The Dill Cheese Interview

Dill Cheese has solidified himself a spot in modern-day underground internet rap culture. With not many regular meme pages posting about underground rap, fans have, for years, gone to pages such as Dill Cheese or yungstarbeam to laugh at things to which they could more intimately relate. These types of accounts not only make people incredibly happy, but they also make them feel like they are part of a club where everyone is in on a joke that is far too niche, chronically online, or deranged for the average Instagram user.

However, just over a week ago, Dill Cheese followers were devastated when, despite amassing almost 40,000 followers, he suddenly announced his retirement from the page. What is the story behind Dill Cheese, and what sparked him to throw in the towel after so many years?

I was one of the many heartbroken followers when I saw the Dill Cheese retirement post. The post was a picture of a basketball jersey hanging in the rafters that read “DILL 2025,” its colors blue and gold to match the white pharaoh meme he adopted as the account’s profile picture and mascot. The caption stated: “no more posts i dont think, ill still be active on this account to keep up with soccer news 😭.” After a few moments of slight grief, I immediately knew I would have to interview him.

Jack Tellier: How are you today? What did you do?

Dill Cheese: I am good. I went to the laundromat and washed my clothes since it is my day off. Yes, I have a j*b.

JT: Where do you work?

DC: I can’t say because I don’t want to put unemployed people down.

I told him this was very thoughtful and asked if he could run me through his history of running meme pages.

DC: So it was like 2015, and the dank memes genre was new. My close friend made a meme page and I thought it was cool, so I made one as well (dank.dill).

For those who may not have been on the internet at the time, “dank memes” were a genre around 2015 to 2019. They consisted of deep-fried images, nonsensical humor, loud bass-boosted songs and sounds (appropriately deemed “earrape”), clout goggles, communist edits, glowing eyes, Minecraft parodies, and other post-ironic internet jokes that most people don’t find funny now. This type of humor still thrives among Redditors, however.

DC: I got addicted to stat farming and growing my page and gained 80,000 followers in a few years. The Dank Dill page eventually fell off and I made Dill Cheese in 2020 to see if I could rekindle my love for posting memes.

JT: Were you into underground rap and/or posting about it at the time of Dank Dill?

DC: Yeah, I was into underground rap but I kept it separate from the meme page. Eventually, underground rap became so big that, about a year into the page, I would post Lil Pump memes. I would make Lil Pump OC (original content) and Worldstar’s Instagram page would repost it. It felt like I made it in life.

I asked Dill if he still had any of the old memes he made and he sent them a few minutes later. I instantly started laughing because I remembered seeing these exact memes reposted on my feed when I was about 14 years old. Dill was also in shock. It really is funny how life works sometimes.

JT: In your opinion, how has that meme culture and your perspective on it changed over the years?

DC: It’s not dying, it’s just more casual. There’s not many meme pages taking off like before. It’s just kind of whatever now.

JT: Now I’ll ask that same question: How has underground rap’s culture and your perspective on it changed since that time?

DC: That shit was pure insanity back then, around 2016 to 2019. It took the world by storm. I don’t think we’ll have another wave like that for at least a few hundred years.

JT: Would you say anyone from this current era sort of embodies that feeling?

DC: Yeat, probably, but he doesn’t even come close to anyone from that era.

Now, I wanted to know about the development of the Dill Cheese page.

DC: I got tired of my old page and made Dill Cheese for fun. It wasn’t about rap at all; it was just shitposting memes and videos. Eventually, I got put on to pluggnb stuff through TikTok (laughing) and noticed they had a community on Instagram. Guys like yungstarbeam, og hyperpopdaily, 3stard, etc.

So I would just start making a ton of slayworld OC. I still see a bunch of it being reposted today. 2021 was, for sure, the peak of that pluggnb community era.

Dill went on to tell me that although he did not reach 10,000 followers in his first year, he specifically remembers Kankan being the reason he eventually did hit the milestone. Kankan would repost a number of Dill Cheese’s memes and was seemingly a fan.

Occasionally, Dill Cheese would post underground rap updates titled “Dill News.” I was curious as to how this came to be or what his motivation was behind it.

DC: Bro, I got some crazy lore for you. I truly believe I’m the reason pages like hyperpopdaily exist. When I would post as Dank Dill, I would team up with Nick Blanco, Lil Peep’s videographer (RIP Peep), and we used to make a bunch of satirical news posts about emo rappers like Ppgcasper, Drippin So Pretty, Lil Tracy, etc. It was called “Rap Daily.” I think it might still be on Nick Blanco’s page. But yeah, we used to go dumb viral with that format.

The posts shown are from 2019. DC’s claim was bold, but it doesn’t matter anyway because Hyperpopdaily has Sadprt as well as our main accounts blocked. I asked Dill how long it took for these sorts of satire pages to pop up after his posts, to which he said: “I don’t even know, just know I did it first.”

JT: What excites you about the current underground scene?

DC: Same thing that’s always excited me. Watching these guys go from rags to riches makes you feel good, makes you feel like a sports scout recruiter or something.

For anyone who follows Dill Cheese, it is evident that he loves wrestling and soccer. And yes, he is Mexican and proud.

JT: Speaking of sports, John Cena has been on a sick one this year. How did his heel turn make you feel?

DC: Man, that shit was great. I’ve been a huge WWE guy my whole life and that heel turn is going down in history for sure. It was more than pro wrestling; it shook the planet to its core, no cap.

JT: Is it a coincidence that Dill Cheese is retiring around the same time as Cena?

DC: (Laughs) We both goats in our professions, but yeah, purely a coincidence.

Now, the question: What made Dill Cheese want to retire? To this, all he had to say was: “I’ve been posting memes for basically 10 years now. It basically feels like a chore. Nothing deep.”

JT: Was it a sudden decision or had you been thinking about it for a while?

DC: Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it for a minute now. I was just like, “Fuck it, I’m retiring.”

JT: So you’re done with the page, you have much more freedom in front of you now. What’s next for you and how do you feel?

DC: I don’t know yet. I’ll probably end up making another page (laughing). We will see, though. And honestly, I feel a tiny bit sad this era is over, but it’s okay.

JT: Anyone you recommend that people follow to fill the new Dill Cheese-sized hole in their hearts?

DC: Sadprt, that’s it. Hold up, scratch that. Sadprt, yungstarbeam, icantstopjuggin.

JT: Is it true that Rishav Fash1r was actually shot out of a cannon in London?

DC: Yes.

JT: Any last words for the reader?

DC: Follow God.

Many don’t know this, but Dill Cheese is partially responsible for the Sadprt Instagram account on which you read this cutting-edge article. In 2022, Red Border was running a very small meme page called Raf Semens, with accounts like DC and YSB being his main inspirations. The Sadprt TikTok was active but only had about 2,000 followers at the time. Through reposting Dill’s YouTube videos as TikTok clips, Red Border and Dill Cheese became friends. The following year is when DC pushed Red Border to make an Instagram for Sadprt. A couple thousand posts later and here we are.

Maybe his reasons for retirement are underwhelming to many. But the truth is, that’s usually just how life goes. Sometimes people lose passion while others don’t know when to quit. The page is no longer posting, but that does not take away from the fun its followers had. Dill Cheese’s “birth” and growth as a page were completely dependent on its owner doing whatever he wanted. Maybe its “death,” or retirement, was just the ultimate step in that direction and came from the same place.