The brand approached a local professor at McNally Smith College of Music to see if his students would be interested, along with a Vine rapper and two local hip hop producers. What could they rap about? Absolutely anything, as long as they didn’t offend moms.

Freedom and authenticity paid off. The tracks turned out to be shockingly excellent, including Feed the Streets, Hamburger Helper, Crazy, Food for Your Soul, and In Love with the Glove.

Now it got tricky. Without heavy promotion, the mixtape could go unheard. With heavy promotion, it would lose its authentic tone. We decided to go all in with one caveat: We drop it as a real mixtape, right down to the PARENTAL ADVISORY. It would be available to the masses, teased to influencers, and given every bit of WTF? we could inspire. The caveat? Our unexpectedly awesome album would drop on April Fools’ Day.

Our musical partners hail from General Mill’s Minneapolis backyard: McNally Smith College of Music, a rising hip-hop Vine celeb, and two promising local artists.

Five songs are chosen for “Watch the Stove,” each rapping on Hamburger Helper. Two are made into music videos in partnership with students at Minneapolis College of Art & Design.

The face of the album is the Helper logo, Lefty, the four-fingered glove, known for moonlighting on Twitter as a struggle rapper. He’d had a “break” recently with coverage in the popular hip hop blog “First We Feast.”

Naturally, First We Feast gets the exclusive on Lefty’s mixtape. Other niche hip hop media buy in, fueling chatter. Leaked album tracks start trending. We insist the national media start paying attention.

The album drops on April Fools’ Day with open source distribution on SoundCloud.

Whether you intended to mock or praise it, you simply had to listen.

What did people expect from a hip-hop album by General Mills?

They didn’t expect authentic excellence. “Shockingly Good,” declared Adweek. “Possibly the greatest April Fools' Day prank of all time,” said the Los Angeles Times. “Every other corporate #brand can just quit now. Hamburger Helper has a mixtape. And it's absolute fire.’”

“Watch The Stove’s” pop culture credibility now inspires national news stories and think pieces from Bloomberg to Mashable to the Today Show.

The hip hop community has a different takeaway, suggesting other rappers better up their game if they’re getting served by a branded Hamburger Helper mixtape.

Within one week of release:

•Helper brand saw a +37% increase in U.S. retail dollar volume

Within two weeks of release:

•8 million SoundCloud plays, and rising

•147,000+ social shares

•220 earned broadcast, print and online media stories

•530 million earned media and social impressions

•All five songs now trending worldwide