Entry Footage from De La Hoya vs. Mayweather
50 Cent excorted Floyd Mayweather Jr. to the ring for his Saturday night.
The video above [which I doubt will last] starts with Mayweather preparing to leave the dressing room with 50 joining him and rapping as they enter the arena and walk to the ring.
This was a real marketing coup for 50 Cent who may have given Mayweather a psychological boost but was basically a very secondary act in the context of the fight. 50 gets a moment in the ring and a flash of the back of his shirt on tv announcing the upcoming release of Curtis.
One of the announcers describes 50's performance as very expensive but probably donated. I'd say the opposite was true. 50 Cent got some very expensive advertising off this one.
It's illuminating to see the difference in Jay-Z and 50 Cent's current positioning in relationship to world class sports figures with Jay-Z reaching out to Nascar drivers and 50 aligning with a boxer.
DipSkate. What a great idea.
Dipset's grabbing some smart opportunities these days. And I never expected to use smart and Dipset in a sentence that didn't also contain not so . What a nice surprise!
This is also tied in to the new site.
I do hope that, if Pharrell still has a team, the next step isn't skate beef.
I would be extremely remiss in not noting the ESPN special .
Though Muhammed Ali obviously didn't invent rap, it's nice to see the connections being drawn between Ali and rappers, because he was quite influential.
It's also nice to see Chuck D in such excellent form.
Posted by Clyde on December 14, 2006 in The power of Jay-Z is undeniable.
I even got excited for a minute at the news that he's and that he'll be signing 100 of them to be distributed at random to package purchasers.
And then I remembered that the album, Kingdom Come, will be readily available and the tickets are for three of the worst games of the season.
Still, a nice promotion with great timing for both the album and the start of the NBA season.
And distributing the signed copies randomly is so much smarter than giving them to the first 100 buyers.
Posted by Clyde on October 11, 2006 in Here's what's described at YouTube as an early viewing of Jay-Z's New NBA Commercial on TNT courtesy of AllHIpHop.com.
I'm not sure if the exceptionally large black frame around the exceptionally small image is accidental (due to some oddity in transferring the video to YouTube) or intentional (to heighten the classy artiness of the ad) but on YouTube's extra small screen the size undermines the commercial.
It probably looks good on tv but the understated tone of the commercial itself also doesn't really work for me and kind of seeps the energy out of what I assume is an attempt to build excitement around on-court rivalries and so forth.
Bottom line: The mere presence of Jay-Z does not equal an exciting commercial.
Posted by Clyde on October 5, 2006 in I think an would be a great way out for these guys. I just hope it can be left with a bout.
Could be a great way to kick off a Hip Hop Battle series of rappers doing no holds barred fight events.
Posted by Clyde on July 3, 2006 in I've been going through TNT's Ali G NBA spots that are available from and that I think have been playing all season (at least some of them). On the one hand, they're a pretty good distillation for a mass audience of Ali G's interviewer shtick, given that you can understand what he's saying and no one is truly uncomfortable.
If you haven't seen the , whose website has a really dead feel unlike the show, you know that Ali G's interviews of American politicians and business people before anybody knew who he was were incredibly funny.
Part of the humor came from watching Ali G go with the moment while his interviewees struggled to figure out what the hell was going on.
A couple of the spots catch a little of that energy because they allow Ali G to get a tiny roll going but then it's over. Mostly the spots fall a bit flat when watched on their own.
The relentless deadpan response of the players and announcers seems rather lifeless and, obviously, devoid of the edgy energy of the early Ali G shows.
Nevertheless, I can see them working ok as spots during a game. Hey, there's that crazy Ali G!
What'll he say to Shaq?
On the other hand, I haven't been watching the season so I don't know if they've been overexposed. Since the players' and announcers' reactions are pretty standard throughout, Ali G is the changing element and he mostly doesn't have room to operate.
I could imagine a series of spots where he interviews fans about the upcoming season or the playoffs that could play off Ali G's oddball flow and the fact that, even when they know they're being put on, a lot of fans will go with the moment, especially if it's about their home team regarding the playoffs.
Ali G's humor works best when there's room for a situation to develop that isn't possible in short scripted spots. Creating situations and then taking edited slices might have been a better approach if the goal was to create funny, edgy spots.
Hey, wait a minute, could bringing in someone who parodies a hip hop fan be part of the process of cleansing the NBA of hip hop influences? Yes, I see it all now!
Posted by Clyde on May 24, 2006 in Robert from Thug Life Army says that the .
Thinking that this stance was partially correct but a bit oversimplified, I considered the fact that Mark Cuban says the during live games, without specifying genres. But, then, the obvious hit me. In a live performance oriented event, Energy = Money.
Or, as Last-of-G's commented at Robert's blog:
thats why they played Eminem's Lose Yourself . . .
before the start of the game when announcing the starting line-ups.
David Stern get a clue.
Recent changes in the NBA's dress code translate into frequented by players.
For example, Bruce Teilhaber of Atlanta's Friedman Shoes, which stocks shoes up to size 22, is visited by out of town players during away games.
During a recent visit by a van full of members of the Miami Heat, "the players spent more than $20,000 that day on dress shoes that average about $250 but can soar to $750 for alligator shoes. On similar visits last year, Heat players dropped half as much, many steering clear of the dress shoes for less expensive sneakers.
"
It's kind of interesting that this dress code change has happened in the wake of a shift in shoe deals and from sports to casual or lifestyle sneakers. Not that the two are necessarily connected, especially with fashion splits in the rap scene between those who wear suits and those who dress street and the NBA desperate to continue appealing to its aging white well-off fan base. But athletes have pushed sneakers up in price as far as they could go and now it's the rappers that will continue that process.
On a related note, I wonder how these fashion shifts affect cloth manufacturers. It seems like baggy clothes would be good for some while a shift to finer fashions and more expensive cloth would be good for others.
Snoop Dogg is endorsing a that will kick into gear next month.
Initially, skateboards and accessories will be offered followed by "high-end Snoop Dogg luggage and travel bags" next year. According to the , snowboards will also be offered.
The press release features the deal as a venture between Snoop's people and Pentagon Distribution which is owned by .
Their website lists Snoop Dogg Board Company as one of its businesses along with Academy Snowboards and Kampus Wakeskates, though its site is "launching September 10." Hey, no rush guys!
Though the online store doesn't open till September, you can check out some of the designs at .
Make mine the Snoopdollar, you can keep your greasy Pimp deck to yourself!
I was inspired to follow up on my by a , who I assume is Janice Spence of , a UK based online hip hop zine. If you check out the 2004 Archives on her site, you'll see an earlier more hopeful take on Damon Dash's possible effects on the UK hip hop scene that haven't gone as well as hoped.
Mostly I recall the Posh Spice deal devolving into scandal.
As I back when Dash/DiBella Promotions was getting off the ground, some folks in boxing , though I also recall a lot of scepticism in the comments sections following various articles on boxing sites. However, I mostly think that Damon Dash is a good fit for boxing promotion.
Last month, BallerStatus.net ran an regarding his interest in boxing and what he'll bring to the sport:
"Back in the day when we first started to get a few dollars, it was a big event to go to a fight. We would get dressed up and wear our best jewelry.
It was status to have good seats and there was electricity. It's like being in a club; you're not only watching the fight, but you're looking to see who is there. That made you want to go to more fights.
I developed a love for the sport from that perspective, and because of the art and skill of it. I'm trying to bring it back to suit-and-tie status because I feel boxing deserves that kind of attention and should be that kind of event."
"Lou knows the business of boxing, and I learned that and I know the business of marketing, enough where I could bring in other demographics.
Together and combined -- once any of these fighters win a bunch of fights and become champions -- we'll be able to put together the ideal event because he has the infrastructure to facilitate the business part of boxing and promoting, and I have the infrastructure to facilitate the awareness and also make sure the girls look good, the jewelry is correct -- everything."
So Dash brings marketing skills and infrastructure allied with an understanding of girls and jewelry. His comments make me smirk yet they also support my feeling that he might do ok.
More importantly, they confirm Janice's comments that the promoters are ultimately dependent on the boxers doing well or the glitz and glamour won't follow.
SecondsOut.com has a really great about whom I have to admit I knew very little.
Thomas Hauser describes DiBella's decision to leave his position at HBO Sports where he was "once one of the most powerful people in boxing." Going independent and trying to reform boxing is not an easy thing to do.
Back in 2000, DiBella said:
"I'll work for the fighter .
. . I'll hire the promoter, who will be responsible for promoting each fight in accordance with the laws of the state in which the fight is held.
The promoter will control the legal administration of the show, but I'll negotiate the site fee and close the television deal. In other words, the promoter will work for the fighter. I'm trying to make a point.
I'm trying to rattle the cage and do things differently. I can't turn boxing upside down overnight. But it's as important to me now to shake this business up as it is to make money.
"
He ran into a lot of problems, overspending on a boxer who didn't do so well and getting ditched by a boxer who did. Hauser describes critics as saying that "he gave new meaning to the word 'lou-dicrous' and could start a fist-fight in an empty room." A story that suggests he and Dash may have been meant for each other, at least in terms of their personalities!
Hauser discusses DiBella's current status in the "second tier of promoters behind Top Rank and Don King Productions." About his partnership with Damon Dash, DiBella states:
"For a long time, I've thought that something had to be done with marketing to revitalize the sport . .
. The idea is to create a synergy between boxing, rap music, and urban style; particularly with African-American fighters. There have been attempts to sexy-up the sport for the young urban market before.
But for the most part, they've been undertaken by white television executives, who are the wrong people for the job."
After being burned by his early business endeavors, he looks at boxers a bit more cynically now and has some choice words about the business of boxing:
"I've been tempered by reality. I still think boxing is a miserable business.
Everything is a deal. People lie all the time and don't even consider it lying. Sooner or later, virtually everyone in the business adopts a go-along mentality or they get crushed.
I've come to the conclusion that I can't change the way other people do business. So I operate my own company consistent with my conscience and no longer get a stomach ache every time I see an injustice in boxing. I can't say that I enjoy the business, but it's addictive.
And I don't want to be pushed out by the bad guys. I won't let the bastards beat me. If I quit, I want it to be when I'm on top.
Maybe then I'll decide that I don't want to be a big fish swimming around in a sewage tank."
Believe it or not, there's plenty more worth reading in , including a discussion of DiBella's Broadway Boxing endeavor and a great trash talking encounter between DiBella and boxer Bernard Hopkins. If nothing else, it sounds like Damon Dash and Lou DiBella will provide plenty of material for future discussion.
Last week, NY Times' writer John Eligon considered the with a special focus on Damon Dash and promoter Lou DiBella with whom Dash founded Dash-DiBella Promotions. Dash is hoping to revitalize the audience for boxing by revitalizing the sport's showmanship.
"I think boxing in general has lost a little bit of the glitz and the glamour that it used to have, and I think hip-hop brings back that glitz, that glamour and that intrigue .
. . Over all, what I'm trying to do for boxing as a whole, I want to bring the sexiness and the charisma of the glitz and the glamour and the diamonds back to the sport.
I want people to look at the fights more as an event as well as loving the sports aspect of it."
And a variety of people in the world of boxing agree with him or, at the very least, welcome such attempts. For example, Dino Duva of Duva Boxing thinks that folks like Dash can be particularly helpful in raising interest for black boxers, who some feel have been underpromoted of late:
"I think that they can be great for the sport if they do what they do best for the boxers .
. . That has to do with helping market and publicize fighters.
They obviously have a huge vehicle to be able to market and get exposure for fighters through the hip-hop industry. I think that can be great for African-American fighters."
"Hip-hop is major .
. . It would help the kids and young boxers cross over to the newer generation.
"
"Boxing does not have to worry about hip-hop tarnishing its image because corporate sponsorship is scarce and the sport's reputation is already in question because of perceived corruption. 'We don't have many corporations that are running to boxing,' said the promoter Todd duBoef, president of Top Rank Inc. By turning to hip-hop, he added, 'We got nothing to lose.
'
Now that's the kind of enthusiasm that's certain to bring the bling back to boxing!
USA Today has a group of articles on , though such a development is partly seen as "part of the growing fusion of sports and music. Rap mogul Jay-Z owns a piece of the NBA's New Jersey Nets.
The NFL and NBA stage huge concerts before their biggest events."
"emerged as the fastest growing piece of the $17 billion athletic footwear pie. Casual shoe sales grew 24.
5% in 2004 vs. a 0.3% increase for basketball shoes and 4.
6% bump for running shoes, according to SGMA International. So-called 'leisure/low performance' shoes accounted for 51% of dollar volume for the 12-month sales period ending in May, says NPD Group."
Of course, the issue of rapper's volatility is raised but high-profile court cases like that of Kobe Bryant have helped take the edge off hip hop in the eyes of shoe companies.
In addition, rappers are much more open about product placement in their music and videos, so additional marketing is available in an integrated fashion. Furthermore, as 50 Cent states, "athletes are seasonal. Our presence is yearround.
"
USA Today also takes a closer look at the including Formula 50 Glacéau Vitaminwater (which was originally expected ), G-Unit watches, an autobiographical book and film, the upcoming Anger Management Tour and the Reebok GXT II.
Ads for Formula 50 will run in a "range of magazines — from men's magazines Maxim and FHM to hip-hop journal Vibe to high-society title Town Country— as well as on big-city bus wraps and billboards" and will show 50 Cent as he "reads The Wall Street Journal, retrieves the mail at his Connecticut home, records in a studio and works out at a gym." According to 50 these seemingly unlikely scenarios are "50 Cent at home in those ads.
People don't get a chance to see 50 Cent away from the music."
As a put it,
"'In the past, athletes were role models to the youth. Today it's the entertainers, particularly the hip-hop artists, who are at the forefront of inspiration,' says Lisa Spiritus, director of entertainment marketing [for Boost Mobile].
"
However, I wouldn't expect athletes to be disappearing anytime soon and the mixture of athletes and artists will continue to evolve. For example, though some people feel that hip hop has been a bad influence on the NBA, Hashim Warren's assertion that the hard working has been validated, in part, by the . She discusses their use of hip hop to rev up before games and reveals a selection of "Pregame Tracks" from Ben Wallace's iPod:
The NY Times has two interesting articles today that relate to hip hop's cultural influence, for better or worse.
One article attributes the NCAA trend of , in part, to hip hop style and that makes perfect sense. Like the says:
"aint gonna say that everybody knows who I is, but when you see me collar-poppin doin the electric slide you'll be like 'this brotha gets down for his.'"
I was really surprised that a NY Times writer is just catching on to the fact that the term can include men.
Although Virginia Heffernan is focusing on tv, she seems to have missed the extensive use of bitch among male hip hop artists, comedians and their fans when dissing other men. Given that rap musicians have a distinctive ability to mainstream prison culture, one would think that the connections would be fairly obvious. Even more so given that hip hop is full of the kind of macho males who diss "faggots" but think it's ok to get head or fuck a guy as long as they beat him down first.
You know, with all the talk about reforming hip hop, I doubt any prominent cultural critic is ready to take that one on.
By the way, Carolina's gonna kick everybody's punk ass. And maybe some day the NY Times will figure out the related meanings of punk that have nothing to do with music, little to do with Ashton Kutcher (though the lineage is there) and everything to do with men raping men.
Many events during the NBA All-Star weekend will feature , including a series of concerts at the beginning with Lil Jon tonight, Public Enemy and the Legends of Hip Hop Tour on Saturday and Ludacris on Sunday.
With the NBA coming to town, look forward to the networking possibilities. Nevertheless, many in Denver remember the disappointment caused by the last minute cancellation of , an event expected to help local businesses and hip hop artists.
Combining business and pleasure, will be spinning in Denver during All-Star Game festivities. He has an album from Koch Records due in March called Maybe You Been Brainwashed. The Denver Nuggets' is also leveraging his NBA connections for All-Star Game related action.
, a hip hop band made up of Berklee Music students from the school's Jazz Hip-Hop ensemble, will perform at the pregame concert, Jam Session.
Rock musician Sally Anthony displayed the irrational behavor that the insidious culture of rock music has foisted upon the American public in a recent incident in which, as co-owner of the American Basketball Association team the Rhythm, during a game. This pathetic behavior is not surprising from a rock musician whose most recent album is titled Vent and clearly labeled as containing EXPLICIT LYRICS.
ProHipHop believes that it's high time to stop the descent of professional sports into the abyss of Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll.
[On a more serious note, any good investigative reporter would note that the fact that Sally Anthony allowed the team assistant to escort her off the floor after her outburst and then later fell and hurt her head, suggests that she should be tested for alcohol and/or drug abuse. Oh, wait, they just test the players, right?
Talk about a weak ass union.]
Although ProHipHop's stance is that such artists should be reigned in by the appropriate social forces, nevertheless, we want you to know that her most recent album is:
Boxingtalk's Kirk Lang believes that with Dash/DiBella Promotions should be a particularly strong partnership. Lang notes that, though Dash is not well known in boxing, he has actually long been a fan and that Roc-A-Fella sponsored junior welterweight Zab Judah.
Lang also states that:
"Dash once said in a Hip-Hop magazine that one of his prized possessions is a pair of personalized autographed boxing gloves that Muhammad Ali gave to him."
Nice bit of "instant" credibility based on actual personal involvement.
An attempt by Florida Atlantic University to meet NCAA attendance requirements by having the at a football game has been stopped short by closer study of the act's lyrical history.
This situation is strongly illustrative of the difficulties of using hip hop when marketing to youth and young adults and suggests that closer study of past marketing victories featuring controversial rock artists might be in order.
In news of related failures in the nexus of sports, music and marketing, by R B group Allure has been a nonstarter. Some news outlets are even reporting that Artest has released a rap album that did poorly and, as it turns out, when everybody was getting upset with Ron for wanting some time off to promote his new album, he meant the R B release.
However, before sports reporters begin turning their keen powers of social analysis on brawlers like Bobby Brown or running corrections that simply replace "rap" with "r'n'b", I want to be the first to report the, largely unverifiable outside of this office, rumor that Artest was observed furtively ditching the packaging for the recently released deluxe collector's edition Black Sabbath boxed set. You know, the one that comes with a jewel-encrusted spinning dove's head.
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