I took a break and went to see a movie yesterday and there I saw it; My favorite acoustic blues group G-Love and Special Sauce leading a remix of the old Hilltop “Teach the world to sing” coke commercial. Only this time they were teaching the world to “chill” holding Coke Zero bottles on a Philly rooftop at sunset. (you can see the commercial here if you haven’t seen it already. You can also download the song and the ringtones for your phone.)
Several things ran through my mind:
1. Cool. Good to see G-Love getting some mainstream exposure after all these years.
2. He’s gonna catch a lot of crap for “selling out.”
3.Why didn’t they just have him sing “Cold Beverages?”
4.I wish they’d play it again. I’ll Google it later.
G-Love is his own thing. He raps, yeah, but he imitates nobody. After several decades, rap is no longer a genre of music unto itself. People sing in all sorts of genres and nobody refers to it as “singing music.” Rap can and is being incorporated into all sorts of other types of music beyond hip-hop. A white blues guy who raps like G-Love owes a debt to the black pioneers of the rap form but don’t compare him to them. So far as I know, there is no one out there doing acoustic blues with rap as well or as long as G-Love and Special Sauce. If there is, I’d love it if you’d enlighten me.
He hasn’t sold out either. Yet. Any long time listener knows that the commerical totally reflects his vibe and, of course, he loves Cold Beverages. It’s a perfect fit. I just hope it doesn’t go so far it becomes self-parody.
For those of you that are crying “sell-out”, those of you that think that all rap must be hip-hop, or especially all you posers that think anything not from your avant-garde ultrahip corner of the music world is lame, you need to listen to my man G-Love and just chill. Coke Zero is optional.
wellthereyougo 
I thought the same thing when i saw that commercial! I love the song, and I can’t find where to download it at. Would you send me a link or something?
The link is in the post above. The song is at the Coke Zero site.
I wouldn’t care if G. Love was featured on a Coke commercial if it weren’t for the blatant kind of hypnotism Coca Cola attempts to utilize. Let’s take a funky whiteboy, some actors, give them trendy clothes and put them on a rooftop and have them sing. We’ll take that image and align it with our random product so people will think, “wow, peace + cool = coca cola!” Give me a break, it’s all hypnotism. sadly, g love whored himself out to a corporation to make some money when he already made a decent living playing shows and selling cds. that’s what we call a sell out. simple as that. that’s just my feelings on it. I haven’t heard enough G. Love to judge his talent, but I still think this commercial is lame as hell. By the way, have you tried Coke Zero? It tastes AWFUL. :-p
Well, you’d have to apply that standad to all artists and celebrities who do commercials. I agree with you on the evils of advertising — it’s all a form of subtle hypnotism. But are you willing to say that *all* artists who’ve done commercials are whoring themselves out and are unworthy artists because of it?
I know enough G-Love from his earlier days to know that his material for the commercial is true to his own personal art. He did not adulterate his own artistic integrity to make this commercial. Heck, he made the commercial in Philly with real Philadelphians. And they even let him sit down and play his guitar like he always does even while everybody else is standing. I bet the producers hated that.
Check out Mason Jennings “Bullet” for a better idea of what music should be like
sold out to one of the worst corporations on the planet for human rights violations. see http://www.knowmore.org & search “coke.” G Love has a responsibility to do better.