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Here's how DJ Khaled single-handedly used Snapchat to turn the key emoji into a cultural icon

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Skye Gould / Tech Insider

One man has taken an emoji buried in your phone's keyboard and turned it into a pop culture icon.

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The man is none other Khaled Mohamed Khaled, better known as the music mogul and "We the Best" hype-man DJ Khaled. His emoji of choice: 🔑.

Thanks to the virality of Khaled's Snapchat account, you've probably seen his Khaledisms proliferate on social media over the last few weeks. Sayings like "major 🔑," "🔑 to success," "cloth talk," and "they don't want you to..." are everywhere on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And unless you're one of the more than 2 million people who watch Khaled's crazy life unfold on Snapchat every day, you've probably felt out of the loop.

Web traffic to the page for the 🔑 emoji on Emojipedia, a site that documents all emojis, grew by 800% in December from November, according to data Emojipedia provided to Quartz. The emoji was first introduced by the Unicode standard in 2010, but Khaled's use of it on Snapchat over the last couple of months has caused it to become such a prevalent meme that big brands like Mastercard and Uber have started using it on social media in a poor attempt to be cool.

The🔑 emoji, which is located on page seven of Apple's emoji keyboard for the iPhone, has even received the attention of the White House's Snapchat account.

Khaled, who told Tech Insider in an exclusive interview that he was initially skeptical of using Snapchat, has become a household name on the app that counts younger millennials as its main demographic. After his Snapchat account received international media attention, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel personally invited Khaled to give a talk at the company's headquarters in Los Angeles, California.

"Snapchat is straight up raw," Khaled, who often films himself watering his plants and giving motivational speeches about the "keys to success" on the app, recently told TI. "There ain’t someone on there trying to tell you how your shirt look. There ain’t haters."

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Khaled's no-haters policy is perhaps part of the reason his very identity, alongside the 🔑 emoji he preaches with, has become an internet and cultural meme. Flappy Bird-like games featuring Khaled exist online, as do parody accounts like @StartupJKhaled on Twitter, which uses the DJ's sayings to give commentary on the tech industry and the world of venture capital investment.

There's even an entire subreddit on Reddit called "/pathwaytomoresuccess" with thousands of members who share Khaled's escapades on Snapchat and in the real world.

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Tech Insider

The best way to experience the sheer force of nature that is Khaled's personality is to watch his antics on the app that's skyrockted him to a new level of fame. His handle of Snapchat is "djkhaled305" (305 represents his local area code in Miami), and next to his name you'll see the 🔑 emoji.

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Tech Insider

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