The Job
Create a digital and social friendly video that features a mix of Ari Melber and his guests hip-hop lyrical mentions, drops, shoutouts and tributes that have occurred on The Beat.
The video(s) will be designed to highlight Ari’s original usage of Hip Hop lyrics and truisms to provide context to today’s news and give fans of The Beat and hip-hop a fun piece of sharable video to highlight part of what makes The Beat fun, different and appealing to younger and more diverse viewers.
Creative Territories:
concept one
Scratch rapping
a playful boast.
First, let’s get a great mixtape DJ. Somebody like DJ Rectangle,
to mix together a handful of Ari’s hip hop references in a way that
re-contextualizes them into a playful boast.
DJ Rectangle
Example Mix >>
We'll edit Ari’s on-camera clips together.
Plus, splice in some dj footage for flavor.
We'll license an instrumental track as the music bed (perhaps a beat from Mobb Deep’s Havoc, who has appeared on the show: “Shook Ones” or “Survival of the Fittest”)
a script might look like this:
(Based on the sample in the brief)
Fat Joe: What’s goin on man??!!
Charlamagne: Ari what’s happening
Ari: The BEAT and you know what that means
Ari: You can’t listen to me talk and go tell my story
Ari: Every time I come in the booth -- the truth
Fat Joe: YO
Ari: ‘I ain't gotta talk it ‘cause I live it.’
Fat Joe: We got Fat Joe with Ari!!
Ari: Keep my name out your mouth
Dave East: Watch what y’all saying
Ari: Don’t you know I’m loco’
Ari: ‘I am whatever you say I am
Fat Joe: HAHAHA
Ari: Fall BACK
Ari: All my diamonds shining
Ari: Every time I speak they record it. . .
now when we eat we eat bigger portions
Havoc: We gonna get it
Ari: The street is watching
Ari: Can’t stop won’t stop
Ari: The Beat…
concept TWO
GREATEST HITS
Let’s recreate an old school album promo video
Ari Melber’s “Greatest Hits.” We’re thinking something like
We’ll treat Ari’s hip hop references as “songs,” and include featured guest appearances by 50 Cent, Fat Joe, French Montana, Havoc and more. We can even treat the video with a grainy VHS look to make it feel like something you’d see at 3pm in the afternoon on USA circa 1997.
We should even press some Vinyl LP's to sell.
concept THREE
Stretch & BoBBITO
feature | ARI
Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia are the most influential hip hop radio DJs of all time.
In the late eighties and early nineties, Stretch and Bob hosted a radio show on Columbia University’s WKCR that featured the first public appearances by a who’s who of hip hop’s golden age: Nas, Biggie, Jay-Z, Wu Tang, Fugees…the list goes on and on.
Tapes of their shows are still highly sought-after collector’s items. Stretch and Bob were recently subjects of the acclaimed documentary Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives.
They now host a popular podcast on NPR: “What’s Good with Stretch & Bobbito.”
In honor of the one-year anniversary of The Beat,
We will recreate their show:
Let’s have Stretch and Bob (who have appeared on Ari’s show) recreate their show with a one-time-only freestyle cypher featuring the popular rappers Ari has hosted on The Beat:
Havoc
50 Cent
Fat Joe
Talib Kweli
We’ll prompt each rapper with a theme to celebrate Ari’s one year anniversary, and provide a little commentary on the current political landscape.
<< Production-wise,
we can keep it lo-fi in a studio setting, similar to how Hot 97 releases their freestyles.
concept FOUR
RAP GENIUS
Ari Melber, Rap Genius
In honor of the one-year anniversary of The Beat, let’s curate an interview between Ari and his favorite rapper, (which judging by the volume of references dropped on his show, we’re guessing is…) Jay-Z.
To elevate this interview, let’s partner with Genius, the lyric annotation site, to allow the other artists Ari has quoted on his show to provide context around their words.
For reference, check out this interview between Kendrick Lamar and Rick Rubin for GQ, which also incorporated Genius annotations from Herbie Hancock, Eminem and more.
concept FIVE
SPOTIFY DJ
Ari Melber, Spotify DJ
Let’s have Ari curate a Spotify playlist comprised of political hip hop tunes. These can be drawn exclusively from the songs Ari has referenced on air, or just a handful of his favorites.
*We can film a video component to the Spotify playlist whereby Ari explains each selection and what the song means to him and the broader political context.
We can also explore ways for fans watching the show at home to get involved. Ari can prompt fans to tweet @TheBeatWithAri to guess what songs he references in the broadcast. The first fan to guess correctly can win some cool swag from the Beat (maybe even an actual pressed vinyl record!).
