Morehouse College student’s music video for extra credit in biology goes viral

That’s the only instruction he needed.

Inspired by Lil Uzi Vert's "XO Tour Llif3," the 19-year-old from Ohio created a music video about cell mitosis called "XY Cell Life" for a biological sciences course.

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While the original lyrics are “Push me to the edge/ All my friends are dead,” he changed them to, “If my genes go left unread/ All my cells are dead.”

He posted his creation to his Twitter page Thursday, and it quickly spread. As of Friday evening, it had been retweeted more than 81,000 times and liked more than 174,000 times.

The assignment reached the web before Turner's professor, Dwann Davenport, could even lay eyes on it.

“I turned it in Wednesday, but she didn’t see it until this morning,” he said. “It’s kind of crazy, because she told me her friend called her last night even before she checked her email. Someone told her about it before me.”

According to Turner, Davenport was impressed too.

“She said, ‘It was really good,’” he said.

Making videos isn’t new for the sophomore marketing major. He began a production company, Dreadhead Films, siz years ago with his 15-year-old brother, Justen.

While his sibling is the cameraman, Turner is the writer. Together, they've been churning out movies that have received praise from the Urban Media Film Festival and the Pan African Film Festival, according to the Dreadhead Films website.

“It’s funny though, because this happens to be the least reflective of what we do,” he laughed.

Turner knew his skills would help him develop a great project. Using the campus library and his dorm building as the set, he wrote, recorded and edited the three-minute-long clip all in one day with the help of a friend from Clark Atlanta University and his football teammate.

“I didn’t expect it to blow up,” he admitted.

But now that it has, he’ll be adding another project to his reel and receiving a half-letter boost to his overall grade.

“I think I’m standing at an A,” he said. “But I can use this as a cushion should the next test not go my way.”