What began less than a month ago as an idea to inspire fellow McCallie students and add some extra spice to the days leading up to the football team's rivalry game with Baylor has exploded through social media and become an Internet sensation.
A group of McCallie School students took their idea of creating a hype video to school administrators and within a two week span, Jason Cha (McCallie Class of 2010) and UT-Chattanooga student Wil Pope had written most of the lyrics and school videographer Brandan Roberts had shot and produced the four-plus minute video.
It was released on the school's website and to students on Wednesday and by Thursday the video had been posted to the ESPN.com link as well as The Sporting News, USA Today and Bleacher Report. As of Friday afternoon the video had long-since gone viral, and was at more than 330,000 web views and counting.
San Francisco 49ers running back Reggie Bush is among the celebrities to have watched and retweeted the video as of Friday afternoon.
"The kids approached us with the idea and we just tried to help them from there," Roberts said. "We wanted to feature as much of Chattanooga as we could so we shot at (Lookout Mountain's) Sunset rock and the (Walnut Street) walking bridge."
Added Cha, "We thought it would be a big hit around campus and maybe even in town a little. Our goal was to get to 10,000 views, so we've definitely surpassed anything we could have dreamed of with this. It's been amazing."
With music from the Jay-Z song "Run this town", the rewritten lyrics are rapped by three McCallie Spirituals (the group of student super fans known for their creative cheers and signs at Blue Tornado games) and the chorus is sang by GPS junior Tia Kemp, daughter of McCallie Dean of Admissions Troy Kemp.
"It's been the most exciting thing I've been a part of," said Tia Kemp, who won the McCallie/GPS talent show last year and has auditioned to be on the NBC television show "The Voice." Ms. Kemp's voice has been praised numerous times on the comments that are listed below the video link.
And although USA Today jokingly labeled the video "insufferable" and jabbed at the McCallie boys in the video for how fearsome they rapped while having neatly tied knots in their school-colored neck ties, all national sites that have linked the video praise the quality and creativity, including rap lyrics directed at Baylor such as "Breakin' ankles, we will leave you feelin' ice cold, are you really runnin'? Oh wait, you're just that slow?"
The game, which renews one of the oldest rivalries in the state, is set to kickoff tonight at Baylor at 7:30. McCallie won last year's game 35-9, snapping a six-game winning streak by the Red Raiders. The Chattanooga Times Free Press will cover the historic rivalry in real time.
There has been no reply from the Baylor side, although that could come at the game since both student sections are known for their clever cheers during and after games.
"The toughest part was after we shot the video and watched it, having to not say anything about it for a few days until the school released it," said senior Liam Goldman, who is the first rapper in the video. "None of us ever thought it would take off like this. We just made something fun for our school, hoping to get everybody hype for rivalry week.
"It's all happened so fast the last few days but it's been awesome."