It's everywhere. The hip hop flavored beat in a Burger King commercial, kids breaking and Harlem shaking as they hold Pepsi cans. Hip Hop has become the most trendy tool to market to teenagers and rappers such as The Roots, Nelly, The Neptunes and P. Diddy are selling their reps to big ad agencies for major cash.

On "Crossover" from EPMD's 1992 Business - Never Personal, Eric Sermon vehemently spit, "To go platinum and clock mad green AKA, a sellout." Over a decade later, clocking green has become the goal by many means necessary. Yet, the idea of exploiting a rapper's marketability wasn't birthed yesterday. Kurtis Blow was the first rapper to record a national commercial for Sprite in 1986. Run DMC received $1.5 million to endorse Adidas that same year.

Today, hip hop and brands show no signs of divorcing as rappers are striking deals by the minute in a new practice Madison Avenue has dubbed "integrated marketing." This summer, Champs Sports in conjunction with Universal Records kicks off a cross-promotional campaign worth a reported $2 million to St. Lunatic Murphy Lee. The tour will hit 600 stores in the U.S. and Canada with over 100,000 specialized sampler CDs featuring exclusive Murphy Lee tracks awarded to consumers as a gift with purchase. "Sports, entertainment, and music are the three things that drive young consumers today," says Marc Williams, senior brand director at Champs Sports. "Champs wants to do integrated programs that reflect our core 12-24 suburban male consumers." Building on the success of Hova's S. Carter sneaker, Reebok is set to release the "Bombshell Classic" Edition, Eve's ongoing campaign this month.

And new deals aren't confined to fashion. Video games like Madden 2004 football will include a unique version of The Roots' "Rock U" while music from Nelly and Just Blaze can be heard on NBA Street Vol. 2. Sprite wants hip-hop consumers to "Remix. Rethink. Refresh." - the theme of their $25 million-plus Sprite Remix campaign that kicked off this Memorial Day weekend. Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, The Neptunes, Biz Markie, and others will appear in spots created by the Ogilvy & Mather agency. The beverage brand is also powering up its Sprite Remix Studio, which will hit 50 cities nationwide and give people the chance to create their own music.

Hip Hop Went Commercial In 95'

^true

but hiphop isn't selling out. Just some of the artists are, but can you blame them?

I don't care what you may say, but if you were offered alot of money to advertise something like pepsi you wouldnt say no. No matter how much some people talk about never selling out they'd jump at the opportunity, but really, I don't think its selling out. Ja Rule sold out, Vanilla Ice sold out.. doing averts isn't exactly selling out anyway, its just earning extra money.

i agree with sprungy, how can hip hop sell out? rappers can but hip hop cant,