Did you catch Kansas City rapper’s ‘best song ever’ in Apple’s newest commercial?
Another Kansas City hip-hop artist’s song was used in a commercial in 2024, this time for Apple.
Football fans watching Thursday’s game between the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins on Amazon Prime noticed during a commercial promoting the iPhone 16 Pro, the last moments featured a snippet from “Genius,” a song made by Krizz Kaliko in 2006.
The commercial highlights new features using Siri with “The Last of Us” actress Bella Ramsay. In the 30-second ad, she’s at a party and spots someone she met a couple of months ago. She asks Siri for help with remembering the person’s name, and the virtual assistant tells her the name and where they met.
As she looks to the camera, the song’s chorus plays for a few seconds with the lyrics “I am, Genius.”
Longtime fans of the independent artist shouted out Kaliko, born Samuel Watson IV, on social media:
“Who’s the KC kid on Apple’s marketing team that got a @KrizzKaliko sample in the new Apple add? 18 year old me is mind blown rn,” said one user on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I just heard Krizz Kaliko’s voice on an Apple commercial during this Thursday Night Football game. ‘I am, Genius!’” sports columnist Jason Whitlock said. “Great song off one of the greatest albums in hip hop history. Do yourself a favor and download Genius by Krizz Kaliko. It’s brilliant.”
“Just saw an @Apple commercial and it had one of @KrizzKaliko best songs ever as the music. #genius has been out 15 years and this man still getting praise for it?! That’s CRAZY!” said another user.
“Just heard Genius on the new IPhone commercial with the girl from Last Of Us! Epic!” an Instagram user said in the comments of Kaliko’s latest post.
Apple has a playlist on its Apple Music streaming service with every song used in a commercial. Another artist with Kansas City area roots, alternative hip-hop artist Janelle Monáe, is on the playlist for her song “Float.”
Kaliko was once a mainstay with Tech N9ne and the Strange Music record label. Kaliko left the label in 2021 after 20 years of creating unique vocal stylings on the hooks of many Tech hits as well as his own music.
He started his own label, Ear House Inc., in 2021 and runs it out of the basement of his South Kansas City home.
He has branched out beyond music to voicing Netflix cartoons. You can hear him as the anti-hero Dinobot on the Netflix animated series “Transformers: War for Cybertron” and the voice of Leroy Smith on “Tekken: Bloodline,” based on the popular fighting video game.
Kaliko is set to hit the road as a part of the Fly High Tour, starting Friday, Oct. 4, in Farmington, New Mexico. He comes back to Kansas City on Sunday, Oct. 13, at The Westport Bowery, 817 Westport Road.
