Fish feud: can McDonald’s survive Pusha T’s single-verse scud missile?
For years Arby’s has bragged: “We have the meats.” Now the menu includes a spicy beef with McDonald’s.
On Monday, the hot deli chain released an advertisement for its crispy fish sandwich. Undergirding the EDM-tinged backing beat is the rap song Spicy Fish Diss – a single-verse Scud missile that takes direct aim at McDonald’s pescatarian mainstay, the Filet-O-Fish. And it doesn’t waste any of its 75-second runtime beating around the bush. “Filet-O-Fish is shit,” it crows, “and you should be disgusted.”
Even more delicious than this taster is the man serving it – Pusha T, the 44-year-old Virginia Beach-raised master lyricist who formed half of the Pharrell Williams-produced rap duo the Clipse (with his older brother, No Malice) and is the highest-profile act signed to GOOD Music besides the label’s founder, Ye (formerly known as Kanye West). For Pusha, the Arby’s gig was no odd job (Arby’s We Have the Meats campaign also licensed Yogi and Skrillex’s 2014 EDM hit Burial featuring the rapper); it was personal.
Pusha has long alleged that he wrote McDonald’s I’m Lovin’ It jingle along with No Malice, Williams and Justin Timberlake, and he has held a grudge against the company for shortchanging him as the micro-tune has becomeone of the most recognizable jingles of all time.
Nineteen years ago, Timberlake first recorded the jingle; these days it’s Succession’s Brian Cox who lazily warbles the familiar “ba-da-ba-ba-ba” in Golden Arches commercials. “It was like half a million or a million dollars for me and my brother,” Pusha toldRolling Stone of his one-time fee for the McDonald’s hit. “But that’s peanuts for as long as [the jingle] has been running. I had to get that energy off of me, and this [Arby’s spot] was the perfect way.”
Read more on theguardian.com
