The Renegade Dance Creator, Jalaiah Harmon, Gets Fortnite Emote
Epic Games’ official Twitter account for Fortnite unveiled its latest emote, “The Renegade”. The Renegade is a viral TikTok dance created by Atlanta teen Jalaiah Harmon to the song “Lottery” by K Camp. While it’s unclear whether Epic Games is simply paying homage to Harmon or if Epic Games and Harmon collaborated on this project. We’re hoping it’s the latter.
Harmon’s fun and technical dance gained popularity on social media with both teens and adults doing “the Renegade” challenge. Though the dance became popular, few people knew who created the dance as White teens received credit for Harmon’s dance to the point where popular TikTok influencer Charli D'Amelio received credit for creating the dance and was given lucrative opportunities to perform the dance. It wasn’t until articles in the New York Times and celebrities speaking out that Harmon began to receive recognition for the dance sequence she created in her bedroom.
Since the outpouring of support calling for TikTokers and influencers to give Harmon credit for creation, she’s been featured in Teen Vogue, performed “Lottery” with K Camp at the Atlanta Hawks game, and most importantly, she’s getting credit for her work. In the age of social media and going viral, getting credit for your work means opportunities.
Epic Games has had numerous lawsuits for using dances and not crediting and/or compensating their creators for using those dances. So it’s nice to see Epic Games doing better by giving credit to the talented teen who created something amazing with her hard work from “classes in hip-hop, ballet, lyrical, jazz, tumbling, and tap after school”.
The Renegade was already a huge part of pop culture. Now, the infectious dance will be cemented as a part of gaming culture in one of the most played game in the world.
