WTF Wednesday got off to a running start the other week with a memetastic contribution from the band HEALTH. This week, O Music Award nominee for “Best Lyrics Video” and rapper D. Willz shares with us his favorite Internet oddities: Parodies and, of course, Rebecca Black.
Willz was wholly stoked when he heard about his O Music Awards nom: “I felt like jumping off a wall!” he says. “I was super excited, definitely a surreal moment. It was like a child taking his first trip to Disneyland and being told that Mickey Mouse personally wants you to ride front seat on the Electrical Parade.”
The rapper is similarly excited about fan remakes of his possibly award-winning jam, since he’s big on parodies. “Not only are these videos that we all watch and love, it’s always exciting to see fans remake these videos giving them a little twist either through lyrics and/or video,” he says. “I knew my video ‘Watermelon’ was official once I saw all the parody’s poppin’ up all over YouTube. Watch this one that I find incredibly hilarious. There wasn’t any word change or anything but I find the whole ‘Bounce’ concept to be super funny!”
Despite his ardor for the above vid, one YouTube phenom has a special place in Willz’ heart: “To be honest I will have to say that my favorite viral video of all time is Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday,’” he says.
“It’s one of those songs that you either hate or love and I was one of those people that just happened to like it! LOL! Me and a group of friends will get together every week keeping the music video in rotation while we partied. And if you happened to be around me during that time, I made SURE you were familiar with that music video as well. Plus, good or bad it’s rare that you will see a video like that get such a HUGE response on the web. Not only were there hundreds of millions of video views, it was reaction videos, parodies, rap versions, remixes, etc. You name it! Truly an Internet sensation and once I found out the story behind the music video, it just goes to show you how much the industry has changed and how the Internet can break or make any artist. Through the world wide web any and everyone has an equal shot at fame.”