Still taken from 'Hold The Crown'. Photo via YouTube
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In what is apparently a marketing strategy, HTC has released a hip-hop track and accompanying video that sees rapper Doc G run through the merits of owning one of the smartphone manufacturer’s devices while simultaneously firing shots at Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy S5.
The video for ‘Hold The Crown’ features the MC and an uncomfortable-looking David Bruce (HTC’s marketing manager) performing to camera with the backing of a couple of guys dressed-up as giant HTC phones. It’s an all-round cringy effort, though the problem here isn’t so much the concept as it is the execution. The song itself is awful – a taken from the shelves trap rap beat that grates on the ear, featuring a less-than-fluid rapper in Doc G. The video, meanwhile, is cheap and amateurish. We’ve seen 16-year-old Chicago kids cut more visceral rap videos than this on what I’m sure is a fraction of the budget.
The whole thing must be a gag of some sort, but ‘Hold The Crown’ isn’t self-aware enough to be enjoyable in an it’s-so-bad-it’s-good kind of way and lyrics like, “We own the universe, your Galaxy is overrated,” fall flat. How can we really believe HTC are the brand to go with over Samsung, for example, when they’ve been happy to attach their name to such a trash project?!
‘Hold The Crowd’ is below, along with a video interview with Doc G via The Verge.
