The American Charles “Cr1TiKaL” White Jr. (29) is not necessarily known for family-friendly entertainment on Twitch and YouTube. However, with his current music video, he apparently went too far, as it cost him a sponsor.
What was that collaboration? In a video from January 28, Cr1tikal explained that he had just lost a major partnership. It was a collaboration with a larger brand whose name he could not disclose.
At a later point in the video, the streamer mentions a “Fortune 500” company – one of the 500 largest companies in the USA. They had planned a really cool project, according to Cr1tikal, but just before the launch, the company suddenly wanted nothing to do with him.
The reason for this was presumably his current music video.
Other content creators are also trying their hand at music:
Music video costs streamer the collaboration
What was that video? Cr1TiKaL makes music together with singer-songwriter Troy Mckubre under the name “The Gentle Men.” The two like to experiment with different styles, and sometimes the songs are quite provocative.
On January 12, they released their latest single “Filthy,” followed by a music video on YouTube the next day. And the song is intense: Cr1TiKaL says he collected the most disgusting lyrics that came to mind. He was a “boiling cauldron of disgust.”
The final version was still comparably tame, as at some point his partner told him he needed to tone it down a bit. Nevertheless, the end result was too much for his collaboration partner, as the streamer revealed:
I posted this music video only about a week before the start of the collaboration. And precisely two days after we released the video, they sent us a panicked message, telling us that they wanted nothing to do with us anymore. “Filthy” went too far.
The company severed all ties with him, Cr1TiKaL said, which he cannot quite understand. You can watch his video about it here:
Streamer says that’s just art
How does Cr1TiKaL see it himself? The streamer explains that he is well aware that his content is not necessarily family-friendly. However, that does not automatically make him a “brand risk.”
The song is quite extreme, graphically – but also silly. However, the collaboration had nothing to do with it. If it had been a musical collaboration, he could have understood that. But no one would have associated the brand with the song; that is all quite detached from reality.
Would he do anything differently in hindsight? Not at all. Cr1TiKaL says he is damn proud of the song and would stand behind it 100%. He is also willing to lose 1,000 partnerships, as great as the track is.
I think we have created something special in the best sense. Yes, it is dirty, wild, at times even disgusting, but that is what makes art.
The attitude that someone is unsuitable for a collaboration because they might be vulgar is something the streamer cannot understand – after all, he isn’t burning down churches.
Nowadays, everything should be so sterile and spotless, Cr1TiKaL says. Advertisers only want “uninteresting, inoffensive garbage.” He, on the other hand, would rather produce something entertaining and unforgettable, which brands should find much more important.
With that, the streamer is also referring to the new guidelines for monetizing videos on YouTube:
One wrong word is currently costing people their entire earnings on YouTube: “I am devastated”
