The first known usage of deez nuts comes from the Chronic, a 1992 album by Dr. Dre (the actual track is spelled “Deeez Nuuuts”). The song begins with a phone call between a man and a woman. After a short back-and-forth between the two, the man suddenly shouts “Deez nuts!” Within a year, deez nuts had already gained popularity among hip-hop and R&B artists. In 1993, the expression deez nuts appeared in the titles of songs by the rapper A.L.T. and the R&B group Xscape. The later usage of the phrase deez nuts directly evolved from the intentionally disruptive way it is used in Dr. Dre’s 1992 song.
Though the original Dr. Dre song was intermittently referenced for many years, usage of the phrase spiked in 2015 when Instagram user WelvenDaGreat posted a video of himself telling a similar deez nuts joke to a friend on the phone. This video turned WelvenDaGreat’s profile into a viral internet sensation.
However, deez nuts truly broke into the mainstream later that year when Deez Nuts became a US presidential candidate, scoring an astonishing third place in public polls, right after Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. In fact, the candidate Deez Nuts was actually a 15-year-old Iowa native named Brady Olson, who registered the pseudonym as a way of expressing his frustration with the two major political parties.
Inserting a deez nuts prank into something as serious as a presidential election brought this meme to the attention of the general public, and its usage has been consistent ever since.