It just might be the most famous 1987 Cutlass Supreme in the country right now. Dark black, 23-inch rims, Nike swoosh, the number 23 on each side and “Witness” spelled out in bright white letters on each door.
The Witnessmobile hit the web in local rapper A. Gully’s homemade
music video — a love song to LeBron, the Cavs and Cleveland.
Gully (real name: Austin Briggs) went viral the past few weeks, with
the video landing on just about every sports blog imaginable, local
network news filing stories, and screaming and waving people on the
street as he cruises around in the unofficial rolling Nike
billboard.
Predictably, the initial wave of interest waned, and pretty soon the
backlash started: insults about his rapping, cheap shots at the car,
punny plays on Nike’s catchphrase, like “We are all douchebags” aimed
in Gully’s direction. Why not? Gully presents an easy target. Young
white rapper. Gimmicky video. Musically, not terrific.
If you knew that before the Witness paint job, the Cutty —
which Gully bought for $1,000 — was decked out in an artistic
homage to Rally’s, you might think differently. No, really, it makes
sense. See, Gully had a mixtape called You Gotta Eat, and the
Kent State entrepreneurial major went about marketing himself the only
way he could think of — by tying his brand to a more recognizable
one. “I started driving it around, and eventually one of the Rally’s
franchise owners paid me,” says Gully, 22. “Suddenly the car was in
parades.”
Marketing, baby. Branding. Creativity. Next step, tie himself to a
bigger brand, or two — Nike and the Cavs. And a minor Internet
sensation was born.
Look at the Witness car and all the recent attention. Yes, it comes
off as a ploy. It has a one-hit-wonder flavor to it. Without the Cavs’
success and the interminable days off following the sweeps of Detroit
and Atlanta, maybe this story would have received a whole lot less
attention. Even now, most media outlets have had their fill, the
stories getting sparser by the day.
The collective memory of the Internet is pretty damn short, and once
the playoffs are over, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if we never
heard from the Witness car or Gully again. The deck is stacked against
anyone wanting to break into the rap game, so there’s no need to delve
into the obstacles Gully faces. Who the hell knows if he’ll develop the
talent and connections, and be graced with the luck, to make a name for
himself in the music business.
It wouldn’t surprise me, though.
As the Cavs square off against the Orlando Magic in the Eastern
Conference Semifinals, Gully has just finished a week of finals at Kent
State. Three grades in already — three As, right in line with his
3.88 GPA. He’ll be a junior next year, but he’s already the fundraising
chair for Kent State’s Collegiate Business Association.
So mock him all you want. The Witness video? Gully edited it
himself, the first time he’d ever done that. The camera? Straight out
of Rent-A-Center. The car? Probably the star, and the only reason most
people are talking about the video. But that paint job was marketing
genius.
That’s probably not what Gully wants to hear. He wants to be known
for his music, letting his rhymes do the work. He gets defensive when
asked if he thinks the Witnessmobile is a gimmick.
It is and it isn’t. It’s a vehicle — literally and
metaphorically. If that’s what it takes to get people to listen to his
raps, then so be it. It’s freaking brilliant. And, not to ascribe too
much to his former life as a Rally’s ad, but when you have a track
record of doing quirky things that people pay attention to, “gimmicky”
stops being a derogative statement. It’s an attribute.
When it’s suggested that maybe the rap thing isn’t going to work out
for Gully, that maybe his KSU degree and marketing skills will be more
useful one day, he dismisses the idea.
“I want to do the music thing,” says Gully. “The creative part is
what I love to do. A lot of kids that get into this, they don’t know
the business side. They don’t know how to make deals or negotiate, and
they fail. I want to control the destiny on the business side.”
Luckily, he’s got that set of skills locked up.
Despite all the exposure of the past couple of weeks, there’s
nothing much to report on Gully’s music career. No new contacts from
labels. No deals. He’ll be all around Cleveland during the Magic
series, driving the car, hosting parties and working. And to the
naysayers, he says, “I hope they see the bigger picture. It wasn’t just
a one-time thing. We’ve got some spins on 107.9, and people knew me
before the car. I’m working hard.”
This article appears in May 20-26, 2009.
u selln it?