akin to the sound of a 45-rpm single played at 33. Within a week, the video had 20,000 views. Within two months, it had a million. By April of last year, it had disappeared, but not before leaving an entire internet subculture in its wake.