My want to be an emcee days are far behind me, although I did make an appearance on my son’s recent album. That wasn’t my choice… the song was supposed to be a demo, but he took it and put it on his album, smh. I might as well share it since it makes for good background music to the Puma video below featuring J.Cole and narrated by (insert drumroll) Master P?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAZUhTDpIUg
Yep, that Master P. The Ice Cream Man, Make Em Say Unnnn, You Bout It, Bout It, the Master P that played in the NBA (albeit exhibition), but who also earned a full ride to Houston (the Phi Slamma Jamma) Cougars is narrating a video showing J. Cole working hard to actually pursue a spot in the NBA. The likelihood of that happening is slim to none if we base the reality on age and the fact that Cole hasn’t played at that level before. We said the same thing about Master P though. I laughed about it and then I was watching a Raptors pre-season game and who was on the floor? Master P… and he wasn’t garbage. It wasn’t a joke.
I wrote all of that to say that all hoopers want to be rappers and all rappers want to be hoopers… Well it used to be that way. Common played an NBA player in a movie and Dame Lillard is easily the best NBA player to release music. Basketball and sneaker culture are forever joined together because to be honest basketball is what created the billion dollar footwear industry. Nike would just be a running shoe company without basketball. Puma would be the little brother of adidas without the legacy of Walt Clyde Frazier and his style so thoroughly influencing the fashion of the street in NYC which made the Suede/Clyde the first shoe of Hip-Hop; or was it the other way around? The Street influenced Clyde.
The RS Dreamer arrives for Puma with more fanfare than any of their basketball releases. Puma has yet to roll out a signature sneaker for their roster of NBA talent. They have player exclusives and this new model built for J.Cole’s Dreamville is a continuation of what could be the purest form of marketing in basketball. Hence I tried my hand at rapping again with the title of this post using alliteration and referencing cocaine. I’m not an emcee though, so while the title is catchy, it would have been better if this model was all white, lol. Seriously, the marketing of this shoe is smart. Puma released a limited amount online and then moved the release to their NYC location. This has pushed the exclusive shoe to resale on StockX at a premium.
It also moved a consumer who has been on lockdown through the virus to visit the Puma NYC location. I wrote a post during All Star Weekend 2020, right before our sense of normal was removed, about basketball and marketing:
In this post I made a statement:
J.Cole is dunking the basketball. Puma isn’t simply saying wear these shoes because J.Cole is in contention as one of the greatest emcees ever. They are saying J.Cole dreamed of being a great athlete. His goals in sports contributed to his tenacity as an entertainer. Sport is being sold.
I wrote this to explain that Puma was making a more authentic approach to utilizing an influencer. They have continued to keep their collaboration with J. Cole about as pure as a brand can when marketing. I think it’s smart and definitely a move that allows for growth in basketball, very slow growth, but slow and steady wins the long game. In my opinion, this is a solid play by the Cat.