HBO has an interesting marketing strategy to increase the viewer reach of Game of Thrones. According to The Wall Street Journal, they've hired 10 hip-hop and Latin-music artists to rap about the series on a 10-song mixtape dubbed Catch The Throne. Among those they've enlisted are Wale, Big Boi, Daddy Yankee, Common and Bodega Bamz. The project will feature the artists rapping and singing about sword fights, fire-breathing dragons and more over beats made from samples from the show. It will be released for free online March 7.
The purpose of the project, according to WSJ, is to reach out the show's "urban" audience, a demographic that includes African-Americans and Latinos. HBO declined to tell them how much the project cost.
This isn't the first time hip-hop and cinema have collided. Common compares the mixtape to the hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, which featured audio samples and dialogue from Chinese action movies and referenced martial-arts methods.
"Twenty years ago, Wu-Tang was breaking ground," Common told them. "Nowadays, people are open to anything. There are no limitations to hip-hop culture."
Here are a few sample lyrics:
"I'm tellin' whoever messin' with me / I can bring you that Khaleesi heat." -- Wale
"Dungeons, dragons kings and queens!" -- Big Boi
"I sit and think when I'm in my zone / This life is like a Game of Thrones." -- Common
Check out the trailer for Season 4, which begins April 6, while you wait for mixtape to drop. Let us know what you think in the comments section below!
