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Jay Electronica Boosts Mountain Dew

9:29 a.m. · December 24, 2010 · by Dan Nishimoto

Setting aside the does-an-artist-sell-out-when-they-shill-for-a-company argument for a moment, here's an intriguing bit of corporate-artistic bed-sharing. Fresh off the Roc Nation signing (when did record label contracts become as big a deal as pro foot-/basket-/baseball deals?) and Diddy ego-check, Jay Electronica steps in front of a mic and a crowd in "New Orleans, Louisiana" (hey, those are what the credits say) and gets down for a Mountain Dew commercial. The tagline, "Hip-hop is different on my mountain," is fairly predictable -- hip-hop as a form of individual expression being co-opted by a company who wants to convince its market that the company's product is similarly a form of individual expression. Then again this is a 1:42 spot with about a minute of non-stop, hook-free rhyming. In an odd way this actually feels like Jay flipped the script on Mountain Dew. Well played, Mr. Timothy Elpadaro Thedford, well played.

The commercial is a part of Mountain Dew's series of "It's Different on My Mountain" campaign that has also featured snowboarder Danny Davis (perhap the most fascinating one so far with Davis narrating, "Someone's paying you to do it and they're like, 'Be as creative as you want...'"). There is an accompanying "behind-the-scenes" fluffer piece for Electronica's spot featuring adulations from a friend, his DJ and engineer Mike Chav.

Oh and to be fair this isn't the first time Jay Electronica's done product placement -- remember "Dear Moleskin?" Just because that joint had a video shot in the Himalayas and shouted the hipster's yellow pad doesn't make it any higher than an ad for a Pepsico product.