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Star Wars' C-3PO Raps In A 100% AI-Generated Video Featuring Elon Musk & The Pope

C-3PO red coat gold chains Eckler by Design/Twitter
By Pauli Poisuo

Fans and content makers are using artificial intelligence for some elaborate fantasy creations, such as the perfect 1990s "Justice League" trailer and cast. Sometimes, these creations go a little bit wilder than usual. Consider this video of C-3PO rapping about his "Gold Gang," which includes several characters outside the Star Wars canon, from Elon Musk and Pope Francis to Snoop Dogg and Mickey Mouse.

Posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) by user @daniel_eckler, this AI-created video packs a lot of action in its 2-minute, 11-second runtime. The clip reimagines the protocol droid as an appropriately gold-themed rap artist who boasts about personal power, wealth, and influence with a flow similar to C-3PO actor Anthony Daniels' performances in the Star Wars movies. Adding to the strangeness is the fact that near the end of the song, a surprisingly convincing-sounding Childish Gambino — aka Donald Glover, who plays Lando Calrissian in "Solo: A Star Wars Story" — takes over to deliver a few bars and shows that C-3PO isn't quite as untouchable as he boasts.

The quality of the visuals more than matches the audio. Apart from the droid, several Star Wars characters turn up, including R2-D2 and Darth Vader — each decked in gold as befits the theme. Before the AI Glover takes over, there's a lengthy sequence of various characters and real-life figures at a casino, from the aforementioned names to folks like Timothée Chalamet, Kanye West, and George Lucas. Granted, the result is a patchwork of individuals barely connected by the theme, but there's no denying that the video's well made and the song's surprisingly catchy.

C-3PO has rapped before

C-3PO looking worried Lucasfilm/Disney+

Big changes are coming to movies and TV because of AI. Its potential challenges and possibilities are well-recognized by executives and creatives alike, to the point of being a hot-button issue in the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. As such, some of the real people appearing in the C-3PO rap video might not be thrilled about the honor, especially with how it hypes cryptocurrency. 

That said, the video's core concept about the golden droid's penchant for rapping isn't necessarily as far-fetched as you might think. In 1986, Disney created a real C-3PO song called "Star Tours Rap" to promote Disneyland's Star Tours ride. However, unlike the slick rap tune in the "Gold Gang" AI video, the official song is a clunky affair and a fairly typical piece of early Star Wars live-action media outside the actual movies — which, in case you didn't know about "The Star Wars Holiday Special," isn't necessarily a compliment. 

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