The Hotel Lobby AI trend is built on a four-year-old performance: Quavo and Takeoff, as the duo Unc & Phew, rapping "Hotel Lobby" side by side for A COLORS SHOW in 2022. In September 2026 people started making their own versions starring anyone they liked, from two cats to the Obamas, and it became one of the biggest AI formats of the fall.
Updated Oct 26, 2026
The short answer
The Hotel Lobby AI trend is a wave of two-person fan remakes of Quavo and Takeoff's 2022 COLORS performance of "HOTEL LOBBY (Unc & Phew)". It took off on TikTok in early September 2026, after videos of two cats in the performance went viral. To make one, you need a photo of each person. On AI Rapping you can also replace the verses with your own bars, so the two of you trade lines that are actually about you.
Three frames from a Hotel Lobby sample we made with our own template in October 2026. The original song is not included.
Unc & Phew, and the COLORS set
"HOTEL LOBBY (Unc & Phew)" came out on May 20, 2022. It's by Quavo and Takeoff of Migos, who are uncle and nephew, hence the duo name: Quavo is "Unc", Takeoff is "Phew". The track was produced by Murda Beatz, Keanu Beats and Fabio Aguilar and later appeared on their album Only Built for Infinity Links.
The version the trend copies is not the music video. It's their performance for A COLORS SHOW, the Berlin series where artists perform one song in front of a single solid colour backdrop. COLORS first posted it in June 2022. The two of them stand close together and pass the song back and forth, and that easy back-and-forth is what everyone is recreating.
Takeoff was shot and killed in Houston on November 1, 2022, a few months after the performance. That's worth knowing before you make a joke version, and it's part of why the trend has a warmer feel than most AI remakes.
From two cats to the Obamas
According to Complex, the trend picked up in early September 2026, when several videos of two cats "performing" the set went viral. After that the pairings got bigger and stranger: Barack and Michelle Obama, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, Tobey Maguire's and Willem Dafoe's Spider-Man characters, the footballers Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham. Apps that take two photos and recreate the performance made it easy, and CapCut templates followed. By late September there were, by Complex's count, hundreds of thousands of versions.
On September 23 Quavo reposted the original, unaltered COLORS video with "Aye Take we viral again The original!!! #HOTELLOBBY". He hasn't come out against the trend; he has reminded people where it comes from.
You'll see it as the Hotel Lobby trend, Hotel Lobby AI, the Hotel Lobby COLORS AI video or the Quavo and Takeoff AI trend. One thing to watch for: there's also a 2025 song called "Hotel Lobby" by the Thai rapper Tobii, with its own dance. That's a different song, and it's not the one behind this trend.
A duo that raps about you two
Most Hotel Lobby AI videos keep the original audio. New duo, same verses. That works, but every version ends up saying the same thing, and the original lyrics have nothing to do with the two people on screen.
The Hotel Lobby AI rap video template on AI Rapping keeps the studio, the framing and the trade-off, and gives you the choice:
- Silent remake: the two of you in the same set, with no audio, so you can add the sound in TikTok. A vertical video costs 10 credits.
- Your own rap: you say what your bars are about and the two of you rap them back and forth, lips matched for both. It costs 10 credits.
You'll need one front-facing photo of each of you. They don't have to be taken together, but similar light in both looks more natural side by side.
The template page: add a photo for each of you, pick Silent remake or Your own rap, tick the photo consent box, then press Make my AI rap video.
To write the lines, start with the AI rap generator on the homepage. Type one sentence about the pair, for example "my sister and I have been arguing about the thermostat since 2009", and you get lyrics in about 8 seconds and a 30-second song. Your first song is free when you sign up. Split the best two lines between you.
The AI rap generator on our homepage. One sentence in, lyrics and a song out; every line can be edited.
A few duo lines to start from:
- "Checked in the lobby, two of us, no key"
- "You take the first bar, the hook's on me"
- "Same flow, same fit, now we running the show"
Credit packs start at $9.99 for 10 credits and don't expire, and a failed video gives its credits back automatically. The other packs are on the pricing page.
Doing it respectfully
The kindest versions of this trend are the ones with real people who agreed to be in them: siblings, couples, best friends, a parent and a kid. Only use someone's photo if they said yes; you confirm you have the right to use each photo before anything is made. If you're tempted to mock the original or Takeoff, we'd skip it.
AI Rapping is not affiliated with Quavo, the estate of Takeoff, their labels or COLORS. Our template recreates the format; it does not use the original footage, and we don't clone real artists' voices.
Questions people ask
Who made the original Hotel Lobby? Quavo and Takeoff, as Unc & Phew. The song came out on May 20, 2022, and the COLORS performance is from the same year.
Why is it called Unc & Phew? Quavo is Takeoff's uncle. "Unc" is Quavo and "Phew", short for nephew, is Takeoff.
Is the Hotel Lobby trend the same as the Tobii song? No. Tobii's "Hotel Lobby" is a different 2025 song with its own dance. The AI trend uses Quavo and Takeoff's COLORS performance.
How did Quavo react to the Hotel Lobby AI trend? He reposted the original COLORS video on September 23, 2026 with "Aye Take we viral again The original!!!".
Can I use the original song? For a post on TikTok or Reels, use the sound from the app's own library, where it's licensed for posts. The song belongs to the artists and their label.
The Hotel Lobby AI trend works because two people who clearly love each other are trading a song. Putting two people you know in that frame, saying something that's true about them, is the version we built the template for. Other trends are on the AI rap video templates page, and the Burning Bridges AI trend guide covers another.
Sources: Complex, the Hotel Lobby AI trend · Black America Web, COLORS Hotel Lobby AI trend · Wikipedia, Only Built for Infinity Links