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Kurtis Blow Remakes 'Basketball' for New DoorDash Campaign
Hit-Boy produces fresh version of the ode to hoops
“They’re playing basketball. We love that basketball.”
Hip-hop icon Kurtis Blow reimagines his 1984 “Basketball” anthem as the NBA kicks off a new season. DoorDash’s in-house creative studio Superette is behind the updated take and a fresh new music video.
It’s the remake we didn’t know we needed.
“Basketball 2.0” is here to court NBA and WNBA fans who need to know—or be reminded—that DoorDash is the Official On-Demand Delivery Platform Partner for both the NBA and the WNBA. The commerce platform recently renewed the partnership with the leagues for years to come.
The reason seems obvious, but we’ll ask the question: Why work with Blow on a reimagining of the best hoops ode of all time?
“As we enter a new era of basketball, we wanted to celebrate how the game has transformed over the years. Working with someone like Kurtis, whose song is synonymous with the game, was a no-brainer for us,” Eli Vélez, managing director at DoorDash, tells Muse. “As basketball continues to grow, especially on the WNBA side, we wanted to celebrate this moment in history and recreate a song for the modern era.”
Hit-Boy rerecorded the update with Blow, adding shout-outs to today’s NBA stars, and bringing in Lola Brooke to perform fresh lyrics devoted to the WNBA.
Directors Dave Meyers and his daughter Cassidy Meyers were recruited to shoot the video on location in New York City, casting Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart plus WNBA legend Sue Bird.
Here, we bounce some questions off of Vélez about the thinking behind and making of the song and music video:
MUSE: This project relied on Kurtis Blow being game for a reboot. How confident were you that he would say yes?
Eli Vélez: We were cautiously optimistic that Kurtis would say yes. Although we all believed in the power of this idea, we knew that he’s never remixed this song, so there was always a chance he would say no. We’re glad he agreed!
After we locked in Kurtis, we knew we had to pair him with some of the most talented people in the industry to modernize this song for today’s era of hip-hop. That led to tapping Grammy Award-winning record producer Hit-Boy, along with Brooklyn-born-and-raised rapper Lola Brooke.
What was it like to re-record with Kurtis?
It was an incredible process to collaborate with Kurtis and Hit-Boy. They are two legends from different generations, so to see them come together was a magical feeling. It was amazing to see the joy that Kurtis had getting back in the studio and reliving the original song 40 years ago.
Why update the lyrics?
We wanted to create the best song possible and be authentic for NBA, WNBA and hip-hop fans. In order to do this, our brand needed to take a back seat in the actual song and find creative ways to show up authentically.
Part of this included shouting out some of the stars of today, which Kurtis was completely on board with. The updated version gives nods to LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo. And we were thrilled to partner with Lola Brooke for a dedicated verse highlighting WNBA stars like Angel Reese, A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark and Sabrina Ionescu.
The original video was shot on a set. Dave and Cassidy Meyers took to the streets of New York to make this new version, shooting on a real basketball court. Why did you go that route?
Given that a lot of our talent is from New York or currently lives there, we wanted this to feel authentic to the basketball scene here.
There’s such a strong connection between the NBA, WNBA and streetball. So many players grew up playing the sport for the first time on courts like this. We wanted this to feel as close as possible to the courts that many past and present NBA and WNBA players grew up on all over the country.
Where was that basketball court? How did the locals react when they realized you were filming with Kurtis and Lola and the basketball stars?
This was filmed at the Martin F. Tanahey Basketball Courts on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. We tossed around the idea of shooting this at historic basketball courts in NYC such as Rucker Park. But we were afraid of drawing too much attention and having this leak before the music video dropped.
People were naturally curious, and funny enough, there was a photo that leaked one day after our shoot and was posted on a well-known local Instagram account. Luckily for us, our brand wasn’t mentioned, so we were able to keep it a surprise until we launched our campaign.
Although there is a lot of permitting that is required to shoot outside, there is some magic about the unpredictability that you just can’t recreate in a studio. There was even a moment around 2 or 3 p.m. when school got out, and kids lined up to watch us film. There’s something beautiful about NYC and the community here. It was cool to give people a little sneak peek at this video being made in their own backyard.
I love the scene where the basketballs rain down on the court. We also see VFX of basketballs spinning on fingers, dunks made with balls on fire and a backboard in flames. Why did you decide to incorporate these shots into the film?
One of the reasons we enlisted Dave and Cassidy is because of their artistic expression and how they’re able to take a concept and elevate all of the small details. We love this scene [of the basketballs raining down] not only because it’s visually striking, but it was an effective way to bring in more basketball cues.
In addition, a lot of what we’re thinking about at DoorDash is how we can make longer-form films work hard on social. The VFX edits gave us the opportunity to create snackable content during our teaser phase and build intrigue leading up to launch.
What was the one thing you had to get right to make this whole redo work?
Our goal was to never beat the original song from 1984. That was a different time for the world, basketball and hip-hop. Rather than beating it, we wanted to elevate and modernize the music video and song to reflect the current times.
Every detail was thought through thoroughly to ensure we were representing Kurtis, our brand, and our NBA and WNBA partnership in the best way.
Are you hearing “Basketball” in your head all the time now? I can’t get it out of my head now that I’ve watched the video a few times.
All the time! Not a bad problem to have, though.
