After making a physical distancing rap, Canada's No Frills grocer has released a whole album

'Haulin' State of Mind' includes tracks about bananas, bagging your groceries and more

Published On
Sep 22, 2020

Editor's Pick

Back in May, Canada's No Frills grocery chain entertained us with A Cart Apart, a rap about physical distancing in the supermarket with a COVID-19 safety message. Now, the retailer has decided to make a whole album, which includes the original track.

The "Haulin' State of Mind" album, conceived by agency John St., includes tracks about bananas, spices, bagging your groceries and low bills (sample lyric: "Cayenne, cumin, oregano/ You already know/I shake it, like, woah").

Audio house SNDWRX wrote and produced all the music and worked with six different artists to bring the songs to life. "The general ideas for the songs came out of thinking about iconic things about the brand like the fact that you bag your own groceries ("Bag It Up") or their 88 cent sale ("88 Sale") and then saying "wouldn't it be hilarious to make a track about that?" says a spokesperson. 

Didier Tovel, creative director and founder of SNDWRX, adds that the "Cart Apart" song was recorded with Canadian rapper Tona, under Covid-safe circumstances,"In order to record 'A Cart Apart' in a safe way, I drove into Tona’s driveway and had him record his part from his car, wired into mine to create a mobile recording booth," he explains.

The original "A Cart Apart: rap received over two million YouTube views and over 50,000 Spotify streams—but if you're still wondering why anyone might want to listen to an entire album about discount groceries, there is a promotional tie-in: people who text 374-557 to receive the album download also get sent flyers with exclusive offers. If, simply, the combination of food and hip hop floats your boat and you do just want to listen, you can stream it here. 

Credits

Date
Sep 22, 2020
Client :
No Frills
Agency :
John St.
SVP Marketing :
Uwe Stueckmann
VP Marketing :
Andy MacPherson
Director Brand Marketing :
Ashley McGill
Brand Manager :
Naveet Nanwa
Director External Communications :
Aly Vitunski
PR Specialist :
Jessica Gauci
Executive Creative Director :
Cher Campbell
Associate Creative Director :
Robbie Percy
Associate Creative Director :
Caroline Friesen
Designer :
Hannah Lee
Executive Producer :
Brittani Wilcox
Producer :
Megan Flett
Business Lead :
Lindsay Day
Account Executive :
Kelly Brennan
Chief Strategy Officer :
Megan Towers
Senior Strategist :
Jay Fleming
Audio House :
SNDWRx
Creative Director :
Didier Tovel
Music Composer Sound Design :
Didier Tovel
Mixing Engineer :
Eric Hulme
Executive Producer :
Alison Lawee
Post Production :
Outsider Editorial
Editor :
John Gallagher
Assistant Editor :
Cam Anderson
Executive Producer :
Kristina Anzlinger
Producer :
Kayan Choi
Post Production :
The Vanity
VFX Artist :
Naveen Srivastava
VFX Artist :
Kaelem Cahill
VFX Artist :
Adam Silcox-Vanwyk
Executive Producer :
Stephanie Pennington
Producer :
Katie Methot

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