Then some scrawny little guys dressed in oversized hip-hop clothes scamper onto their rooftop turf, dragging up an unusual assortment of equipment: turntables, speakers, a basketball goal. They set up a mixer and start booming out heavy rhythms, as the basketball court rises to the sky. The game is on.
It’s the shoot of the new music video for "Neva Lose", Dice and K9’s new single, and the theme song for Level Up! Philippines’ runaway blockbuster online game FreeStyle, which premieres on your favorite music channels this Thursday.
But let’s dial back in time a little bit.
January 2, 2006. Level Up! quietly launched its first online street basketball game. Within less than two months, the game racks up over a million subscribers, with the bulk of them from the southern Philippines. With Internet cafes from north to south filled with eager youngsters trash-talking into their keyboards and monitors, the popularity of the Korean theme song started to rise, as well.
Monday, 6 a.m.
I’m asking myself what I’m doing on a rooftop in a cramped area of Barangay Pitogo in Guadalupe Nuevo this early in the morning, with the growing skyline of Fort Bonifacio in the background. The sun’s just starting to get going, and we’ll soon be toast. A video production crew is setting up giant umbrellas, monitors and reflectors, and the caterer sets up shop. A huge mural FreeStyle mural looks down on the street below. Dancers, the And1 Flip Ballaz, some sexy models and technical personnel are just waiting to roll. A common scene in an uncommon place.
"All the players love the song," reveals Mike Constantino, Level Up! business unit director for FreeStyle. "So we got this year’s hip-hop artist of the year, Dice and K9, to give it a Filipino flavor. We’re also going to launch it as a single of Dice and K9."
In addition, the dueling portion of the video will feature the miniscule Flip Ballaz trying to dazzle three stratospheric veterans of the UST Growling Tigers, who were on loan from new head coach Pido Jarencio. That adds to the local flavor even more.
"We have every intention of making it as Filipino hip-hop as possible," Constantino continues. "Hot girls and ballers and stuff will be there, but as you will see, there are a lot of Filipino nuances."
"We went to Level Up! and presented our own DVD," says Niño Ventura, leader of the And1 Flip Ballaz, whose surprising brand of free style street basketball has made them popular performers are sporting events and live shows. "Then they called us for the shoot of their new video. We’re just going to do some exhibition dribbling, do our thing, you know."
Online, you can dress up all you players in a wide assortment of hip-hop clothes, with loud music blaring in the background. It was only natural that a group like Dice and K9 would translate the Korean theme song with a Pinoy touch.
"We did a different song, but they asked us to maintain the theme song, since a lot of the young cats out there already know it," says Dice. "It wasn’t that hard. We just had to come up with lyrics about playin’ basketball. It was fast and easy."
"It just took us a few hours," says Hi-C, the group’s lone female member. "It was a lot of fun."
Level Up! is hoping that the combination of local staples basketball, hip-hop and street atmosphere will catapult awareness of FreeStyle to another level.
"Music marketing has always worked for our games," cites Constantino. "We launched ‘Rok On’ for Ragnarok, and we’re using the same model for FreeStyle. It makes the game more viral. People who aren’t necessarily gamers or fans of hip-hop or basketball will see the video, and be curious about the game."