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The brief was to nail the school yard feel, while feeling impactful and badass, with a nod to black girlhood. With this being a celebration for WNBA star A’ja Wilson, marking a significant milestone in her career, ​​the "One of a Kind" campaign by Nike spotlighted the first shoe designed by the superstar, the Nike A’One. We knew the impact this had for women in sports and brought the music to match A’ja’s own infectious rhythm.

The client wanted the music to be a love letter to Black girlhood; emotional, but not cheesy, and soulful, but not pandering. The music needed to channel the schoolyard swagger with punch and pride. Our composers flipped “Miss Mary Mack” into a bold, beat-driven anthem, equal parts playground chant and cultural celebration, pulsing with intergenerational power. The spot features a young girl teaching A’ja to jump rope, rallying the younger black girl generation around an idol of our time. Keeping the rhymes and claps of “Miss Mary Mack” was quintessential to the message of the story to show that these traditions stay the same at their core over generations: little girls bonding together with a ritual of belonging.

We were brought in after the shoot, and the vocals were not recorded on a click. We had to get the performances “on the grid” as much as possible, while still fitting what was visually captured. Once we got the vocals in a good place, we shared that file with the composers to start building backing tracks.

Once we created a master vocal stem, our composers went to work trying to crack the brief. In the spot, the vignette showcases a young girl teaching Wilson how to jump rope to a remixed version of "Miss Mary Mack”; a pointed choice to celebrate cultural pride and the intergenerational transmission of strength and resilience. We worked with BUTTER collaborator Tawn “Pzy” Peron, who brought her voice as a black female composer to the project, which was of the utmost importance for us. Once we got the tools for Tawn to work with (vocal structure), the emotional work could shine.

The impact? Immediate. In *five minutes flat* post-drop, the debut Nike A’One sneaker in the “Pink A’ura” colorway sold out of its online release. Buzz for the shoe spiked at *2.27B* media impressions in just one week, and reached 3.2M views on Nike Basketball’s IG account.