Third-grader drops the ultimate 'Summer bop' after fulfilling promise to get on the honor roll

Editor's note: This article was originally published on July 30, 2021. It has since been updated. 

Nine-year-old DJ Morris is here with the ultimate summer 2021 anthem! The talented youngster—who just completed third grade—recently fulfilled his dream of dropping a music video after working hard during the last school year to fulfill a vow he'd made to his parents. Speaking to Love What Matters, DJ's father Brandon Morris revealed that he and his wife, Charaya, had promised their son early in the year that they'd help him record his very own music video if he made the honor roll. "DJ’s seen a lot of old school R&B—like Bobby Brown videos—and those were always a bunch of adults," he said. 

"But when he saw kids doing music videos about a year or two ago on YouTube, he wanted to do his own," Morris added. As a former music producer, Morris knew he had the skills to make DJ's dream come true. So when the young boy worked hard towards his goal and made the honor roll before school let out, his dad was ready to keep his end of the bargain. The father-of-two began by picking out a beat he describes as "poppy and upbeat." To make sure that DJ would feel a personal connection to the lyrics, Morris then began asking his son questions about what he was most excited about this summer.

"The concept of all the lyrics are from his brain, I just made it rhyme," he explained. Once they had the ultimate kiddy summer anthem ready, the father-son duo enlisted everyone from DJ’s younger sister, Janaya, to DJ's friends from church for the making of the music video. The end product is a bright and cheerful nearly 3-minutes-long video that shows kids celebrating the arrival of summer vacation by singing, dancing, kicking a giant soccer ball, and playing water games.

"Everybody let's party, who's ready for the summertime? School's over and the outside is calling it's the summertime," young DJ sings in the video. "Good vibes going all around and the 'rona cases keep going down. It's a party when you step outside 'cause it's summertime." Although no one is sure to be more excited about the video than DJ himself, the talented boy's parents explained that seeing their son achieve his dream was an emotional experience for them too. "This (school year) was a really weird time for the kids because they were not able to go to school (due to COVID-19) and virtual school was not fun for them," said Charaya.

"I wanted to encourage them to like school or to at least excel in the way I knew that they could," she added. When asked about what she thinks of the "Summertime" music video, the proud mother said: "I was really emotional. To actually see it all come together made me cry. For it to be something that he earned and worked hard for, I was really proud of him as his mom." Meanwhile, DJ — who goes by the stage name Lil Syxx in his music video — announced that his parents get the "number one parent award" for helping him achieve his musical fantasies.

Speaking of the inspiration behind his video, the soon-to-be fourth-grader explained that his decision to sing and rap about the ordinary parts of summer and not elaborate trips and planned activities was a deliberate choice. "I'm really happy about summer and most people were just focusing on vacation," he said. "But there's a lot more to summer than just vacation, so I thought why not make a song about summer that's not just vacations."

Morris admitted that making the music video was just as exciting for him as it was for DJ. "I felt like for Charaya and I, it allowed us to be kids again," he said. "So much music out there today is very adult-themed and adult-driven. This took me to a place where music was fun to do and it was innocent and cool. It wasn't kiddy bopper where it was corny, it was actually solid fun and well done. The boy can sing and he likes to rap. Seeing him live out something that was a dream of his was amazing for me."