New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Lil Wayne stars in a hilarious new commercial for Bumbu, a premium craft rum from Barbados. It's Wayne's first major commercial since 2016, when his appearances in unorthodox ads for Apartments.com and Samsung went viral.
The Bumbu ad sees
Lil Wayne partying with both beautiful women and goats - a visual pun on G.O.A.T., or "Greatest of All Time" - a moniker frequently used for the multi-platinum selling Wayne. The party kicks into high gear when Wayne asks someone to "pass the Bumbu," which as the ad tells us, is the G.O.A.T. among the world's best rums.
"Bumbu is a totally different kind of drink," says Lil Wayne. "I fell in love with the bottle and the taste the first time I tried it. Now it's Bumbu everywhere - in the studio, parties, the VIP. All my people are on this Bumbu now."
Lil Wayne sports a "Bumbu Krewe" jacket - championing his elite "krewe" of rappers and tastemakers who drink and support Bumbu, a dark rum dramatically packaged in a stout glass bottle with an oversized cork and gleaming metal "X" icon.
The commercial is directed by Eif Rivera, whose resume of music videos includes Nicki Minaj, 50 Cent, Nas, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne. It was written in-house by Bumbu's creative team.
Brett Berish, CEO of Sovereign Brands, owner of Bumbu, says: "Bumbu is a small-batch, limited production rum and we've been fortunate to have more demand than supply since it was first released.
Lil Wayne was one of the first people to see it and became one of our earliest supporters. As Bumbu has grown and we've been able to bring it to new places around the world, making a video with Wayne was a fun and easy choice for us. It's a perfect way to kick off our first-ever marketing campaign for this wonderful brand."
Adds Wayne, "Bumbu listens to the streets. You have to. Like my businesses, there's no outside agency speaking for Bumbu. This was a raw idea that made us laugh out loud. We had fun doing it. And that's really what separates Bumbu as an independent company….probably why we get along so well!"