Dad takes story time to the next level by rapping 'Llama Llama Red Pajama' to his infant son

Llama Llama Red Pajama first debuted 20 years ago, and tells the story of young Llama Llama who gets scared while waiting in his bed for his mother. He begins to scream until his mother, Mama Llama, retreats to comfort him. It’s a simple story that teaches children to feel safe when alone in their beds.

But what takes this simple bedtime story to the next level is the bouncy way it is written, with a perfect, satisfying rhyming meter. It also helps that the main characters, Llama Llama Red Pajama and Mama Llama, have names that rhyme.

A sample of the book:

Llama llama red pajama

Feels alone without his mama

Llama llama red pajama

Calls down to his llama mama

Mama says she'll be up soon

Llama llama red pajama

Waiting waiting for his mama

Like many parents over the past few decades, North Carolina dad Austin Wade noticed that the story lent itself to a rap song, so he filmed himself reading the book over "Mask Off" by Future. The video is cute because dad is doing his best to spit tight bars, while his son, Carter, watches on in amazement. In just four days since being posted, it has received nearly 2 million views.

"We do a calm bedtime story during the evening and a fun story time during the day," Wade told Good Morning America. "We try not to get him too excited right before bed! He's still a little confused when dad raps to him, but we think he likes it!"

The viral post received a lot of love from commenters.

"The way he didn’t miss one beat tells me this wasn’t his first performance," Julie wrote. "'That’s NOT how daddy does it' - that sweet baby, anytime someone else reads that book to them in 2/3 years," Tori added. “I’m telling my kids you are Eminem when I play this for them at bedtime," Laureness wrote in the comments.

This isn’t the first time someone has gone viral for rapping Llama Llama Red Pajama; it’s been a popular part of The Cruz Show on Real 92.3 in Los Angeles. The host, J Cruz, has a son who loves the book, and that gave the DJ the idea to have some of hip-hop’s top rappers perform the song live on air.

There have been plenty of notable rappers who have taken on the Llama Llama Challenge. Who do you think did it best?

Glorilla

Ludacris

Chance the Rapper

Rae Sremmurd

Ultimately, the great thing is seeing a father read to his child not once, but twice a day. In an era when fewer and fewer people read for entertainment, it’s great to see parents instilling the joy of reading in their children at a very young age.

Studies show that kids who hear their parents read five books a day enter kindergarten having heard about 1.4 million more words than kids who were never read to. That huge difference can significantly impacts their vocabulary and reading development.