"I turned 30 today. Oh my God," Lil Dicky bellows in anguish. "I’ve got so many people saying, '30 is great, you’re gonna love it!' Like, I just don’t ever see the upside. There's nothing I gain by it. Like if anything, I’m not the most manly person. I’m very boyish in my personality that I think just being 30 doesn’t make it any better, it just makes it more pathetic probably."
Though the sheer thought of turning 30 sounds like a buzzkill for Dicky, he did find one upside during his milestone birthday: His knee-slapping video "Freaky Friday" torched the internet. Based on the 2003 film starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsey Lohan (itself based on the 1976 film and 1972 novel), Dicky and the song's guest, Chris Brown, switch bodies for a day and experience life as the other person. Filled with playful quips, Dicky enjoys his newfound identity, flexing his dance moves and contorting his body like the celebrated dancer. On the flipside, Brown quickly despises Dicky's plain and insipid lifestyle.
When the two stars link up at the end of the video, they change back into their regular bodies, before the affable MC switches bodies again, but this time with Ed Sheeran, DJ Khaled and Kendall Jenner. "The cherry on top was Kendall," Dicky tells Billboard. "I waited on Kendall to the very end, and she killed it. We recorded it at Kris Jenner’s house, and I literally went there and recorded her, and it was so fun. She was having so much fun."
Billboard spoke with Dicky on his 30th birthday about releasing his "Freaky Friday" video, his favorite moment shooting the video, why he thinks Chris Brown is the best dancer of our time, and why he compares himself to "Russell Westbrook on a farm."
I have a weird inkling that you were eating a shitload of ice cream watching Freaky Friday on ABC Family and that's how the song came about. Am I right?
One-hundred percent. I mean, I wasn’t eating ice cream, I don’t like ice cream, but totally, I was sitting. I remember it, I was sitting in my parents house, like I was just home, and I was just watching TV and the movie came on, and I had seen the movie a ton of times, but like, I love the movie, and then I was just watching it and I thought, the concept is so universally appreciated, like the body-switch concept I think that everybody really enjoys, and I’ve never really seen it applied to music, and it’s such an opportunity because imagine being able to have access to other artists’ vocal range, like vocal cords. It’s just a funny thing to be able to, through a different artist's voice, speak.
Did the concept of the video come to your mind first, or was it the actual song?
Well I kinda like, when I have a song that’s very creative for the most part, I know i’m gonna make a video for it. There are some songs that I have that are more just kinda more rap songs and don’t have a narrative or distinct angle, but any song that’s really trying to be funny or tell a story, I don’t necessarily think of the music video but like I think the story in my head is the vision. I just know for a fact that any consumer is going to understand and see the vision clearer if they’re actually seeing it in motion as opposed to me relying on them to sit there and listen, and just, like, get every joke, you know what I mean? So I always think I kinda use them hand in hand.
Though the sheer thought of turning 30 sounds like a buzzkill for Dicky, he did find one upside during his milestone birthday: His knee-slapping video "Freaky Friday" torched the internet. Based on the 2003 film starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsey Lohan (itself based on the 1976 film and 1972 novel), Dicky and the song's guest, Chris Brown, switch bodies for a day and experience life as the other person. Filled with playful quips, Dicky enjoys his newfound identity, flexing his dance moves and contorting his body like the celebrated dancer. On the flipside, Brown quickly despises Dicky's plain and insipid lifestyle.
When the two stars link up at the end of the video, they change back into their regular bodies, before the affable MC switches bodies again, but this time with Ed Sheeran, DJ Khaled and Kendall Jenner. "The cherry on top was Kendall," Dicky tells Billboard. "I waited on Kendall to the very end, and she killed it. We recorded it at Kris Jenner’s house, and I literally went there and recorded her, and it was so fun. She was having so much fun."
Billboard spoke with Dicky on his 30th birthday about releasing his "Freaky Friday" video, his favorite moment shooting the video, why he thinks Chris Brown is the best dancer of our time, and why he compares himself to "Russell Westbrook on a farm."
I have a weird inkling that you were eating a shitload of ice cream watching Freaky Friday on ABC Family and that's how the song came about. Am I right?
One-hundred percent. I mean, I wasn’t eating ice cream, I don’t like ice cream, but totally, I was sitting. I remember it, I was sitting in my parents house, like I was just home, and I was just watching TV and the movie came on, and I had seen the movie a ton of times, but like, I love the movie, and then I was just watching it and I thought, the concept is so universally appreciated, like the body-switch concept I think that everybody really enjoys, and I’ve never really seen it applied to music, and it’s such an opportunity because imagine being able to have access to other artists’ vocal range, like vocal cords. It’s just a funny thing to be able to, through a different artist's voice, speak.
Did the concept of the video come to your mind first, or was it the actual song?
Well I kinda like, when I have a song that’s very creative for the most part, I know i’m gonna make a video for it. There are some songs that I have that are more just kinda more rap songs and don’t have a narrative or distinct angle, but any song that’s really trying to be funny or tell a story, I don’t necessarily think of the music video but like I think the story in my head is the vision. I just know for a fact that any consumer is going to understand and see the vision clearer if they’re actually seeing it in motion as opposed to me relying on them to sit there and listen, and just, like, get every joke, you know what I mean? So I always think I kinda use them hand in hand.
