‘This is Kazakhstan, baby’: what is known about the author of the viral hit
Who created the hit
The author of the viral track is 19-year-old student from Astana, Dias Abraev, who performs under the stage name Reekid. His song “KZ BABY” has gathered more than 31 million plays on YouTube, and on TikTok tens of thousands of videos with millions of views have been made to this sound.
@reekid_111 soundcloud: reekid#kazakhstan #астана #kzrap #soundcloud #fyp ♬ оригинальный звук - тгк: reekid25
How the track appeared
The story of how this season’s main hit was created looks like a classic “woke up famous” scenario. According to Dias, the song was not a carefully planned project — it was pure improvisation.
“The track was recorded in 15–20 minutes. I was inspired — I think many have noticed by what — a song from my childhood, the melody from Crazy Frog. At first there wasn’t any concrete idea to make exactly this kind of song. I just thought I wanted to record a track to some funny nostalgic beat and started freestyling. The first lines came out a bit funny and patriotic, and I decided to develop that theme further,” he said.
@reekid_111 это кз бейби форсим#kzrap #soundcloud #казахстан #kazakhstan #рекомендации ♬ KZBABY - тгк: reekid25
Already at the recording stage, Reekid had a feeling that the track could “take off” on social media.
“To be honest, when I recorded this track, I had the thought that it could go viral on TikTok, especially the chorus, which easily gets stuck in your head. A friend pushed me to publish it — he said the chorus sounded like it had ‘mass’ potential,” he noted.
However, there was no instant effect: during the first week the post attracted almost no attention.
“Later I decided to post a snippet on TikTok. For about a week or two there was no result, and then the reach started to grow: one video after another began to gain likes and views. The track’s play count started to increase very rapidly,” Dias recounted.
In addition to “KZ BABY”, the young artist has three more songs on SoundCloud: “Astana”, “Grim”, “Jigga” and “Shakira”. According to the author, so far none of them can compare in popularity with his new hit.
How the song became a trend
A short humorous snippet of the song about Kazakhstan with patriotic lines went viral on TikTok. After that, the trend built around Reekid’s track took on a life of its own.
“Eto Kazakhstan, baby, samaya luchshaya strana v mire” (“This is Kazakhstan, baby, the best country in the world”), the song goes.
@reekid_111 soundcloud: reekid#kazakhstan #астана #kzrap #soundcloud #fyp ♬ оригинальный звук - тгк: reekid25
Absurd humor is the most popular type of clip. Users push situations to the point of surrealism — for example, they “swim” in snowdrifts next to a sign saying “Swimming prohibited”.
@icel1p #swiminstyle #winter ♬ KZBABY - тгк: reekid25
Others label foreign locations as “Kazakhstan” or tag them with their hometowns. For instance, you can find videos of the Eiffel Tower or Thai beaches jokingly captioned as Aktobe or Astana.
@rlktbroe #казахстан ♬ KZBABY - тгк: reekid25
@nurzhannurkasyn444 #aktobe #04 #akx04 #kazakhstan ♬ KZBABY - тгк: reekid25
Interest in the song was further fueled by the performances of Real Madrid striker Gonzalo García. On social media he has been nicknamed “the Kazakh” because of his striking resemblance to a Kazakh. In a recent match he scored a perfect hat-trick against Real Betis. Kazakh fans immediately picked up the trend and started making videos featuring him.
@gh4fr4 ДА Я НЕ КАЗАШКА!!!!!!! сказать честно мне лень монтировать поэтому я вообще не старалась над видео. ???? #football #глобальныерекомендации #врекомендации #gonzalogarcia #realmadrid ♬ оригинальный звук - gülerss