Canva’s rap battle is just the latest example in Silicon Valley’s long history of cringe-worthy moments.
You thought the hottest rap battle of the summer was between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. You were wrong. It’s between Canva and an enterprise CIO.
At its Canva Create event last week, Canva unveiled its new enterprise offerings. But few people would be talking about that if not for an unexpected rap battle that took place 45 minutes into the presentation.
Roger Coles, a graphic design content creator, walked onstage, framed by a crew of dancers. As one dancer backflipped across the stage, Coles strutted forward to begin his rap, poised as a recap of everything presented — but wait! A challenger approached!
“Hold up sir!” said a woman who walked out from the crowd, mic in hand, looking a bit more business-like than everyone else in her navy suit. She played the role of a concerned CIO of a large enterprise company, who doubted that Canva could follow through on its security offerings.
“Logs, SCIM, SSO? Can you really tell me that there’s very much control?” she rapped, as a large screen behind her animated her every word.
Coles spit back, “You can even manage automated licensing, compliance, there’s privacy.”
“I can see, but is it likely for you to integrate all of our systems easily?”
“Actually, matter of fact, you see, we can integrate ’em all even Slack, believe!”
By now, the CIO had abandoned her role as a corporate curmudgeon, smiling and dancing in sync with Coles. Soon, they joined together for the chorus: “You’ve opened up my eyes/with Canva Enterprise.”