Artist of the Week:
Pusha T

Epic hip-hop feuds make for the best urban legends, some fantastic music . . . and pumped up record sales. It’s a formula that’s worked since before Tupac and Biggie, and the most recent chapter of Pusha T and Drake’s decade+ long beef is no exception. Late last week, the internets were abuzz after Pusha dropped his latest diss track, The Story of Adidon, on YouTube. It grabbed 2.5 million views in the first day and, as of now, sits at close to 14 million.

As expected, fans were divided, taking sides and taking to Twitter. And as designed (?), the track sparked a lot of conversation around the hot topic of race. No doubt, that buzz impacted sales in a big way. The album, Daytona, entered the U.S. Billboard 200 at number 3, with 77,000 copies sold in its first week (compared to his last album that peaked at number 17). So was this all an artfully calculated PR stunt or simply creative expression that happened to hit at the right time and right place? I’m going with the former. In every product category today, getting attention takes more creativity and mold-breaking ideas and executions than ever. Not saying we need to start more feuds with our competition, but we more straight-laced marketers could probably learn a little something from the hip-hop world about grabbing an audience’s attention. Read on and see what you think:

The Pusha T vs. Drake Beef Explained

How Kanye & Pusha T Quietly Flipped the Script on Album Promos