Country, meet hip-hop. More than twenty years after releasing his breakout single, “Achy Breaky Heart,” Billy Ray Cyrus has resurrected the 1992 country song — in rap form. The Nashville native collaborated with rapper Buck 22 for “Achy Breaky 2,” but what’s even more bizarre than the track itself is the music video, which dropped Tuesday, Feb. 11.
The video begins with CNN legend Larry King, in his signature purple suspenders, interrupting for a breaking news broadcast where he tells viewers that an “unidentified flying object has been seen transcending over Europe.” Buck 22, wearing a cowboy hat, and Cyrus, in a black cutoff shirt, are then suddenly abducted onto a spacecraft filled with scantily-clad aliens. “It happened ’cause I happened to meet up with Billy Cyrus,” says the rapper.
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Miley Cyrus‘ dad, 52, plays his guitar as nearly-nude aliens twerk around him, mimicking his daughter’s trademark moves. One verse in the song even references his daughter’s wild life: “Miley keeps twerking, daddy’s song is working, now Billy sing that crazy hook again,” says Buck 22, as Billy Ray exclaims, “Wrecking Ball!”
Collaborator Buck 22, meanwhile, is celebrating the clip, which had notched nearly half a million views within 24 hours. “I asked [Billy Ray Cyrus] if he would mind if I could take a crack at remaking ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ and he looked at me for a moment, and said ‘lots of people have tried already, but go for it,'” the rapper told Rolling Stone. “He liked what he heard and, weeks later, arrived at the session to record this track.”
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