On April 19, 2019, Dicky took to Twitter to announce the release of a new song the following week.[4] It was also reported that Canadian singer Justin Bieber would return to music as a guest feature on a new Lil Dicky song.[5] Bieber confirmed the collaboration on Twitter a few days later.[6] Over 30 celebrities and singer-songwriters were in the recording studio to perform the song.
Music video
On April 17, Dicky released a preview of the music video that was released the following day. Co-directed by Nigel Tierney of Emmy-winning studio RYOT (the studio that made Behind the Fence VR), Federico Heller of 3Dar (the studio that made Uncanny Valley), Oddbot Animation, and Iconic Engine,[7][8] the animated video is told from the perspective of several animals affected by climate change, with their voices being provided by 30 celebrities and singer-songwriters.[2]
Reception
The song received mostly negative reviews from critics. In a Pitchfork review, Jeremy D. Larson panned "Earth" as a "terrible song" that "sounds less like a charity single and more like a theme to a downmarket Disney clone made explicitly to launder money for an offshore criminal enterprise".[9]Spin magazine included the song in their list of the worst songs of 2019, calling it a qualitative step back to Dicky's 2018 single "Freaky Friday".[10]
Vocalists
List of guest vocalists with the role each plays in the song (animal character names are the stated phrase after "I'm a" at the beginning of each new line):[11]
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – SINGLES DIGITAL – TOP 100 and insert 201918 into search. Retrieved May 6, 2019.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select SINGLES DIGITAL - TOP 100 and insert 201918 into search. Retrieved May 7, 2019.