{"id":2443185,"date":"2019-04-19T04:13:30","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T10:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=823618"},"modified":"2019-04-19T04:13:30","modified_gmt":"2019-04-19T10:13:30","slug":"lil-dicky-enlists-bieber-ariana-halsey-shawn-mendes-for-all-star-earth-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/lil-dicky-enlists-bieber-ariana-halsey-shawn-mendes-for-all-star-earth-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Lil Dicky Enlists Bieber, Ariana, Halsey, Shawn Mendes for All-Star \u2018Earth\u2019 Video"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For the past three years, Lil Dicky has quietly been creating one of the biggest all-star charity records since \u201cWe Are The World\u201d and he\u2019s finally ready to share it. \u201cEarth,\u201d a song about the desperate need to save the environment before it\u2019s too late, was produced by Benny Blanco and Cashmere and features the rapper alongside Justin Bieber<\/a>, Ariana Grande<\/a>, Halsey<\/a>, Zac Brown, Brendon Urie, Hailee Steinfeld, Wiz Khalifa, Snoop Dogg, Kevin Hart, Adam Levine, Shawn Mendes<\/a>, Charlie Puth, Sia, Miley Cyrus, Lil Jon, Rita Ora, Miguel, Katy Perry, Lil Yachty, Ed Sheeran, Meghan Trainor, Joel Embiid, Tory Lanez, John Legend, Bad Bunny, Psy, Kris Wu, Backstreet Boys and Leonardo DiCaprio.<\/p>\n

Most of the guest stars appears as cartoon animals in the animated \u201cEarth\u201d video, which is destined to rack up historic numbers on YouTube. Lil Dicky also launched a website<\/a> to give fans more information about climate change and ways to help. The rapper called up Rolling Stone<\/em> before its release to chat about the origins of the song, how he roped in so many A-listers, <\/span>his fruitless pursuit of Kanye West and the status of his upcoming album and TV show.<\/p>\n

Tell me the backstory of this song and video. What sparked the idea?<\/strong>
It started with me just wanting to make a song about animals. It wasn\u2019t an environmentalism type of climate change song in my head at first. I just had the idea of, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be funny to cast different artists to play different animals?\u201d As I began working on the song, I had this vague understanding that there is an environmental issue on Earth. I knew what we were doing on Earth, vaguely, was harming the environment. I knew we were polluting the Earth, but I didn\u2019t know any of the specifics of it.<\/p>\n

As I started thinking about my song, I thought, \u201cIt\u2019s probably a good thing that all the profits that come from this song go to charities involved in saving the environment.\u201d It was always in my head that this was going to be something that helped raise money for environmental issues, but I didn\u2019t really know the facts. I looked into it and was blown away. I didn\u2019t realize, remotely, that it was such an urgent, dire situation. I didn\u2019t know that we literally have 12 years to completely change<\/a> how we do so many things on Earth, from a fundamental standpoint, or the damage will be irreversible and in our lifetimes we\u2019re going to experience such drastic impact. Upon realizing that, it went from a silly song about animals to, \u201cOh my God, this is the most important thing I\u2019ll ever do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tell me about getting these guest stars. I imagine at first you didn\u2019t think you\u2019d get quite so many people.<\/strong>
Well, I\u2019m an optimist. [Laughs<\/em>] You start with your friends and people you have relationships with. It\u2019s not that hard to say, \u201cI need you on this song. It\u2019s all for a good cause.\u201d I explained the premise and got a good solid five. Once you have five people, it\u2019s easier to go to somebody you are less friendly with and be like, \u201cHey, would you want to get on this song with Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran and Charlie Puth where everyone is playing a different animal?\u201d The pitch wasn\u2019t that difficult. Take into account that everyone\u2019s part is so short that logistically it\u2019s easy for each artist to execute. It\u2019s like a 10-minute operation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy main priority is to get people to give a shit about saving the Earth\u201d \u2013 Lil Dicky<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Who were the first people you signed up?<\/strong>
Charlie Puth was the first person. I think I got Snoop and then Adam Levine, Meghan Trainor. It\u2019s blurry, but I got Bieber pretty early. Ed Sheeran was in early, but he didn\u2019t record until late.<\/p>\n

Then it just snowballed?<\/strong>
Yeah! It just snowballed and then all of a sudden we had 15 [artists] and I was like, \u201cThis is the coolest thing!\u201d By the end, I didn\u2019t want to stop. Even now, I want to put out a remix and get like 50 other people. I don\u2019t want to do that quite yet, but it was really cool.<\/p>\n

How did it work logistically? Did they e-mail in their parts? Did you ever get in the studio with some of these people?<\/strong>
It varied. I\u2019d say half of them I was in the studio with them where I\u2019d either go to their sessions or they\u2019d come into Benny Blanco\u2019s studio. The other half of the time, they were sending it via e-mail. It definitely wasn\u2019t like \u201cWe Are the World\u201d where you see all these icons sitting in one studio and hanging out like they\u2019re The Avengers. I don\u2019t think there was any time where even two were in the studio. Well, actually there was one time where we went to the Wango Tango concert and we set up a booth since we knew Shawn Mendes was there and Ariana Grande, the Backstreet Boys, Miguel. We rotated people in and just got a bunch of people in one hour. We literally set up a booth in Ariana\u2019s dressing room.<\/p>\n

How did you match up each artist to an animal?<\/strong>
That was a me and Benny thing. We kind of just talked it over. The first version of the song was me singing everyone\u2019s parts. We\u2019d write down every part and start brainstorming. We talked about who we had relationships with and whose voice would be really funny. Lil Jon as a clam is one of my favorite ones. It\u2019s so random, but his voice is perfect for it. I take a lot of pride in casting, even with my TV show I really tried to cast it well. I felt like this was an exercise in casting.<\/p>\n

Why is Kevin Hart playing Kanye West?<\/strong>
[Laughs<\/em>] I was planning on getting Kanye to go, \u201cI\u2019m Kanye West.\u201d That was my plan. I\u2019m friendly with Kanye. I used to play basketball with him. I have a relationship with him. And I wanted to wait until the video was nearly done because I wanted him to be the last person asked so I could put together the best possible presentation for Kanye. That left me a very limited window to get him on the song. And he\u2019s very hard to get in touch with. He changed his cell phone number and his e-mail. I couldn\u2019t get ahold of him. The animation was so far along that it still had to be his avatar coming out and saying, \u201cAnd I\u2019m Kanye West.\u201d I still love that joke. I really love it no matter who plays Kanye, but I didn\u2019t leave myself enough time to get ahold of him, so I called Kevin Hart and was like, \u201cWill you play Kanye on this song?\u201d And he was like, \u2018Yeah!\u201d<\/p>\n

How long total did this take you from the first session until it was totally done?<\/strong>
Probably about two-and-a-half or three years.<\/p>\n

Wow. How hard was it to keep secret that whole time?<\/strong>
It\u2019s kind of something I\u2019ve always been looking forward to. I didn\u2019t view it as something that was hard to keep secret. I saw it as something like \u2026 I haven\u2019t met my wife yet. I can\u2019t wait to meet her. I love that I still have that to look forward to. I feel like I have the best part of my life to look forward to. With this song I kept thinking, \u201cI have the best part of my career to look forward to with this thing.\u201d That\u2019s how I thought about it.<\/p>\n

How did Leonardo DiCaprio get involved?<\/strong>
I\u2019m so not involved in the environmental space. I don\u2019t know anything about nonprofits and I knew there had to be a non-profit part of this. I knew that I shouldn\u2019t be making money off this thing. I thought all the proceeds should be going to charities that help the earth and to raise awareness. One of the main things that woke me up, that helped me go from vaguely-informed to aware, was the documentary Before The Flood<\/em>, which is a great documentary that is a digestible way to understand what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n