It was the rap song heard around the world. Literally.
On the other side of the planet, Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks, 63, and his actress wife Rita Wilson were quarantined in Australia after contracting the coronavirus. During the maddening lull in their globetrotting lives in March, the world learned that Wilson can actually spit bars.
Wilson, 63, who starred with her husband in Sleepless in Seattle, showed off her flow by flawlessly reciting the entire classic smash hit “Hip Hop Hooray.” The performers of the original song, Naughty By Nature, and Wilson have now teamed up to release a remix song and video version of the seminal 1992 song in order to raise money to fight COVID-19.
According to NJ.com, all net profits raised from the remixed single will go to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.
This feel-good story began organically while Wilson was stuck in quarantine with Hanks in the country dubbed “Down Under” and unable to venture outdoors. Bored out of her mind, Wilson put down the book she was reading and performed her rendition of “Hip Hop Hooray.”
The Instagram post went viral internationally, was viewed by millions of music fans worldwide and earned praise from entertainment contemporaries Viola Davis, Jennifer Aniston, Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner and even Barack Obama.
Wilson teamed up with members Naughty By Nature — Treach (Anthony Criss), Vin Rock (Vincent Brown) and DJ Kay Gee (Keir Gist) — to use the remix to raise money for coronavirus relief.
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“’Hip Hop Hooray’ I always felt was like the universal hip-hop anthem,” Vin Rock, 49, told NJ.com. “As we come out of this and we lift the quarantines and people get back in the groove, hey, we want to celebrate, we want to party. We’ve done a great job of supporting each other, and so let’s celebrate life.”
Flip the page to watch a video of the remix version of “Hip Hop Hooray” by Wilson and Naughty By Nature.
