I am certainly old enough to remember how exciting it was to see Grand Puba and Large Professor obey their thirsts for Sprite back in '95 prior to shiny suits becoming all the rage. It was exciting because so many brands who had previously received free marketing in the form of hyperbolic endorsements in rhyme form or unauthorized placement in videos (see: Hilfiger, Tommy and Land, Timber) had vehemently rejected associations with inner city life and their inhabitants. Granted, Sprite wasn't exactly getting hood love then and Mountain Dew Code Red certainly isn't getting widespread hood love either, but that doesn't stop my partial excitement over Jay Electronica getting an endorsement from them in "Hip Hop Is Different On The Mountain." Filmed in New Orleans, the rich cultural center and his boyhood home, a heavy tweed suit-clad Jay rhymes to a crowd in an atmosphere reminiscent of a speakeasy. TJ The DJ accompanies him on the ones and twos and, while no word on whether Jay asked the crowd about choking women during sex--the bet is due to be paid by the loser tomorrow on Christmas Day--the commercial is nonetheless another peg from which the more commercially recognizable Jay can hang his hat. Check it all out below and be sure to check some beautifully shot behind-the-scenes footage of the commercial and the city of New Orleans after the bounce.
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