Drip Goku grew out of fan edits that reimagined Goku from Dragon Ball wearing high-fashion streetwear, designer accessories and sunglasses. Images and short edits spread across YouTube, TikTok and meme pages in the early 2020s as part of the wider drip meme format applied to cartoon and anime characters. The paired beat became shorthand for the look, so creators reuse the same audio whenever a character is edited to look impossibly stylish. It remains popular because the contrast between a serious shonen hero and luxury fashion is instantly readable.