It may be a bit obscure. But if you hear kids rapping that “it get cold like Minnesota” and start begging you to take them for a ride on your ice resurfacer, chances are good they’re imitating the 19-year old hip hop artist, Lil’ Yachty. The rapper, who goes by the Twitter handle of lil boat kot* was nominated for a Grammy earlier today in the Best Rap/Sung Performance category together with Big Baby D.R.A.M. for their collaborative song, “Broccoli“.
Congrats to @lilyachty ?? Yachty & @BIGBABYDRAM are nominated for Best Rap/Sung Performance for #Broccoli #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/I2KvM3G01A
— Motown Records (@motown) December 6, 2016
But I digress. I know you want to know what this has to do with arenas and ice resurfacers. Hold on, I’ll tell you.
Earlier this year, Lil’ Yachty released a video for his single “Minnesota”. In it, much of the action takes place on the ice of an indoor arena, where there’s some skating, dancing and has some of his crew dressed in hockey jerseys. Every once in a while, Lil’ Yachty, whose real name is Miles Parks McCollum, is sometimes riding on an Olympia ice resurfacer as he sings.
The song became a hit. And then something even more wonderful happened.
Sprite decided to use his Minnesota rap — and him — in an ad for their lemon-lime beverage that features NBA star LeBron James. So if you’ve seen that ad, you just might have heard that song before.
In the ad, King James talks about how he wouldn’t ever tell you to drink Sprite in a series of different situations, but at the end, tells you that you would hashtag want a Sprite. Or #WannaSprite. The spotlight turns temporarily on Lil’ Yachty, who is in a Sprite-inspired ice cave, playing a piano as he raps. Instead of singing “Cold like Minnesota”, the words are changed to “Cold like a Sprite soda” while LBJ appears a bit like a spirit — insisting that if this scene was a metaphor and Lil’ Yachty had been paid to write about Sprite, he still wouldn’t tell you to drink sprite.
Back to the Minnesota Video
Throughout the video for ‘Minnesota‘, which features Quavo and Skippa Da Flippa, Lil’ Yachty and his SAILING crew are riding on a red and black Olympia ice resurfacer as it makes the laps at an indoor arena in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.
Which arena you might ask?
The Alpharetta Family Skate Center — also known as The Cooler.
Now how cool is that???