Chapter 432: A Little Bit of Lottery Shock

In fact, if not for Mariah Carey's action, which served as the spark, it would have been very difficult for "Enemy" to continue improving its ranking on the Billboard charts.

Although Zhou Yi himself did not care how far this single could go on the Billboard charts, after all, he had not even gone to the United States; radio promotions and TV appearances were none of his concern. Under such circumstances, it was good enough to maintain a bit more heat to sell some records.

In an era without the aid of streaming platforms, it was basically impossible for a rogue single like "Old Town Road" to explode via the international version of TikTok and then charge forward relentlessly.

Even with his cheat, he could not conjure an international version of TikTok out of thin air; Zhang Yikui was still attending Nankai University right now.

But Warner did not think so.

They believed this single had a huge money-making potential; you should use your clever little brain to think hard about any hype tactics.

Then, Zhou Jianhui (the real person behind the mask, Zhou Yi) came up with this plan.

Facts proved this plan was a success; Mariah Carey's novel action sparked a wave across the entire US after the show aired—the reason was nothing else but that Mariah Carey actually paid the money.

Thirteen underground hip-hop enthusiasts and five professional underground hip-hop singers appeared at the live show; under Mariah Carey's monetary stimulation, they all stood up to accept the challenge, yet in the end, only two people succeeded.

Although the new century had already arrived, 1,000 dollars was still not a small sum for ordinary people, yet Mariah Carey simply handed it over on the spot.

Bills were counted out by her and given to the lucky winners who succeeded in the challenge; this scene made ordinary viewers across the US who watched the show widen their eyes—1,000 dollars, damn it?! Is money this easy to earn?!

And the move that made jaws drop even more was yet to come.

On January 26, just after Mariah Carey broke new ground with her superstar influence, the "slow-to-react" Warner Records finally came to its senses, publicly thanked Mariah Carey for her generosity, and stated that since you were so generous, we could not fall behind—

Warner Records would hold a street challenge in Los Angeles; as long as you purchased the single disc, you would have the chance to win the lottery.

After winning, you only needed to contact Warner using the contact information inside the single disc, and Warner would send you an invitation letter inviting you to the challenge site in Los Angeles, with a limited quota of 200 spots.

As long as you were confident you could increase the rap speed in "Enemy" to be faster than Zhou Yi's original version, and complete this rap segment without going off-key, stumbling, or running out of breath and failing the performance, you could take home the 1,200-dollar prize, and there was even a possibility of getting a chance to ask Zhou Yi for advice face-to-face.

Summarized in one word: We at Warner are rich and generous, we don't lack money!

You just need to buy the official single disc to enter the lottery; if you win and have the guts, just come.

In a sense, this was also a way to stimulate sales indirectly.

With Mariah Carey setting the example beforehand, after this simple and crude lottery method and prize acquisition method were announced, the heat surrounding Zhou Yi's new single did not decline despite his long absence from public view; instead, it climbed even higher!

At the same time, members of the Linkin Park band, who released their new album "Meteora" on January 13 under Warner, were asked about Zhou Yi's new song and tried their hand at rap in a highly contrasting manner—although they failed, it also generated quite a bit of buzz.

Plus, the spectacle of Mariah Carey herself failing the challenge on the program spread around; for a time, challenging Zhou Yi's extremely fast rap seemed to become a trend starting to gain popularity among celebrities—

Those wanting to ride the wave, those wanting to build a good relationship with Zhou Yi, and those wanting to connect with Warner all smelled the marketing and hype implications within this, yet everyone enjoyed it...

If there is heat to ride, you might as well ride it for free.

An open scheme!

A naked open scheme!

Warner's series of novel hype tactics left even Eminem stunned.

To be fair, viewing Zhou Yi's "Enemy" with the eye of a professional musician, its excellent quality was beyond doubt.

But even so, he believed his own "Lose Yourself," which was hyped into a rap bible following the massive success of the movie "8 Mile," could still hold its ground.

To be honest, he had thought of many marketing tactics Zhou Yi might use after releasing a new song, such as attacking and hyping up his ex-wife, his daughter, or even his broken family.

Because he himself did exactly that.

Since becoming famous in one battle, every time Eminem released an album, he would inevitably spark a verbal war affecting the entire North American music scene, earning him the nicknames "Slim Shady" and "Bad Boy Eminem."

This was his marketing method.

Many people in the industry knew this, so although many were also willing to cooperate with this current hip-hop god to act, acting for too long inevitably made some feel a bit disgusted in their hearts.

He originally thought Zhou Yi's marketing would be the same as his own, but he never expected that he would actually...

"Buying a single disc for 4.5 dollars gives you a chance to be drawn to go to Los Angeles and win 1,200 dollars; I declare that Spike is the singer who loves his fans the most since the new century!"

On Yahoo, after Warner officially announced this news, various messages of praise immediately turned into a chaotic mess!

"200 lucky spots, meaning Spike put out a full 200,000-plus dollars as prize money?! And that doesn't even count hotels, round-trip transportation..."

"God, Spike is so good to his fans; why hasn't my idol ever held such an event? They only do autograph signings..."

"How did Spike persuade Warner, that iron rooster, to do this?"

"What is there to say? It must be because his status within the company is high, the kind where he says one thing and it's done!"

"God, he won't really become the godfather of Warner, will he..."

In the Western music scene, which was impacted by the tidal wave of internet piracy, Zhou Yi's lottery method directly stimulated his own single disc official sales, which had already begun to decline day by day, to start growing rapidly; even radio play rates were constantly climbing upward—

Many people hadn't bought the discs; they relied entirely on the radio to learn the song and privately timed themselves to see if they could reach that speed.

If they could meet the standard, they would start preparing to buy a spot from the secondary market.

The prize was 1,200 dollars; earning 600 dollars was still profit; there would always be someone who bought a lucky spot for 4.5 dollars but couldn't use it and would be willing to sell it at a premium of over a hundred times.

On January 28, someone posted online showing the record they won, mentioning that they had resold this spot to someone else for the sky-high price of 500 dollars—

From then on, a strange atmosphere of frenzy was brought up on the internet, in newspapers, and even on TV programs; under the promotion of Warner's money power, it stimulated the nerves of every fan in all directions.

On the 29th, the Billboard official updated the ranking list for the new episode.

Without Zhou Yi himself arriving in the United States, relying on the continuous news bombardment and hot topic coverage by Warner over these two weeks, "Enemy's" radio performance and sales performance both skyrocketed; Zhou Yi, who was outside the top seventy in the previous week, directly broke into the top thirty this week!

At the same time, official single sales surged to 810,000 copies, and Warner immediately went to certify the Gold Record.

It was foreseeable that the heat brought by Warner's lottery event could welcome a significant afterglow, very likely breaking through the one-million-copy sales mark again and reaching the Platinum Record sales level!

"An incredible achievement; the achievement of 'Enemy' has surpassed the achievement of Eminem's response song, leaving him far behind by eight streets. Spike has once again continued his magic; he did not fail, but instead stepped on top of Eminem..."

Pix, a columnist for Vanity Fair magazine, expressed his disbelief in an interview: "He is like the Godfather growing up in that 'The Godfather' (Yi Fu Zhi Ming); this man deserves our sincere treatment."

"I heard many people are dissatisfied with his rise, feeling that this hinders their career development; I think this is wrong..."

In response, those holding the opposing view naturally brought out Zhou Yi's Chinese albums that were gradually entering the US market—the first one pulled out was the Chinese song "Yi Fu Zhi Ming."

"Spike is using his influence to subconsciously strengthen our acceptance of the Chinese language; last year he was still singing in English, and this year he has combined Chinese songs with a movie and sent them in; I dare not think about what he will do in the future..."

In the field of the music scene, Chinese singers were linked with the "China Threat Theory" in foreign media for the first time.

Serving as evidence for this was the song Zhou Yi sang at the China-Korea Song Gala—

"Ode to Young China."

(End of this chapter)