Music

Billy Ray Cyrus made a hip-hop version "Achy Breaky Heart"

by Tyler Munro

It feels like forever since we’ve heard anything from celebri-dad Billy Ray Cyrus, even if he he’s been steadily releasing albums since “Achy Breaky Heart” exploded to the top of the charts in 1992. The song remains his biggest accomplishment in pop music, and it’s also the inspiration behind his latest single, an inexplicable hip-hop sequel to his one-hit wonder spearheaded by Buck 22.

Larry King starts this absolutely batshit video off on the news, before a gaggle of ass-shaking, nearly-nude “aliens” abduct Cyrus and a little boy who, if we’re following the narrative right, turns out to be Buck 22. The ensuing three minutes quickly become a pull-and-push between song and sight, and by the end, it’s hard to know which is more ridiculous.

Musically, the track mirrors Billy Ray’s smash hit—itself a re-write of a Marcy Brothers song—with a hip-hop backbone that, as a finished product, sounds more like “Accidental Racist” than Cowboy Troy’s “Locomotive.” So, it’s bad regardless, but it’s on the low end of a very steep sliding scale. Not that you can expect much: the song opens with Buck 22 rapping that it only happened because he “happened to meet up with Billy Cyrus.”

Sometimes, chance can be a bad thing.

“It happened because I’m sipping on that good Kentucky whisky,” he raps. “It happened because I’d rather be lucky, than good.”

No arguments there.

Oh, and if this all sounds incredibly uncomfortable and awkward, just wait for Billy Ray to shout “Wreckin’ Ball!” after Buck 22 rap-sings about Miley’s love of twerking.