The Mind-Boggling Phenomenon of “Rush E”: Who Created It and How It Took Over the Internet

If you have spent any time on YouTube, TikTok, or gaming streams over the last few years, you have almost certainly heard “Rush E.” Characterized by its frantic pacing, meme-inspired origin, and a mid-section that requires seemingly more fingers than a human body possesses, it is one of the most recognizable internet-era piano pieces ever written.

So, who is the mastermind behind this viral beast?

Meet Sheet Music Boss: The Creators

“Rush E” was created by Sheet Music Boss, a popular YouTube channel and musical duo consisting of Andrew Wrangell (the composer) and Samuel Dickenson (the business and technical brain).

Based primarily in the UK/Australia, Sheet Music Boss launched their channel with a clear mission: to make piano and MIDI visualizations fun, accessible, and engaging. They gained initial traction by converting popular video game themes (like Zelda and Kirby) and classical pieces into rolling, waterfall-style MIDI tutorial videos.

However, they carved out a legendary niche for themselves by inventing a series of impossibly difficult, tongue-in-cheek piano pieces prefixed with the word “Rush”—most notably “Rush B” and its wildly successful younger sibling, Rush E.

The Inspiration: Memes and the Letter “E”

The genesis of “Rush E” is rooted deeply in internet meme culture.

• The “Rush” Legacy: The title “Rush B” came first, a nod to the famous Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) gaming meme where players frantically yell at their teammates to “Rush B” on a map. Musically, that piece heavily emphasized the note B.
• The “E” Meme: When Andrew Wrangell set out to write the follow-up, internet culture was dominated by the deep-fried “E” meme—a surrealist mashup featuring Lord Farquaad from Shrek with Markiplier’s face, captioned simply with the letter “E.”

Capitalizing on this absurd cultural moment, Wrangell built a piano composition centered entirely around the musical note E, weaving the structural rhythm of the meme directly into the composition.

Designed to Be “Impossible”

Released in mid-2018, “Rush E” started out as a visual and auditory joke. Wrangell composed a piece that escalates from a catchy, Russian-folk-inspired melody into an absolute nightmare of overlapping notes.

The climax of the original piece features a wall of notes so dense that it scrolls down the screen like a digital avalanche. The original version is humanly impossible to play on a single piano with two hands. It requires chords spanning impossible intervals, note clusters that demand extra fingers, and a tempo that defies human biology.

From a MIDI Joke to a Global Sensation

While Sheet Music Boss initially posted it as just another fun MIDI animation, the internet ran wild with it:

1. The Cover Challenge: Pianists and content creators across the globe began reacting to the sheet music. Some used clever editing to pretend to play it, while brilliant (and mildly insane) virtuosos began figuring out how to arrange it for multiple players or automated MIDI setups.
2. The Meme Explosion: Millions of kids and teenagers encountered the song through YouTube Shorts and TikTok, turning the frantic intro and “impossible” climax into a ubiquitous audio trend.
3. The Real-World Playable Version: Due to overwhelming public demand—and countless comments begging them to do the impossible—Sheet Music Boss eventually released scaled-down, legitimately playable arrangements so that real pianists could torture themselves attempting to master it in real life.

Summary

“Rush E” is a brilliant collision of classical-style composition, internet shitposting, and clever digital marketing. Created by Andrew Wrangell and Samuel Dickenson of Sheet Music Boss, it transformed a silly tribute to a deep-fried meme into a modern pop-culture milestone that proved classical music principles can still conquer the digital age.