The secret code that isn’t: ‘6-7’

How a snippet from Skrilla’s ‘Doot Doot (6 7) song leapt from TikTok to classroom.

- By KAREN GARCIA

When Jennifer Trujillo first heard her middle school band students say “6-7” in class and explode with glee, she sought out the advice of an expert — her 15-year-old daughter.

Trujillo wanted to know what, exactly, her students were saying when they'd repeat the numbers and move their hands ina juggling motion. Her daughter gave her an unsatisfactory reply: “Mom, nobody knows.”

And yet, the phrase “6-7” is being used by kids and teens seemingly everywhere. It’s gotten so maddening for adults that at least one school has banned the phrase “6-7.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the trend, the phrase comes froma song by Philadelphia rapper Skrilla, who told the paper he never “put an actual meaning on it.”

Skrilla, whose real name is Jemille Edwards, told The Times in an email that the song “Doot Doot (6 7)” wasn't supposed to leave the recording studio, but he decided to leak it at the end of 2024, and teens took the phrase from there and ran withit.

‘The term “6-7” hasturned “into something positive and fun that people everywhere are enjoying,” he wrote. “6-7!!!! Keep it goin’, keep it positive, and remember where that energy come from.”

‘6-7’ disturbs the classroom

The lack of meaning behind the phrase has seemingly given it the ability to show up everywhere and for kids to find any reason to shout it out and laugh.

It has been referenced in arecent episode of the four-time Emmy-winning series “Abbott Elementary” and was the entire plot of South Park’s first episode of Season 28.

A video posted on social media showed a group of teens going wild at In-N-Out when order 67 was finally called.