by Arielle Young

Five brothers from Los Altos, California, banned together to raise awareness for the preservation of honey bees by choreographing a rap/dance fusion through the music video medium... as well as outfitting the backup dancers in bubbly bee costumes. Max Lanman, a 21-year-old senior at Yale majoring in film studies, pulled the rap project together by directing, editing and photographing "Do the Honey Bee," with his four brothers by his side. The video was in preparation of the inaugural National Honey Bee Awareness Day this past August 22nd, fully supported by Häagen-Dazs.

The singing isn't dissimilar to T-Pain's auto-tune phenomenon; if anything, it's better. Whereas one might expect the scantily-clad persuasion of limber backup dancers prancing around to the clanging of gold chains, chomping grills and blinging ice, the video consists of a swarm of honey bees fluttering around and bouncing to the rhyming styles of the bee keepers. Also, Albert Einstein makes a guest appearance in the video... but, he's a bee.

Max, in a phone interview from New Haven, explains about the rap creation, "The goal behind this was to make a mainstream rap video that appeals to the masses."

There is more to the dance than just random motions, though. The choreography actually pays homage to the life of the honey bees, specifically replicating a type of jubilant dance that occurs amongst the swarm after a groovy day of pollination.

A huge inspiration to the Lanman brothers was their unwavering obsession with ice cream. A family friend, Jeffery Warnock, had influenced the five of them with stories and knowledge of his own honey beehives and linked the need for the little critters with the boys' avid ice cream lifestyle. It is a fact that fifty percent of the ingredients needed to manufacture ice cream come from the nuts and berries that honey bees pollinate, which spells no bees, no ice cream. The boys stuck to their passion for the buggers and Connor Lanman, 18, even wrote a book on the issue entitled "Plight of the Bee," which initially caught the eye of Häagen-Dazs.

Not a huge ice cream fan? There's still a huge reason why the bees must be protected: the United States Department of Agriculture estimates that honey bees are responsible for 90 percent of food crops.

Max Lanman expresses via email:

"We're hoping that 'Do The Honey Bee' will help raise honey bee awareness in a fun and original way, and appeal to the greater population. The honey bee crisis affects the global community, and music is definitely the best way to transcend language barriers. We actually found a German forum where different people were talking about the video and the cause--it was really cool to see that our video generated discussion, and in another language!"

The Lanman boys showed us that raising awareness through an artistic medium is creative and effective, as well as quite catchy. To learn more about their cause, log onto www.helpthehoneybees.com and begin the bee revival. After you've done that, go reward yourself with a pint of Chunky Monkey and watch the video on repeat.

via HuffingtonPost