There’s a scene in The Sopranos where an up-and-coming rap artist, named Marvin, makes one of the strangest marketing decisions in TV history. He decides to spend $7,000 to get shot.
Yes, $7,000 not on social media or a radio spot but on one bullet to the “fleshy part of the thigh.”
After seeing fellow rapper Da Lux’s album fly of the shelves following a shooting, he decided to reverse engineer his success and earn “street cred,” which would lead to more album sales hopefully.
The show never shows the viewers if this morbid marketing tactic worked, but several high profile rappers have benefited from their brushes with death.
Most famously, 50 Cent was shot 9 times. But lists of hip-hop artists who survived shootings read like a “Who’s Who” of successful rappers.
Da Lux’s posse in The Sopranos reminds him of the potential bright side to his situation:
