A new seven-minute animated music video for a song titled Earth, by comedian and rapper Lil Dicky, aka David Burd, has gone viral online.
Lil Dicky, who has a following of more than 4 million subscribers on YouTube, somehow managed to achieve the feat of assembling some of the biggest A-listers in the showbiz world — including Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber — for his Earth-themed video, which includes an animated short film.
He was able to convince more than 30 celebrities to participate. Leonardo DiCaprio also supported the project by lending his voice and making an animated appearance in the video.
The music video titled Earth was released on April 19. It features the voices of stars, such as Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, Halsey, and Rita Ora, who appear as animals.
The video also includes cameos by Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg and Miley Cyrus.
“What started as a silly joke of an idea along the way became the most important thing I’ll ever do,” Lil Dicky said.
He explained that a share of the proceeds from the video will go to the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation which promotes awareness and action about environmental issues.
The video received more than 3.5 million views in the first few hours after it was released. As of this writing, it had racked up more than 6.8 million views on YouTube alone.
The video features David Burd (Lil Dicky) and other celebrities calling on people to join the fight against climate change.
Thank you to @lildickytweets and all the artists that came together to make this happen. Net profits from the song, video, and merchandise will go to many @dicapriofdn partners on the frontlines of implementing solutions to climate change. #WeLoveTheEarth https://t.co/3u8cyA6NPq pic.twitter.com/cpMeTB4Ziq
— Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) April 19, 2019
“Hey, I’m a zebra / No one knows what I do, but I look pretty cool / Am I white or black?” sings Ariana.
“I’m a koala and I sleep all the time / So what? It’s cute,” Ed Sheeran sings.
“Hi, I’m a baboon / I’m like a man, just less advanced and my anus is huge,” Bieber sings.
“I’m a disgruntled skunk, shoot you out my butthole,” Wiz Khalifa sings.
People have been wondering how a relatively unknown comedian such as Lil Dicky was able to convince so many celebrities to play baboons and zebras in a comedic song and video.
“You start with your friends and people you have relationships with,” he told Rolling Stone.
But Burd admitted that he had difficulties with some of the stars he contacted, especially Kanye West.
“I’m friendly with Kanye — I used to play basketball with him,” he said. “But I left myself like three days to get Kanye on the phone and couldn’t get in touch with him. He was pretty unreachable; he changed his email and his cell phone.”