A few days ago, Prince Royce dropped his latest video for his single “Back It Up” featuring Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull. The video is pretty standard and the lyrics are cliche at best; J.Lo and Prince Royce coo “damelo, papi chulo” and “back, back, back it up” at one another between poolside shots, choreographed dance scenes, and… hold up, scenes featuring Beluga Vodka?
It seems like the latest trend in pop music is to simply just advertise products immediately with new singles. Gone are the days when million dollar endorsements were just a pop artist’s face next to a product. These days, their music is also part of the branding deal. I can’t help but feel how very 2015 this all is: one could draw parallels to PC Music’s QT, whose image and music is a metaphor for a $20 can of soda. Or Sophie’s latest release with Mad Decent’s Liz, which debuted to the world in a Samsung commercial for their latest phone.
And so it’s come to this: the 26 year old Latin music star, selling us a seemingly expensive brand of Russian vodka; one I’ve never actually seen at a club or bar. I kind of wish he would go back to making bachata.