The view count for Mike WiLL Made-It‘s “23” music video just surpassed a much bigger number on YouTube.
Starring the producer, Miley Cyrus, Wiz Khalifa and Juicy J, the visual has reached 1 billion plays on the website more than a decade after it was first uploaded in 2013. Directed by Hannah Lux Davis, the “23” video finds the four musicians wreaking havoc in a high school, partying in the principal’s office, bathroom, locker room and gymnasium while wearing a number of Chicago Bulls-inspired outfits and walking in slow-motion past twerking cheerleaders.
“I’m in the club high on purp with some shades on/ Tatted up, mini skirt with my J’s on,” the “Flowers” singer raps over a trap beat, followed a few beats by Juicy’s repeating “J’s on my feet, J’s on my feet” refrain.
“23” peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2013. Mike WiLL Made-It had previously produced for all three of his collaborators on the track before the joined him on a song of his own, and the hitmaker’s work on Cyrus’ hit “We Can’t Stop” was a major part of her transformation from Disney Channel darling to rebel pop superstar.
In 2016, Mike reflected on “23” in an interview with Billboard. “People told me that Miley’s ‘23’ wasn’t hip-hop,” he said at the time. “Let me tell you, she went in and owned that track. She smoked more weed in one week than most rappers I know. That song was not some far-fetched thing she had to reach for. She was ill as hell. When people question me about whether something is hip-hop, I ask them, ‘Does it sound hard? Does it hit home? Is it raw and real?’ If it is, I did my job.”
Watch the billion-times-viewed “23” music video above.
