In a country dominated by film-music, MTV Hustle, a rap-reality-show, had to open the youth up to sampling rap.

Sampling would happen when personal stakes were involved, so instead of promoting Hustle, we introduced a first-of-its-kind AI-based rapper – BotHard, who could rap to any word or phrase it received as a prompt.

Our AI-influencer, BotHard, first gained attention by dissing renowned rappers on social media and the Hustle jury. Real social media influencers then stooped to its supremacy by sharing their prompt-based-raps from BotHard.

350K+ raps were generated, and the influence of BotHard resulted in a 9X viewership increase.

India – a land of filmy music:

India listens to 21.9 hours of music weekly versus the global average of 18.4 hours (2021 IFPI report). Film music comprises of over 60% of India’s music listening.

Rap & hip-hop – growing in fringes, awaiting mainstream status:

Despite it being around for a while, rap got noticed in India only after a mainstream Bollywood film was made on it in 2019. And yet, it only comprises of 3% of India’s total music listening.

MTV Hustle – a hopeful catalyst returning from the dead:

In a country of innumerous film-based singing reality shows, MTV Hustle is India’s first rap reality show. A show that got stalled for three years after its launch in 2019 due to the pandemic.

Thus, to get more people to watch MTV Hustle 2.0, the real challenge was to unwrap the entire rap genre in India beyond the fringes.

To grow rap, rap had to become personal for the film-music loving Indians. So, instead of promoting the rap show, we decided to promote a new rapper, 'BotHard'.

BotHard isn’t a contestant, nor a known rapper, he is the world’s first-ever AI-based rapper who can rap to any word or phrase he receives as a prompt.

BotHard was created by using GPT-3 and AWS text-to-speech generator, which was stitched to a rap beat and delivered in a lyric video form instantly.

The inspiration behind the name “BotHard” came from a colloquial phrase in rap culture, “Bohot-Hard” (translates to “very hard” and often given as a compliment). Irrespective of whether someone knew about rap or not, they were already using Bohot-Hard in everyday lingo, thanks to the internet.

Thus, by bringing culture and technology together, we decided to turn a popular rap catchphrase into an intriguing invitation to unwrap real rap.

The curious experimenters:

MTV’s core target audience in India are the young GenZ-digital-natives. They’re curious at heart and open to experimenting different things if it supplies them with ample cool capital.

Distanced from rap:

They find the fashion, lingo, and lifestyle of those who follow rap cool, but it also alienates them from rap because it creates a perceptual barrier that one must know a lot more to get into rap.

We had to find something that unwrapped rap.

Our research revealed an interesting observation around what makes our experimenters explore something new, “exploration happens when its personal or has some level of personal stake involved.” For example, to impress someone they’ll try something new OR when their national pride gets triggered – when an international artist features India in their work, they’ll witness a surge in streams.

Thus, for rap to prevail, rap had to become personal.

INTRIGUE – WHO’S BOTHARD?

It all started with the BotHard social handle releasing ‘diss-tracks’ against India’s and world’s top rappers, including the jury of Hustle 2.0, which led to everyone asking, “Who is BotHard? What does he think of himself?”

As the mystery continued, we invited him to the show.

REVEAL – THE FACE-OFF:

In episode 10, BotHard appears on the show, interacts with the jury quirkily and then invites the world to try him.

AMPLIFICATION – RAPS FOR THE KNOWN:

Influencers start sharing raps they received from BotHard on Instagram, WhatsApp and Google Assistant. BotHard also releases raps for cool brands.

EXPERIENCE – RAPS FOR YOU:

Everyone took notice and flocked in with their prompts immediately after to experience personalized raps from BotHard.

BotHard made rap personal, and listening to rap and watching MTV Hustle 2.0 became a ritual.

BotHard was an instant hit – 200K raps were generated by users in 10 days, and a total of 350K raps were generated.

Users on average requested for minimum 3 raps from BotHard.

BotHard became local and international media’s new favourite rapper – Business World, LBB Online, Campaign Brief Asia, Roastbrief US, Adobo Magazine etc.

BotHard was invited at a youth-concert too where he rapped to prompts in real-time.

Impact on viewership:

BotHard appeared on MTV Hustle 2.0 during episodes 8 and 10. The show’s viewership after, in episodes 11-20, increased by 54% on average than episodes 1-7.

Overall, Hustle 2.0 witnessed,

More than 1 billion in reach, 2X from season 1,

More than 2 billion views, 9X from season 1,

More than 350 million in engagement, 3X from season 1,

And more than 9.4 billion in impressions.

Fans of BotHard send prompts even today in anticipation of a revert.

The inspiration behind the name “BotHard” came from a colloquial phrase in rap culture – “Bohot-Hard” (translates to “very hard” and often given as a compliment).

So while people were barely listening to rap or didn't know much about it, they were already using the term Bohot-Hard in everyday lingo as a compliment for anything cool, thanks to the internet.