No Logo

It has always bothered me when people harp on rappers "selling out" because they did a commercial or co-starred with Jennifer Lopez. Especially rappers whose explicit life campaign is "getting money." Nobody except moms (rappers' only natural predator) bats an eyelash when Biggie talks about shooting women in the head and taking their purses but the whole world goes up in flames when he drinks a Pepsi.



There is only one rapper who has ever really sold out. Do I even need to say his name?



Anyway, ad whoring is pretty much the common denominator in hip-hop. It bridges all gaps. Why not? If you're going to be subjected to asinine TV commercials, you might as well take some comfort in the fact that there's someone who does something cool benefiting from it. Plus, does it really undermine your credibility that much? If you were Dr. Dre, sitting on your throne made of blowjobs and diamonds, and some studio head offered you 9999 billion dollars to walk through a party and scowl at a DJ, would you bust out your back issues of Adbusters and lecture him about integrity? No, you'd spend two hours in front of a camera, take the profits, and go eat an endangered specie.



This has been going on pretty much since forever. Check out the saga of mid-90's St. Ides ads.



The only rappers who really give a shit about any of this are KRS-One, who's basically your grandpa, maybe Mos Def, who sucks, and a whole spate of squinty dudes with tiny backpacks who rap about Guantanamo in their friends' living rooms. Dre could crush you between his shoulder blades. Just leave him be.