"Yeo Valley Rap" is an advertising campaign for the family-owned

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

and

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

company,

Yeo Valley Organic Yeo Valley () is a large UK organic brand established in 1994. The Yeo Valley Organic range includes organic yogurt, cream, milk, butter, cheese, ice cream and, compote. Yeo Valley is located in Somerset, UK, and the Yeo Valley corporation is o ...

by the "Yeo Valley Boyz", which features Mr George and Lisa Roxanne. The advert was produced by

Boi-1da Matthew Jehu Samuels (born October 12, 1986), known professionally as Boi-1da ( , a play on "boy wonder"), is a Jamaican-Canadian Record production, record producer and songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario. The Toronto raised producer has work ...

and the lyrics were written by Mr George. After much positive feedback came for the advert, the rap was added to

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

for digital download from October 27, 2010 on Black Sheep Music.

Background

Originally, the rap was just an advertising campaign for

. The advert then started coming during breaks for

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...

. The advert gained popularity and after many requests, the advert was then available to download from

. Rosie Arnold, the BBH Deputy Executive Creative Director, talked about the idea of the campaign: "What we wanted to do was make Yeo Valley Organic popular for everybody. We wanted to make people pronounce Yeo Valley correctly and get everybody talking about it. So that's how we came up with the rap idea." The farmers had to study rap and get into the styles of

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...

and

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

. The actors were also asked to take inspiration from

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...

Lil' Kim Kimberly Denise Jones (born July 11, 1974), Those giving 1974 include: * * * * * better known by her stage name Lil' Kim, is an American rapper and reality television personality. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, she lived much of he ...

and

Lil' Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September 27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. His career began in 1995, at the age of 12, when he was signed by rapper Birdman (rapper), ...

by the Lutz on set.

Music video

The music video of the advert was uploaded onto

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

on October 8, 2010. It was directed by Julien Lutz in

Yeo Valley The River Yeo (often referred to as the Congresbury Yeo, after the village of Congresbury, through which it flows, to avoid confusion with other similarly named rivers) is a river which flows through North Somerset, England. River course T ...

. The farmers are shown rapping inside the barns, out in the grass with the cows, in tractors and eating Yeo Valley Organic yogurt. The video currently has over 2.6 million views.

Chart performance

"Yeo Valley Rap" charted in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

on November 7, 2010 at number 71. The song also charted at number 9 on the

UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the rele ...

and number 17 on the

UK R&B Chart The UK Hip Hop and R&B Singles Chart and the UK Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart (also known as The Official UK Hip Hop and R&B Charts, the Top 40 Hip Hop and RnB Singles and the Top 40 Hip Hop and RnB Albums, or simply the UK Urban Chart) are 40-posi ...

. The next week on November 13, 2010 it dropped 23 places to 94. The following week on November 21, it climbed 9 places to number 5. It then dropped 15 places on November 28, 2010. As of December 5, 2010 it is at number 80, where it climbed 20 places. There are currently many

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

campaigns to get the track the

Christmas number 1 In the United Kingdom, Christmas number ones are singles that top the UK Singles Chart in the week in which Christmas Day falls. The singles have often been novelty songs, charity songs or songs with a Christmas theme. Historically, the volume ...

References

{{Reflist 2010 singles Songs based on jingles Song recordings produced by Boi-1da 2010 songs