Kersal Massive: The greatest viral video of all time is 10

In 2006, the internet was in its dark age. YouTube had launched the previous year, but videos were shot in 144p and people were still working out what they should and shouldn’t be sharing.

The Kersal Massive video is a case in this point. It was one of the first videos to go viral; it depicts three young guys from a Salford suburb trying to be the North West’s answer to NWA. But instead of rapping about drive-bys and social issues they spoke the truth about riding around on day saver bus passes and aspired to drive an “05 V6 Clio Twin Turbo”.

C-Mac, Little Fucking Kevin and Ginger Joe became accidental stars overnight. Kersal Massive was once named one of the top viral videos of all time.

The original has more than a million views, and there are thousands more on the many parodies that followed. There was a “Persil” Massive, drum and bass remixes, and the covers by jealous school kids. Someone created a lyric page for the song, on which its words are carefully analysed for hidden meanings. Unfortunately there aren’t any, but for many the Kersal Massive summed up youth in suburban Britain.

We loved Little Fucking Kevin’s superior flow, intricate rhymes and casual mention of pulling a Grand Theft Auto; we loved C-Mac’s repeated insistence that they “don’t fuck about”. But obviously the standout member was Ginger Joe, whose solitary line of “yeah man” earned him a lot of love in the YouTube comments.

We tracked down C-Mac, the clear ringleader of the Kersal Massive. He’s the one who makes the introductions, the guy who spits the line “HSBC we do them graphs. We’ve got all the money ’cause we know how to rap.”

C-Mac, real name Callum, still lives in Salford and works for a law firm in Manchester.

“It was uploaded to the internet over 10 years ago,” he told us. “It was done as a joke and then it just went viral. I don’t actually know who uploaded it to YouTube, it wasn’t me.”

The video was actually an entry for a contest to win a Kano themed BMX, hosted by the now-defunct record label 679 recordings. Sadly the Kersal Massive didn’t win, but the video was leaked and they were handed viral fame instead.

In 2016, Callum is keen to distance himself from the video, admitting, “I don’t really want this resurfacing”.

He added: “The video still does the rounds now and then, but that’s about it. I don’t get noticed about it any more so it’s done and gone for me.

“I am not in touch with the other two lads anymore.”

A rather sad end to the best viral moment of our early teens.