“The Crime Rate Jingle”

Devon Maloney, freelance writer: TikTok user Rynnstar’s viral smash — it has no name, but we’ll call it “The Crime Rate Jingle” — started as a blithe-butdeadly riff another TikTok user identified only as EC rattled off on her porch one afternoon in response to manipulated “statistics” about crime rates in Black neighborhoods. Then it shot into the stratosphere when a third user, Alex Engelberg, added virtual three-part barbershop harmony. Since then, the jingle has been remixed, choreographed and passiveaggressively shared with racist family members all over the country.