USATODAY.com - Rappers sample athletes' turf.
Rappers are banging on corporation doors, looking for shoe deals the way basketball players did in the 1980s and '90s.
RUN DMC can only be shaking their heads right about now. In the mid-80's sales of Adidas sneakers skyrocketed due to the groups unofficial ode to the shoe in "My Adidas":
"My Adidas walk through concert doors and
roam all over coliseum floors
I stepped on stage, at Live Aid
All the people gave an applause that paid
And out of speakers I did speak
I wore my sneakers but I'm not a sneak..."
The shoe company snubbed RUN DMC and never compensated them for their marketing of the sneaker. Real hip-hop heads know that the classic white with black stripe 'shell toe' Adidas are a staple of my generation's closest. My how the tables have turned it only took 20 years for shoe company's to realize the true power of hip-hop. Now artist are walking all the way to the bank....in sneakers of course.
My question is will hip-hop artist now tone down their lyrics and attempt to go more mainstream and/or pop in light of lucrative endorsements? My answer is, of course.
I think you're right.
When 50 Cent sqaushed his beef with Game he said the fued was no good for his many endorsement.
And when Snoop brokered the truce between West Coast rappers, he said he hopes it will open doors for them to make money together.
Posted by: Hashim | 2005.07.27 at 02:41 PM
I don't get your argument. "Tone down lyrics and attempt to go more mainstream?"
I think you have to achieve mainstream status before you can even think of inking a shoe deal. That's why Adidas balked at DMC in the 80s... hiphop was not that accepted in the mainstream.
Run DMC never had an agreement with Adidas, so they're not due any money from helping shelltoes pass the cultural tipping point. It's sad, but it is what it is.
Think about it: Common isn't due any royalites for helping to sell more taxi driver caps, so he did the entrepreneurial thing and started his own hat company.
Posted by: Check mic 1 2 | 2005.07.27 at 02:49 PM
You should probably check your facts next time.
It's a famous part of hip-hop lore that after urging them to record "My Adidas" in the first place, Russell Simmons orchestrated a demonstration for Adidas executives at a Madison Square Garden concert in 1986. Run stopped the concert mid-song, took off his sneaker and asked the crowd to do the same and hold their shoe up. When the Adidas people saw thousands of Adidas shoes rise up from the crowd that was all the convincing they needed.
Neither snubbed nor unpaid, Run-DMC became the benefactors of a lucrative endorsement deal which had them only wearing Adidas sneakers for the next 4 years and the company even put out the "Superstar" in 1988 which was specially made in tribute to Run DMC with an elastic tongue to be worn without laces.
Posted by: rafi | 2005.07.27 at 04:10 PM
correction: the shoe designed for run dmc in 88 was the ultrastar.
Posted by: rafi | 2005.07.27 at 04:20 PM
What ever the case is... hip-hop artists recently have just been in it to make a quick buck... most don't think about making a great album, they just put out a single that has a format that will most likely be played on the air...hip hop, for the most part, has lost its soul
Posted by: reyshizz | 2005.07.27 at 04:33 PM
Here we have another case of RAP fucking up and HIPHOP getting the Blame !!
RAP is the Commercialization of the Culture called HipHop
At the same time , It was the Dream of HipHop Culture to be accepted. So . . . .
Hate It or Love It . The Underdogs on Top
(To the Dim )The Underdog being HipHo
Posted by: Diggiti | 2005.07.27 at 04:51 PM
oh lordy
Posted by: rafi | 2005.07.27 at 04:56 PM
RUN DMC signed a $1.5 million contract with Adidas in 1986.
Posted by: eric | 2005.07.27 at 06:18 PM
> The shoe company snubbed RUN DMC and never compensated them for their marketing of the sneaker.
Glad everyone chimed in on this glaring errror in the above post. It's well known that Run DMC became the first paid non-athlete endorsers for adidas and were paid phenomenally well for doing so even by modern day standards. This story is well documented in the excellent "Just for Kicks" sneaker documentary.
Posted by: ian | 2005.07.28 at 12:34 AM
lyric correction, I think it's:
"I stepped on stage, at Live Aid
All the people gave, and the poor got paid"
Posted by: charliedigital | 2005.07.28 at 08:17 AM
No matter if they got paid or not. Adidas knows damn well they got away with robbery with that meager compensation. My point merely echoed that of the USA Today article....rappers are taking the place of atheletes as cultural icons....it's scary and will ultimately lead to the taming of hip-hop as many artist are already lapdogs for corporate America. Just waiting for the first emcee to start shoutin' Big Macs per the Boondocks comic strip.
Posted by: Terecico | 2005.07.28 at 12:10 PM
This is what you call growing pains. Hip Hop isn't the first and won't be the last genre of music, movies, books etc. that has ben influenced by the corporate world. The truth is the only people that can perserve hip hop is "US" support the few and far between artist that try to maintain the artform and not lookin for $$$$.
One
Donnell
Posted by: Donnell Bell | 2005.08.25 at 09:46 PM
"I think Hip Hop is caught between heaven and hell/like having an angel's wings with the devil's tail."
Posted by: Alvito | 2005.08.28 at 06:32 AM
hip hop is deade period.
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