"Everybody Knows He Ain't Just Tought, He's Strong"

Hang with me for a min as I take a trip off the usual Hip Hop/EDM wagon. Unbeknownst to a lot of you, I've been a huge Will Hoge fan for about a decade now, which goes contrary to me disliking country music as a genre. To be fair, I wouldn't really classify Will as a country singer. In my eyes, he's a southern rock artist who is really good at crafting ballads. His southern twang sure makes his music sound country at times, but in the same way I jive with Kid Cudi because he makes sad and at times moody music, I feel the same way about The Man Who Killed Love.

Even though Will's most recent recognition by the music industry came in the form of a Grammy nomination as a songwriter, he can still make great music himself. Case in point his new single, Strong, that you may have already heard in the latest Chevrolet commercial...

Pretty cool to hear the story behind how one thing led to another and then his track ends up on the desk on someone at Chevy, then book got the opportunity to be the music behind their new 2014 campaign. After listening to the track, you'll understand why Chevy jumped at it. It has damn near every adjective that you could think of that you'd associate with the brand and he even mentions trucks in the song. Sure, it almost drifts uncomfortably close to country for my tastes, but if you gave a listen to the modern day classic that is Blackbird on a Lonely Wire, you'd understand why I will forever be a Will Hoge supporter...#SilveradoStrong

Will Hoge - Strong

GoPro Commercial with Tom Wallisch

95% of the time commercials on TV are too loud and generally annoying...especially during election years. That being said, in my eyes, marketing departments have the ability to make an impression through the music they choose. Case in point, GoPro's new commercial with professional skiier @TWallisch managed to get my attention...

It's a simple EDM track by @MichaelMayeda that perfectly fits the 3D action happening in the commercial. The key to music in commercials is matching the tempo and choosing a genre of music that suits the interaction in the commercial. Well done GoPro, your marketing department has earned a shout out tonight --->This camera is awesome!

Michael Mayeda - Perfect Ending (Original Mix)(iTunes)

New Apple iPod Bounce Commercial Song

Continuing to be a market leader in mp3 player sales as a computer company can't be an easy thing to do. Like many other people I wonder if Apple can continue to push the limits of innovation and design without Steve Jobs. Sure selling over 5 million iPhone 5's in the past month indicates the demand is still there, but what will be different going forward?

To start with, how about a speaker rocking iPod commercial that will get everyone's attention with bright products? If you haven't seen it, check the volume right quick, then hit play...

Not many people know that @itswillymoon released Yeah Yeah back in May, but kudos to Apple for picking out this diamond in the rough. iTunes link below if you want to take it home with you and wake the kids up Apple style...#PumpUptheVolume

Willy Moon - Yeah Yeah
|iTunes

Madonna and LMFAO Party Rock the Super Bowl

Going into last night's Super Bowl, I had very low expectations for the event and game as a whole. So I did what any other American would do and gamble to make it interesting. I had posted a couple times this past week how much I really wished both teams could lose because Giants rank up there with world's most annoying fan base and The Pats...let's just say they're always favored so what's the point of cheering for them unless you're from Boston? Needless to say I was mostly paying attention to watch the entertaining, buzz-generating commercials while simultaneously following up on the mostly random single dollar wagers I had made on various *mostly random* events like who wins the coin toss, who gets the first sack, how many field goals total, how many beer commercials, etc. Despite not winning one random bet the whole night (hard to do) and witnessing an extremely boring game (serious lack of exciting plays), I'd say the halftime show was a big bright spot.

Put it this way, when you follow the Black Eyed Peas from last year, it can be nothing but better. Still, Madonna wasn't all that enticing of a draw to me and I figured it would be mostly oldies that would keep the 30 and older crowd happy and give women a decent reason to pay attention while all the men completely disregarded the show. Before I comment, if you haven't watched the twelve minute and change halftime show, please feel free to press play below. I waded through countless terrible quality videos to find the decent one below, so feel free to appreciate if you'd like...

Yep, I didn't see all those cameos coming out of left field and I sure as hell didn't think she'd mix in much more than the oldies. I couldn't have been more wrong as @nickyminaj, @_m_i_a_, @ceelogreen and @lmfao joined her on stage for what ended up being a really solid, high energy halftime show. I'm not one to give effusive praise to a performance that I didn't think was going to be good from the start, but this would be the exception to the rule.

Even better, a remix of Madonna's lead single off her new album MDNA (due out March 26th) seemed to have surfaced in the past day, piggy backing the hype surrounding their performance last night. Hey might as well get it while the gettin' is good right? To be honest, I'm not a big fan of the middle school cheerleader anthem sounding original version of Give Me All Your Lovin', but I won't hesitate to rock out to the remix. Don't be shy with it shake your junk to it like the naked M&M last night...#BestCommercial

Madonna feat LMFAO - Give Me All Your Lovin (Remix)
|iTunes

Machine Gun Kelly is Invincible With His Dre Beats On

If you're like me, then you saw the commercial below a few times and wondered who in the hell is the dude spittin' like his life is about to end if he doesn't tear apart a hot 16...

Lo and behold it was your boy @MACHINEGUNKELLY, who just won MTV's Hottest Breakthrough Artist Award. Can't hate on bit on the organic reaction of him finding out the news he won. Good god the way this is dude from Cleveland is blowing up, he's on track to live up to the @eminem comparisons that are sure to come. There's something about rappers that emerge from making minimum wage to a point where they fought tooth and nail (with performances like this) their way to the top with the way they weave words together on the mic. The appreciation he has shown for every bit of success he has garnered thus far is really cool to watch and easy for me as a blogger to support.

Man I'm really at a loss for how to explain to you guys dope this track is. Usually I can throw together a few adjectives that come to mind when listening to the song as I write, but I'm at a total loss. From the start, before listening to the whole track, I knew it was going to be epic when I saw @AlexDaKid produced the track. There hasn't been a song that he has done the past year that hasn't risen to the top. The best words I can come up with to describe MGK's delivery on Invincible are vigorous, relentless, and fierce...but I'm still feeling like I'm underselling the raw emotion he bleeds all over this track. Add to that the blatant Dre Beats push both on the HTC Rezound commercial and also in the first verse "But I can’t feel nothin’, outside these Dre Beats". @iamdiddy is not a fool and there's good reason why he went all out to win the bidding war for MGK's talents.

This is only the beginning folks and to be honest, I got just as hype to this song at the gym today when I put it on repeat as I did when Lose Yourself came out. For those of you thinkin' that I'm just gassing you up, press play below...then we'll talk...#DoItIDareYou

Machine Gun Kelly feat Ester Dean - Invincible (prod by Alex da Kid)

|iTunes

X Games Now Embracing Hip Hop Culture

Maybe it's because @travisbarker has been crossing over to Hip Hop of late? Maybe it's because young, up and coming artists like @Yelawolf enjoy rubbing shoulders with the BMX crowd? Or if you're gonna go back to the beginning, what about Kick, Push by @LupeFiasco?

Whatever it is, if you would have asked me even 5 years ago if we'd hear @ghostfacekillah ferociously spitting bars over a @JustBlaze beat with halfpipe highlights running on the background, I might have told you to ease up on that lean. In case you missed the commercial, feel free to press play and enjoy the trippy animation below...

Off Ghost's 2006 album Fishscale, it's pretty clear The Champ never really got it's due for being the standout track it is. As such, dap is in line for the folks at the four letter network for unearthing the under appreciated classic and being unafraid to cement the bridge between Hip Hop and X Games. For those of you googling to find out what track it was in the commercial, hopefully you're not disappointed with where you ended up, I gotcha back. Feel free and cop it a couple different ways below and drag that somb itch to iTunes like I did...#CardioWorthyTrack

Ghostface Killah - The Champ (prod by Just Blaze)

|iTunes