The Eleven Best Product Placements in Hip Hop History

Product placement in hip hop music goes all the way back to the beginning. What makes a “good” product placement? It’s the same criteria that makes anything in rap successful: originality, creativity, spontaneity, storytelling, and wit. 

Product placements can also be good or bad depending on the quality of the rhymes, songs, and albums they appear in.

You’ll notice, for example, that Jagged Edge and Nelly do not make the list with their shoutout to Bacardi in “Where the Party At?” The Bacardi reference in the chorus isn’t original or creative. It’s cliché. The song itself is just average. It’s a lame product placement. 

On the other hand, here are the eleven best product placements in hip hop history:

11. Product: Builder’s Square

Artist: Eminem

Song: “If I Had”

Album: “The Slim Shady LP”

Line: “I'm tired of using plastic silverware/ Tired of working at Builder’s Square/ Tired of not being a millionaire”

Comment: The song paints a portrait of a guy who’s similar to the main character in “8 Mile.” I like the reference to Builder’s Square, partly because it’s no longer around. Sometimes I get nostalgic for the stores that are disappearing or no longer exist. (See also: Kmart and Sears)

How badly I want the product after hearing the rhyme: 6/10. I don’t want to shop there, but I do want to walk into a Builder’s Square to experience the smell. Hardware stores used to have a unique odor. I think it was the combination of treated lumber and lawn chemicals.

Quality/memorability of the rhyme: 9/10

Overall song/album quality: 7/10. Eminem has some great songs, including this one, but I’m not in love with any of his albums in particular.

Product Placement Score: 22/30

10. Product: Sure deodorant

Artist: GZA

Song: “Livin’ in the World Today”

Album: “Liquid Swords”

Line: “Well if you like the way it sound then clap man/ And if the women love it too well then raise your hands/ But only raise your hands if you're sure/ Punk ******* shatter like a glass jaw”

Comment: “Raise your hand if you’re Sure” was the slogan for the Sure brand of deodorant during the 80’s and 90’s. The slogan sounds great in the chorus of a rap song.

How badly I want the product after hearing the rhyme: 5/10. I’m happy with my Old Spice.

Quality/memorability of the rhyme: 9/10. The shoutout to Sure deodorant is funny and I also appreciate the line about a glass jaw, which could very well be a reference to Glass Joe from the video game “Mike Tyson’s Punchout.” 

Overall song/album quality: 9/10. Great song on an indispensable Wu-Tang album.

Product Placement Score: 23/30

8. (2-way tie) Product: U-Haul

Artist: Kanye West

Song: “Touch the Sky”

Album: “Late Registration”

Line: “Now let's go, take 'em back to the plan/ Me and my momma hopped in that U-Haul van/ Any pessimists, I ain't talk to them/ Plus I ain't have no phone in my apart-a-ment”

Comment: Only Kanye would think up this rhyme. Most rappers leave you in the dark about how they got started making music. Kanye, in this song and in “Last Call” (on the album “The College Dropout”), takes us through all the ins and outs of how his career in music got started.

How badly I want the product after hearing the rhyme: 7/10. Nothing wrong with U-Haul. Nothing especially appealing about it, either. I rented a Penske truck once to do a move and a U-Haul truck another time. They were both fine.

Quality/memorability of the rhyme: 9/10. It’s the only time I’ve heard somebody rap about their mom helping them move. It’s nice. Also, Kanye’s silly delivery of “apart-a-ment” makes the forced rhyme funnier and easier to forgive.

Overall song/album quality: 8/10. “Touch the Sky” is an outstanding song, but the album is a bit of a dropoff from “The College Dropout.”

Product Placement Score: 24/30

8. Product: Lincoln Continental

Artist: The Beastie Boys

Song: “It’s the New Style”

Album: “License to Ill”

Line: “Went to the prom, wore the fly blue rental/ Got six girlies in my Lincoln Continental”

Comment: The nice thing about the enormous sedans of the 80’s was that you could squeeze in a lot of extra people if you wanted to. Six girlies might sound like a lot, but the car probably wasn’t even that crowded. Especially if the Lincoln Continental had a bench seat up front.

How badly I want the product after hearing the rhyme: 5/10. My family is a Chevy and Toyota family. Lincoln is a Ford product, which is a no-go for me. So I’d probably choose a Caprice Classic (with a bench seat up front).

Quality/memorability of the rhyme: 10/10. It’s an entertaining picture of the Beastie Boys’ prom experience. And something tells me that the folks who made the movie “Dumb and Dumber” might have drawn some inspiration from this rhyme when they had Jim Carrey’s character wear a vintage powder blue tux to the charity auction.

Overall song/album quality: 9/10. The sound is a bit dated, but the album is full of hits. “It’s the New Style” might be the Beastie Boys’ best song.

Product placement score: 24/30

5. (3-way tie) Product: Duracell batteries

Artist: A Tribe Called Quest

Song: “Skypager”

Album: “The Low End Theory”

Line: “The batteries I use are called Duracell/ They last for three weeks so they do me well/ Don't be going through no phases my joint stays on/ 24-7, from dusk ‘til dawn/ If you're in Costa Rica on a sunlit beach/ You greed for the Phifer, I can be reached”

Comment: Phife Dawg didn’t get as much credit as his partner in rhyme Q-Tip, but Phife was a gifted lyricist who wrote some of the best raps ever.

How badly I want the product after hearing the rhyme: 6/10. Phife makes me want to buy Duracells, but every time I shop for batteries, I look at the prices and end up buying the generic instead. If I had a pager that I needed to rely on, though, I might spring for the more dependable Duracells.

Quality/memorability of the rhyme: 10/10. These are the most sublime lines ever written about a pager.

Overall song/album quality: 10/10. This album is in rap’s top-five of all time.

Product Placement Score: 26/30

5. Artist: The Beastie Boys

Song: “Johnny Ryall”

Album: “Paul’s Boutique”

Line: “He drinks where he lies/ He's covered with flies/ He's got the hand me down Pumas and the tie dyes”

Comment: We get to know Johnny Ryall pretty well in this song. He wears a fresh Gucci watch, he goes around telling people he wrote “Blue Suede Shoes,” he drinks Olde English, he sometimes goes “upstate to get his head together,” he’s homeless, and most importantly, he wears hand me down Pumas.

How badly I want the product after hearing the rhyme: 8/10. If Pumas are good enough for Johnny, they’re good enough for me. 

Quality/memorability of the rhyme: 8/10. It’s a simple rhyme, but it gets the job done.

Overall song/album quality: 10/10. “Paul’s Boutique” is the best Beastie Boys album. The stories and rhymes are very good, but the barrage of classic samples put it on another level.

Product placement score: 26/30

5. Product: Hillshire Farms

Artist: Ghostface Killah 

Song: “Fish”

Album: “Ironman”

Line: “Grey Poupon is rebel on rap, smack pawns, swing like batons/ Most my ******* smoke like Hillshire Farms”

Comment: Ghostface and the Wu-Tang Clan are intense. They rhyme like it’s serious business. Yet a lot of what they’re rhyming about is kung fu flicks, video games, deli meats, and Dijon mustard. It’s fun.

How badly I want the product after hearing the rhyme: 9/10. My mouth is watering right now thinking about a ham sandwich. It doesn’t necessarily have to be Hillshire Farms ham, but I do want the sandwich.

Quality/memorability of the rhyme: 8/10. It’s a good simile about Hillshire Farms, even though it’s technically referring to two different kinds of smoking.

Overall song/album quality: 9/10. Great production value, quality rhymes. This is one of the standout tracks on a classic album.

Product Placement Score: 26/30

4. Product: Holiday Inn

Artist: The Sugarhill Gang

Song: “Rapper’s Delight”

Album: “The Sugarhill Gang”

Line: “Everybody go: Hotel, motel, Holiday Inn/ You see, if your girl starts acting up, then you take her friend”

Comment: It’s one of the first rap songs and one of the first product placements in a rap song. That’s a lofty perch for Holiday Inn to occupy. They’re right up there alongside Kaopectate antacid, which also gets a mention in “Rapper’s Delight.”

How badly I want the product after hearing the rhyme: 7/10. I never really want to go to a Holiday Inn, but I would never shudder at the idea, either.

Quality/memorability of the rhyme: 10/10. It’s iconic.

Overall song/album quality: 10/10. “Rapper’s Delight” samples “Good Times” by Chic. You cannot go wrong with that. It’s a trailblazing rhyme, song, and album. “Rapper’s Delight” is the Rosetta stone of rap.

Product Placement Score: 27/30

1. (3-way tie) Product: Mack trucks

Artist: 2-Pac

Song: “Shorty Wanna Be a Thug”

Album: “All Eyez on Me”

Line: “Straight from the hall to the pen/ Adolescent ******* scaling weight and standing six feet ten/ He carried weight like a Mack truck/ Gonna bust some playa haters/ If the ******* act tough”

Comment: Mack trucks carry a lot of weight. I’ve seen them do it. Shorty must have been a pretty large teenager.

How badly I want the product after hearing the rhyme: 8/10. I have no plans to drive a big rig, but if I did, I would want to drive none other than a Mack truck. 

Quality/memorability of the rhyme: 10/10. It’s the most memorable line from a memorable song on one of rap’s most memorable albums. In a just world, the Mack Truck Company would pay 2-Pac’s estate several million dollars for the advertising.

Overall song/album quality: 10/10

Product Placement Score: 28/30

1. Product: Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

Artist: The Fugees 

Song: “How Many Mics”

Album: “The Score”

Line: “Hands get calloused/ From grippin' microphones from here to Dallas/ Go ask Alice if you don't believe me/ I get Inner Visions like Stevie”

Comment: This song made me want to immediately track down and read the book Go Ask Alice. If Lauryn Hill rapped about it, I had to get the scoop. It turns out the book is insane. It’s like an episode of “The Brady Bunch” on drugs. Heavy drugs.

How badly I want the product after hearing the rhyme: 10/10

Quality/memorability of the rhyme: 9/10. The lines are kind of choppy, but that’s trademark Lauryn Hill. Her raps are unorthodox, but always smart and funny.

Overall song/album quality: 9/10. “The Score” captures the Fugees at the peak of their powers. It was a great team while it lasted.

Product Placement Score: 28/30

1. Product: Mazda MPV minivan

Artist: Wu-Tang Clan

Song: “C.R.E.A.M.”

Album: “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)”

Line: “Catchin' keys from across seas/ Rollin’ in MPV's, every week we made forty G's”

Comment: Not many rappers have bragged about rollin’ in a Mazda MPV, which was a mid-tier minivan in the 90’s. Leave it to the Wu-Tang Clan to brag about rollin’ in a Mazda MPV.

How badly I want the product after hearing the rhyme: 8/10. I said before that my family is a Chevy and Toyota family, but an MPV? I always liked how it was the only minivan that had hinged rear doors instead of the typical sliding door. I wonder if that was a unique feature that drew the Wu-Tang Clan to the MPV.

Quality/memorability of the rhyme: 10/10. They’re making 40 G’s per week, but they’re still driving around in an MPV? Impressive. They’re so busy making money that they have no time to go out and purchase a more upscale vehicle.

Overall song/album quality: 10/10. The whole album is timeless. If an alien landed on planet earth and asked me to explain rap to them, I would hand them a copy of “36 Chambers.”

Product Placement Score: 28/30

Did I miss an iconic product placement from hip hop history? Please let me know in the comments.