barrettSF Brings Rap Duo Blackalicious Back into the Studio for Bleacher Report

Full-service agency barrettSF has developed its first work for Bleacher Report, a division of Turner Sports, bringing rap duo Blackalicious into the studio to remix their iconic “Alphabet Aerobics” hit with new sports lyrics, and turning the resulting track into an animated music video. The work airs on TNT during the Oklahoma City Thunder-Miami Heat game December 3rd.  barrettSF won the account this summer, and this will be Bleacher Report’s first foray into brand advertising.   

Just like the original “Alphabet Aerobics,” Blackalicious’s new “#SportsAlphabet” rap intensifies in speed as it runs through the ABCs, now riffing on football, basketball and everything else sport.  
From Bleacher Report’s General Manager, Dorth Raphaely: “The Bleacher Report brand is getting bigger and louder, so we wanted to create a spot that was… big and loud.”   

Gentlemen Scholar stepped up to animate the music video with 26 different styles, one for each letter of the alphabet. Everything from alley cats serving up alley oops to each other for “A,” to a 3D hockey goon getting a puck through his mouth for the letter “G.”   

“This project is about collaboration and risk,” says Pete Harvey, Executive Creative Director of barrettSF. “Bleacher Report is sticking themselves out there with a film that rewrites the sports alphabet, and asked us, alongside Gentlemen Scholar, to surprise people with the execution.”