Drs. Dre and Pepper Team in Fake-Doctor Collaboration

As NWA continues to un-do all the anger and ferocity they brought us in the late eighties (see: Are We There Yet?), Dr. Dre is in the works to give fans a taste  of two new delicious things — a clip from his new album Detox and the refreshing taste of Dr. Pepper.

As part of the soda’s “Take it from me, I’m a doctor” advertising campaign, a snippet from Dre’s long-delayed album, reportedly from a track entitled “Shit Popped Off,” can be heard as Dre strolls through a party, usurps the DJ, places a can on the spinning record and slows down the music. Admittedly, the “Take it from me, I’m a doctor” line will likely work more strongly with the general public than the tagline “Dr. Pepper: Popping Shit Off.”

This isn’t the first time Dr. Pepper has tied-in with a music release, but they’re hoping this collaboration will prove more successful than their last, which promised a free can of Dr. Pepper to everyone in America if and when Guns n’ Roses Chinese Democracy was released. It dropped in November 2008, with Dr. Pepper unable to handle the overload of Americans wanting their free cans, prompting Axl Rose’s lawyer to write a missive to the corporation stating “the redemption scheme your company clumsily implemented for this offer was an unmitigated disaster which defrauded consumers and, in the eyes of vocal fans, ‘ruined’ the day of Chinese Democracy’s release.”

Whether it’s true that Dr. Pepper “ruined” the release of Chinese Democracy can be argued (general consensus is just that the overhyped album was just terrible), what can’t be denied is that what the soda has implemented is an interesting mesh of music and marketing. Because let’s face it, Guns n’ Roses and Dr. Dre are certainly odd pitchmen for a soft drink conglomerate. Perhaps we’ll even see a future track from Dre touting “I’m a Peppa, you a Peppa, bitches be Peppaz.”

The American Medical Association, incidentally, would like to continue to reiterate that neither Dr. Pepper nor Dr. Dre are licensed doctors, and caution that placing a can of soda on a turntable remains an unsuccessful way to treat your heart arrythmia.

Links:

Dr. Dre Teases Long-awaited Detox with Dr. Pepper Ad (Rolling Stone)

Guns N’ Roses Demand Apology From Dr. Pepper Over Soda “Fiasco” (Rolling Stone)

Check out Dre’s Pepper Commercial Here