Updated 2026-09-30
Where Did the “Hotel Lobby” Song Come From?
The Hotel Lobby AI trend, however varied its pairings, takes visual inspiration from one performance: Quavo and Takeoff performing “Hotel Lobby” on A COLORS SHOW in June 2022. Here is the short history.
Unc & Phew
By 2022 Quavo and Takeoff — uncle and nephew, two-thirds of Migos — had started releasing music as a duo under the name Unc & Phew. “Hotel Lobby” arrived in May 2022 as the lead single of that era, produced around a looping, almost hypnotic beat that leaves room for the two of them to trade lines rather than stack them.
The COLORS performance
A COLORS SHOW is the Berlin-based series that films one artist, one take, in a single-colour studio. For Quavo and Takeoff the room was burnt orange, and the format did something unusual: two performers sharing one hanging microphone, stepping in and out of it. The camera never moves. Quavo leads with ad-libs; Takeoff answers with the unhurried delivery that made his verses instantly recognisable. The video became one of the most watched COLORS sessions ever, passing 100 million views.
Why it became the template
The performance is already a two-hander with clean turn-taking, and the room is a flat colour field. That combination is exactly what AI video models handle well: a fixed set, a fixed camera, two clearly separated performers. When creators in September 2026 started swapping the performers for TV characters, cats and celebrities, the result looked right on the first try — and the trend was born. Takeoff’s death in November 2022 gives the clip an added weight; most of the remakes read as affectionate tributes rather than jokes at the performers’ expense.
Want your own version? The Hotel Lobby AI generator puts two people from two photos into the recreated booth, first video free.