Advertising, Hip Hop.

It's really weird, I always hear Pepsi products getting mentioned in rap songs. The one I hear the most often is Aquafina (Aquafina clear, Aquafina flow, etc.). I've also heard Young Dro and Young Jeezy say they have Tropicana orange cars. Never Minute Made, never Dasani. But Sprite is getting mentioned more regularly now, so maybe Coke has a deal with Grand Hustle. Of course this isn't true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

I think stuff like that is one of the reasons I listen to rap so much. After a while you pick up on little nuances like that. They can be talking about the most inane and vulgar things, but use imagery from popular/ consumer culture that everyone can relate to. And very complicated rhyming schemes. This one right here is my favorite right now:

Paint the Chevy all kinda sour apple colors
Diamonds up in my charm look like piney- apple suckas
Tech 9 for some, mack nine-ty for others
Lethal Weapon on Ducati’s, I got on my Danny Glovers
Nah this ain't the movie but I shot “Four Brothers”

Ducati is a brand of German motorcycles, and Four Brothers is a pun. That's also that movie with Mark Wahlberg where those four adopted brothers avenge their foster mother's death. You know you can't come up with anything that clever, so stop saying rappers have no talent.

I think rap music is just an extreme representation of American culture. Everyone says that rap is a terrible influence on young people, which it of course is, but what about all the filth that white people put on television and the radio? "Rap promotes materialism." What about The Apprentice and Donald Trump? Being rich, living in a big house, and driving a fancy car is what most people consider to be the American Dream. White men who own corporations don't pay women as much, and women are regularly discriminated against in the business world for top positions. Football commentators are in Hooters commercials. No one watches the WNBA. And what do people in other countries say about American movies? They're too violent. Parents buy violet games for their kids. Country music promotes ignorance and "Southern" (backward and racist) values. And Sports Illustrated still has a swimsuit issue.

So in case you were wondering, that's why I listen to rap music.

Now about me.

I'm doing very well in school this semester, and I'm working on 3 projects. Only one of them is for school though, the other two are real life. I'm helping one of the people I'm shadowing at a recording studio with his marketing, since he has none. I've got my school project, an Ad Campaign for Zodiac Vodka, but none of my work there will ever really get used. I joined the Sports Marketing Association at school, and we're partnering with FC Dallas (where I will be interning very soon in the marketing department) to get more people to go to a game in April. We're gonna do a lot of non-traditional marketing, and the coolest thing is that they're actually giving us ads to put up and promotional materials to use. So it's not like a PowerPoint presentation that no one in class will pay attention to, it's a real life marketing project. My house is very clean, despite it's 5,000+ sq feet.

Also, my friend Frenchy is starting a fashion blog.