Piggy in the Middle

PR Newswire:

Bad Boy recording artist Chopper, a.k.a. Young City of the worldwide platinum rap group "Da Band," recently signed on as the spokesperson for Rap Snacks Pork Skins and Cracklins, a new product line being launched by the Chicago-based Evans Food Group and Rap Snacks, Inc., headquartered in Philadelphia.

Rap Snacks, Inc. is a 10-year-old company headed by business man James Lindsay. Since 1994, Rap Snacks, Inc. has used popular rap stars and hip, positive phrases to sell chips to urban markets. Last year, the company reported sales of 3 million bags of chips per week, thanks to retail outlets and independent distributors in cities across the nation.

Chopper's image will appear on bags of Rap Snacks Pork Skins and Cracklins, which will be available in a variety of flavors. Also featured on the bags will be motivational messages like "seize every opportunity," and "be who you are without shame."

Despite his worldwide platinum status, I was previously unfamiliar with Chopper. As Google tells me, Da Band is MTV's hip-hop version of the Monkees who star in some reality show or other on the network. So I don't know anything about the fellow, except that "the days of hustling, drugs and life based on crime living in uptown New Orleans are over." To be honest, despite liking hip-hop, I don't really care much about Chopper. But I LOVE me some pork cracklins. Oh baby, do I. So, I went looking for Rap Snacks on the web, and here's the lineup, with reviews courtesy of taquitos.net:

• Baby Bar-B-Quing With My Honey Flavored Popcorn
• Lil' Romeo Bar-B-Quing with my Honey Flavored Chips
• BBD Back at the Ranch Flavored Chips
• Big Tymers Sour Cream & Dill Flavored Chips
• Hot Cheezie Popcorn
• Mack 10 Red Hot Cheddar Cheese Flavored Chips
• Magic Honeydew Cheese Curls That's right: honeydew-flavored Cheetos. Really.
• Master P Platinum Bar-B-Que Flavored Chips
• Ms. Toi Sweeties Flavored Chips
• Pretty Willie Salsa Cheese Flavored Chips
• Warren G Cheezie Nacho Flavored Chips
• And a few more.

Hey, yo. No pork. Waddupwiddat? Seems the Chopper venture is their first foray into the other white meat byproducts and it looks like their partner in the venture, Evans Food Group, is the one bringin' the porcine skillz. Because the internet is a strange and beautiful thing, I discovered that EFG carries the slogan: "And remember, there is no party without pork rinds." Granted, but it turns out that Evans isn't just a pork rind company, they're a pork rind partnering business.

We are hog wild about your pork rind program. Evans Food Products Company, Inc. is your pork rind and pork cracklin marketing partner. For over half a century we have manufactured premium quality products for private label use and served as co-packer for many well known brands in the United States. Evans will develop a custom private label program to suit your merchandising needs. [...] Turning pork rinds and pork cracklins into significant profits is what we are hog wild about doing for you. Our record squeals for itself.

Sweet. They even have a recipe section, but with only two entries: Pork Rind Cheese Ball and Crunchy Tortilla and Pork Rind Soup. Oink.