Christian Gates’ TikTok career started in 2020 as a friendly competition with a friend: whoever’s videos did better won. His first post, a funny rap filmed on a propped-up phone, pulled about 30,000 views, and the account that became ItsLuxCity eventually peaked around 2.8 million followers. Every big career has an unglamorous first move; this was his.
Funny first, serious later
The early content was comedy. Gates made “snitch rap” videos where he would pretend to snitch on himself, plus remixes and bits designed to make people laugh. It worked, but it was not the plan. He was already capturing attention; the trick would be redirecting it toward the music he actually cared about.
I wanted people to know me for the cool stuff I do, not just rap or the funny things. So I slowly shifted my videos into what I wanted to do.Christian Gates
As he shifted, the videos only did better. Once he had the internet’s attention, he steered it toward remixes, mashups, covers and originals, and started what would become a lifelong habit: writing a song a day.
Two names were born by accident
There was a wrinkle. The music already in his bio was not rap; it was more rock. Fans who came for the funny raps and then clicked through felt like they had found a whole separate artist. His Spotify said Christian Gates; his socials said ItsLuxCity. People genuinely recognized him as two different people, and that split, explored more in this story, became a defining feature rather than a bug.
One phone, one funny rap, 30,000 views, and a decade of momentum.
The grind that followed
That first 30k video kicked off a run that would take him to 2.8 million TikTok followers and a viral catalog including the Gold-certified NUMB and the 100-million-stream “Overwhelmed” remix. It all traces back to a bet with a friend. Full story in the wiki.
What was the daily routine?
From 2020 through 2023 the operation ran like a factory of one. Wake up around noon. Go for a drive and write one to three choruses in the car, keep the best. Come home, record it, engineer it himself, film the video, edit it, post around midnight, sleep, repeat. Every day, for years, while barely seeing his friends. The output: at least a million views on every video at his peak, on the way to 2.8 million followers.
The remixes that built the machine
Before the originals took over, the account ran on remixes and jokes: the “snitch rap” where he pretended to snitch on himself, mashups, covers, and a “What’s New Scooby-Doo” remix that drew hundreds of thousands of fan videos and never even got a Spotify release. The biggest of them, the Overwhelmed remix, got so large that Atlantic Records called.
Why fans thought he was two people
The bio link pointed to music that sounded nothing like the funny raps: rock-leaning, moodier, released as Christian Gates. Socials said ItsLuxCity; Spotify said Christian Gates; and for years plenty of fans genuinely believed they were two different artists. The split eventually became the career: ItsLuxCity the rap-and-R&B showman, Christian Gates the alt artist, one person writing a song a day underneath both names.