Crown Royal was one of the sponsors of the Black Film Festival and asked us to create a spot for the event. There wasn't an established creative concept—we simply needed to develop something that could represent the brand in that environment.

At the same time, we were working on another project involving Doug E. Fresh, who was also working with Crown Royal. When I learned that Doug would be in a recording studio, I saw an opportunity.

I asked for about ten minutes of his time.

I wrote a short piece of copy about the brand and recorded Doug performing it, along with a backing vocal of him beatboxing. That gave me the foundation for the entire piece: an original soundtrack built around one of the most recognizable sounds in hip-hop.

I was then able to obtain the footage and outtakes from Crown Royal's existing Smooth Pours commercial. Rather than simply repurpose the original spot, I completely re-edited the material around Doug's performance, using his beatboxing to dictate the rhythm, pacing and structure of the new cut.

The project came together by recognizing an opportunity in the resources already around me: an existing Crown Royal campaign, access to its unused footage, a Black film event that needed a custom brand piece—and ten minutes with Doug E. Fresh in a recording studio.

The result was something specifically tailored to the occasion without requiring an entirely new production.