Nike Revives Rakim with Force Montage

Nike is less shoe purveyor than societal tastemaker. With symphonic float like a butterfly, sting like a bee undercurrents, their marketing work consistently defines our image of victory and strength-oriented aesthetics. They even turn breathing into athletic art.

Nike's especially good at throwbacks and mash-ups. We're old-school Rakim fans so we're pretty taken with this web-only spot for Nike Force, entitled Force Heritage.

The lovechild of R/GA and Stardust Studios, the spot showcases 25 years of Nike Force ad history with a Rakim-laced custom track from creative director Alex Moulton and composer Mike "G:Neu" Genato of Expansion Team.

It takes a special kind of touch to make Air Forces appealing; we were never fans of the shoe. But it has lent itself to a lot of evolution and playful cultural design. We kind of wish the spot played more with that than with the usual sweaty basketball player mishmash.

Nonetheless, the spot's delicious. Look at us, look at us, we're gushing like head-bopping break-dancing groupies back in grade school. We'd act on the feeling except at this point in our lives we'd probably break our tailbones. Better to just bob.