“YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind” premiered Thursday and is jam-packed with references to this year’s music. Featuring many of YouTube’s popular creators, the YouTube Rewind series (which first hit the internet in 2010) recaps the year’s content, trends and tunes.
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The eight-minute-plus video opens with Will Smith (who made his YouTube channel debut earlier this year) against a mountainous landscape, announcing, “It’s rewind time.” He continues, “If I control rewind, I would want Fortnite and Marques Brownlee.” Snapping his fingers, a dreamlike YouTuber-filled compilation begins.
“Is this what you wanted?” asks Brownlee from a flying Fortnite-esque bus full of YouTubers ready to pick out their own favorite moments as Cardi B’s “I Like It” plays in the background.
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The scene eventually swaps to one in which the content creators crowd around a campfire together. “Apparently we control rewind this year. Y’all, we can do whatever we want,” confirms Liza Koshy. “What do we do?”
“K-pop!” pipe up the Merrell Twins and Casey Neistat as a dancing montage backed by BTS’ “Idol” plays in the background.
Marshmello (who DJ’d a scene in the 2017 recap) soon makes a brief appearance (as does his collaboration with Bastille, “Happier”).
The next music moment comes when the animated TheOdd1sOut suggests they accept Drake’s “In My Feelings” Challenge, the moving-car dance craze inspired by the song earlier this year.
YouTubers including Lele Pons, Anwar Jibawi and Rudy Mancuso later take on a catwalk wearing oversized blocky bodysuits meant to resemble the ones Kanye West and Lil Pump sported in the “I Love It” music video; Panic! at the Disco’s “High Hopes” backs them up.
The social-media-famous “Baby Shark” song by Pinkfong also gets a nod, accompanied by some colorfully costumed kid show characters.
This year’s video has, notably, at time of press, been disliked more than 2.2 million times — over twice as many times as it has been liked — with viewers pointing out that some of YouTube’s biggest stars, including PewDiePie (who boasts over 74 million subscribers), are absent. Despite this, the recap has already received 33 million views.
Watch YouTube’s 2018 rewind video for yourself below.