“I said sip, not drink, gulp, or pour…” – Joeboy reacts to his song challenge, Sip (Alcohol)

Sip (Alcohol) became somewhat of a phenomenon at the time it started to go viral on Tiktok. The challenge associated with the song saw people pouring all manner of things from wine to palm oil to even garri on themselves as they sang the song passionately. It went viral and reactions to the challenge were mixed with some people loving it and celebrating it, and some other people calling it disgusting and bizarre.

Well, the creator of the song Joeboy saw all the reactions to his song and in an interview with the Grammy Awards, he opened up about his feelings towards people’s reaction to his song. Joeboy was not at all pleased with what he was seeing and had to clear the air about all of the things people were doing with the song. Here’s what he said.

Speaking to Joeboy, the interviewer with the Grammy Awards asked Joeboy, “‘Sip (Alcohol)’ has a lot of momentum right now. I hear you had to tell your fans to not do a TikTok challenge, though,” to which Joeboy responded:

On TikTok, it was getting really, really crazy. People started pouring stuff [everywhere]. It was kind of off-brand for me. It was portraying the song in some kind of light that was not intended, so I had to speak up on that. People were drinking palm oil and pouring stuff on everybody.

The interviewer had to ask, “They were drinking palm oil?” to which Joeboy responded:

Yeah. It was crazy, man. It was a trend. It looked bad. When you come to an extreme like that, just chill.

The interviewer then asked Joeboy, “What message were you trying to send with the song?” to which Joeboy answered:

I’d say, in life, we all have challenges. It’s never-ending. It never stops. Sometimes, you need a break — a temporary escape.

For me, at that point, it was wine. I like white wine. So, I was in Ghana just staring at the sky, and these words just came into my head [Sings softly] “That’s why I sip my alcohol/ I don’t wanna reason bad things no more.” It’s a feel-good song. Regardless, there’ll be challenges, but we need to enjoy ourselves at the same time.

Then the interviewer asked just to be sure, “so it’s not about getting wasted. It’s about chilling out” to which Joeboy said:

That’s why I said “sip.” I was very, very intentional: “That’s why I sip.” Not drink, or gulp, or pour — so I wouldn’t be misleading people, encouraging them to get drunk or wasted.