'The Living Tracklist' from Sprite and Genius Celebrates Hip-Hop's Evolution

Are these the genre's 50 most impactful songs?

Few marketers go as far back with hip-hop as Sprite. In 1986, the soda cast Kurtis Blow in one of the first mainstream TV commercials to spotlight rap music. Through the intervening years, luminaries like HeavyD, A Tribe Called Quest, Missy Elliot and Drake have helped hype the brand.

That makes the soda’s summer splash—a “Living Tracklist” collab with Genius, the song-lyric database—feel especially on-point.

Sprite and Genius convened a Cultural Authority Panel consisting of industry heavyweights Angie Martinez, Speedy Morman, Scottie Beam, Nyla Symone, Rob Markman, Josh Peas and Frazier Tharpe. That group helped shape the campaign, which includes a Spotify playlist of 50 key songs.

There’s also collectible packaging and content built around some of rap’s most famous tracks, bringing their words into focus. By turns, hip-hop’s messages have proven hard-hitting, hyperbolic and often hilarious. This push shows the depth and breadth of the art form, highlighting lines and phrases that cut through the clutter and hyper-charged the imaginations of recent generations.

“Hip-hop’s legacy is written in its lyrics—they capture the stories, perspectives and moments that continue to resonate across generations,” says Genius revenue chief Jackie Vignone.

With that in mind, the campaign “is a celebration of the songs that helped shape the genre and its influence over the last 60 years. We’re inviting fans to revisit these iconic tracks, explore the stories behind them and join the conversation around the music that continues to inspire and drive culture today.”

Check out this clip for a lengthy and fascinating discussion among the expert panelists on rap’s rich legacy and future:

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Some insights from the video:

• “We weren’t taken seriously as a genre, as a culture, even as a business and now we’re at this place where hip-hop generates so much revenue and creates generational wealth for our culture,” says Markman (who’s both a rapper and Genius VP).
• “I want to just make an argument for Soulja Boy and say ‘Crank Dat.’ I think that really ushered in a new generation of music, specifically in terms of marketing, using the internet in a certain way. He’s a guy who doesn’t get a lot of credit, and people tend to try to laugh at him. But … Soulja Boy really was a very impactful person in hip-hop,” offers Morman.
• “I feel like people are so hard on Cardi,” adds Martinez. “It’s not easy to be at the forefront of anything these days. [Cardi B] speaks her opinions, she makes her music, and she lives her life out loud. It’s not the same climate as it was for some of these other artists. Queen Latifah didn’t have to deal with some of the things that Cardi and other women have to deal with now, in terms of the way the media treats women.”

These tracks are repped on Sprite cans and bottles:

• “Rapper’s Delight” (1970s)
• “The Payback” (1970s),
• “Me, Myself and I” (1980s)
• “C.R.E.A.M.” (1990s)
• “U.N.I.T.Y.” (1990s)
• “Big Poppa” (1990s)
• “Shook Ones, Pt. II” (1990s)
• “Crush on You” (1990s)
• “Superthug”
• “Still Not a Player” (1990s)
• “Insane in the Brain” (1990s)
• “California Love” (1990s)
• “My Name Is” (1990s)
• “Bling Bling” (1990s)
• “Southern Hospitality”
• “Grindin” (2000s)
• “Back Then” (2000s)
• “Country Grammar” (2000s)
• “Crank That” (2000s)
• “Drop It Like It’s Hot” (2000s)
• “Super Bass” (2010s)
• “Bodak Yellow” (2010s)
• “March Madness” (2010s)
• “Norf Norf” (2010s)
• “Magnolia” (2010s)
• “TGIF” (2020s)

“Sprite has been with the culture and of the culture since day one,” says Chris Keyes, the brand’s director of creative + strategy for North America. “The ‘Living Tracklist’ is the truest expression of that commitment to intentionality. It wasn’t dreamed up in a boardroom, but in collaboration with the people and partners who shape the culture every day.”

Indeed, Sprite’s street cred makes this one feel like a natural fit. It should amplify the brand’s standing in a community it’s long championed while attracting new fans (to both the soft drink and music that helped shape global culture for the past 50 years).

The campaign ecosystem includes a Genius-hosted microsite with stories behind the 50 tracks plus a sweepstakes, OOH elements and outreach across digital, audio and social channels.