Man's Not Hot began as a 2017 freestyle by comedian Michael Dapaah performing as Big Shaq on BBC Radio 1Xtra's Fire in the Booth, before being released as a full single later that year. The track's deadpan hook and absurd boasts spread quickly as a meme, spawning remixes, parodies and reaction clips across social media. Streamers later adopted short cuts of the hook as follower alerts and soundboard drops, which kept the phrase in everyday online use long after the chart run ended.