NOT ALL INFLUENCERS LOOK THE SAME

In 1999 Steve Greenberg was manager of the Baha Men

They had made 5 studio albums together but never had a hit

Their last album, Doong Spank had sold 800 copies

Greenberg was going to have to release them

But then he heard a hook he thought would change their fortunes

The band to recruited three new young singers who could do it justice

Greenberg even recorded the ad libs himself

In 1999 ‘Who Let The Dogs Out’ was ready

Unfortunately, no one would play it

Record execs hated it and radio wouldn’t touch it

But Greenberg new it was a hit

He just needed people to hear it

So he thought fuck radio, I’ll go direct to the people

So he called Fred Traube who ran a sports agency

And gave him a brief

To find the name and phone number

Of the DJ at every Major League Baseball ground in America

And then he started calling them

Day and night, night and day

Sending them the song to play

First the Yankees played it

Then the Mets played it

Then A Rod started using it as his walk on track

By the time the playoffs came around 5 of the 8 teams used the song to hype their crowds

Now radio execs were desperate to play the song

And it sold 3 million copies in America alone

We talk about influencers a lot

But we’ve stopped really looking for them

Because we think we know what they look like

The truth is that following and fame aren’t the only indicators of influence

And neither are Hollywood smiles

Just ask the Baha men