Category: Class Lecture

Marketing in Modern Day Hip-Hop

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In Hip-Hop, like in any other genre of music, the most consistent way to become successful in the industry is with marketing. There are the exceptions, such as artists who become famous off of a viral song or music video, but for the most part marketing is normally the deciding factor. Whenever artists start out, unless already famous or well known, they normally start out with a small following consisting mostly of friends and family. In the 80’s and 90’s it was about tapes, the 2000’s it was CD’s, and now it’s about the internet.

The start of marketing for a new artist today normally starts with forming accounts on different social media platforms to release music and information about their career and other events. With a supportive group of family and friends, an artist can start out their pages with at least a little bit of listening time and feedback.  Using the social media platforms, they are able to promote their own music by sharing the link with different users on every platform. If they are trying to reach a target audience, they can even use specific hash tags (#) to make their art more accessible to those searching for new music.

Artists can also market themselves by making music videos to accompany some of their better songs. Although listening to the song is the main attraction of music, having the visual component can really get the audience more engaged and connected to the song they see, and connect them more with the artist themself. One example of that for myself, is the song “Yamborghini High” by A$AP Mob.

Although I liked the song pretty well when it came out, it did not really have any deep connection with me, and was kind of a song just for a party scene. However, seeing the video gave me a whole different perspective on the song than I had before. Even though this video is very high quality and professionally made/edited, that does not mean that every music video needs to be professional high quality. Many Chicago drill rappers have made excellent videos with nothing more than their house and neighborhood as places to record. A great example of this is one of the most famous drill rappers across the world, Chief Keef.

It is clear in the video that they are not in a big mansion, or a nice house in the suburbs. They are in their neighborhood where they hang every day, and this video 32 million views to this day. The money that an artists can save in making their music videos can add up over time.

Lastly, I wanted to leave this short clip by Gary Vee. In this clip, he brings up the point that the best way to market yourself is to have a target audience, and focus on growing that little by little everyday.

Mobile Journalism & Hip-Hop

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Currently, the niche of Hip-Hop journalism does not have anywhere near the size of mainstream journalism outlets. However, this doesn’t mean that this will always be the case. One thing that can contribute to the size of Hip-Hop journalism is mobile journalism, or Mojo. Mobile journalism is an approach of field reporting stories and multimedia content by using smart phones, or other connected mobile devices.

The simple definition of mobile journalism may make it seem like no other tools are needed besides a smart phone for a journalist to be mobile, but this is not the case. While the amount of add on parts that a mobile journalist might add to their arsenal is never ending, the necessary tools are actually limited. For one, a mobile journalist needs a microphone. While smart phones have recording capabilities, it’s important to at least have ear phones with a microphone already built in. If the video ever became corrupt, with a clear audio file, the story can still be told.

The next item that is needed is a tripod or monopod. No matter how stable someone’s hands are, since smartphones have limited camera capabilities, any slight shake will appear very large when the footage is aired either on television or any internet capable device. With a tripod or monopod, either the reporter or another person simply needs to make sure the device doesn’t get bumped by a passerby.

This is so important for Hip-Hop journalism because it opens the door for more and more independent journalists and journalism outlets to get out there. There is not a need for large cameras or a camera crew for an outlet to cover a story, simply the journalist and their Mojo setup.

Mobile journalism also has an advantage over normal journalism reporting in that people are more comfortable in front of a smart phone camera than a large “official” camera. It is quite common during an interview, for the subject of the interview to be quite confident and even crack a couple of jokes, but when the camera comes on they are like a deer in headlights. In today’s society, the majority of people own smart phones, or at least have been in a video recorded on one. This normality of smart phone cameras recording has made people not take them as serious as a big news camera that needs a van to transport it. Since people are so comfortable in front of the camera, it makes interviewing way easier, since people don’t have as intense of a barrier put up on camera.

With the increasing use of Mojo in everyday journalism, it is only logical to expect it to leak into the realm of Hip-Hop journalism, hopefully propelling it to greater heights than before.

From Radio to Ultraman

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In class this week, we had a guest speaker to talk about his journey and the use of social media for his platform. The speaker was Valentí Sanjuan, a former radio personality turned Ultraman athlete. Valentí worked in radio in Barcelona in the mid 2000’s and was also pursuing another business on the side with his friends. All of a sudden, he lost everything within an eight month period. In these eight months he lost his job, his business venture with his friends, his longtime girlfriend, and his mother, who passed away suddenly. With his life in shambles, he thought about his mother’s life. For as long as he remembered, his mother and father worked and worked so that he and his sister could have a good life. Their parents enjoyed skiing, and his mother had been planning to use the first retirement check to buy ski equipment since she would have more free time. As fate would have it, she passed the month before the first check would have arrived. This forced his sister and him to look at their life and realize that anything could happen at any time, and tomorrow is never promised. They decided to make a bucket list of sorts, and started crossing items off the list. The first of these items was an Ironman race. At the time, he wasn’t in the best shape, and definitely wouldn’t be who one would expect to do a competition of this sort. In the end, he and his sister finished, and thus struck an addiction. From that one race, he decided to re-brand himself, and continue to train and push his body to finish more and more of these events, eventually competing in multiple Ultraman races and other high intensity races. He took to YouTube and other social networks, back when they were still new, to start sharing his story and inspiring others to seize the day. From the very beginning he committed himself to making a video every day, even bringing his laptop to dinner events to finish editing before the day was over. He has now built up his following to 280K on Instagram, 260K on YouTube, and 120K on Twitter. He also has his own high endurance clothing line on his personal website, and is the co-founder of Gordon Seen, a content agency that specializes in web 2.0. Now a days, Valentí can be found giving motivational speeches to venues with thousands of people, and sharing his feats of endurance on social media.

His speech taught me to take the leap in what I want to do. Tomorrow is never guaranteed and you have to do what you truly want when you can. It also taught me that in order to really be successful in something, 100 percent dedication is needed every day to truly build a brand or company. As far as improving his social media, I wouldn’t change anything because the content of the posts are clear and the frequency of the posts being published is ideal.

Citizen Journalism Hip-Hop

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In my journalism class, we discussed citizen journalism in society; Boston bomber witnesses on social media, the students in Parkland, FL during the school shooting, etc. It got me thinking about citizen journalism in reference to Hip-Hop. Although Hip-Hop journalism is a niche market, there have been only a few occasions of non-journalists with their phones on at a significant point of an artist’s life.  The main case that comes to mind is the death of XXXTentacion, which occurred this summer. The late rapper was shopping at a motorcycle shop in Florida, and a car blocked his path. The occupants of the car got out, stole his Louis Vuitton bag, and shot him. The first reporters on the scene were pedestrians, who heard the shots and came over. Video of him unconscious and bleeding in his car quickly took to Twitter, leading to speculation as to whether or not they were real. The videos of him in the car are graphic and viewer discretion is advised.

(XXXTentacion death videos)

It was not for another hour and a half that he would be declared dead by the county sheriff’s office. Some outlets such as TMZ and XXL broke the news of death then on twitter.

With the advancements of social media and the fact that a majority of cell phones have recording capabilities, it is safe to say that citizen journalism is going nowhere. However, the necessity for it in Hip-Hop community has yet to really be revealed. For one thing, the community of Hip-Hop itself is fairly connected. The media outlets that report on news in this community have enough connections to find out breaking news, usually before it drops anywhere else. One example is TMZ dropping the news of Mac Miller’s death in September.

Another argument against needing citizen journalists is that many rappers often break their own news. Most artists in the Hip-Hop community control their own social media accounts, interact with fans themselves, and posting their own content. Since social media can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection, artists are always able to stay connected to rebuke any false claims and share their thoughts with their followers. One example is when Vince Staples said in an interview that he thought the 90’s were overrated.

One Twitter user then tried to speak on music in north Long Beach, CA, where Staples is from.

On the other hand, simply because citizen journalism might not be necessary right now in Hip-Hop, does not mean that it should not exist. There are plenty of times where audience members are the only ones besides the artists who even have a clue as to what happened at a certain show or event. If Hip-Hop continues to grow like it has been for the last 10 years, it will be too big to not rely, at least a little bit, on citizen journalists.

New Tech Use in Hip-Hop

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Last week, Alberto Linares visited our class to talk about new augmented reality tech, virtual reality tech, chat bots, etc. Alberto is the main product developer for Everywoah, who make different AR filters and camera effects for Facebook. One example of a project that he has worked on is a promotional filter for the character “Big Shaq” created by Michael Dapaah.

He has also helped develop 360 degree apps for mobile journalists to better report in the field. One new piece of technology that he showed us was chat bots. The chat bots that he talked about were mainly ones used for food deliveries. However, he also talked about chat bots that can be used almost as a personal assistant. The user simply texts the action they want completed, such as arranging a haircut, and the chat bot works as an assistant to schedule it. He then went on to talk about how the same chat bots can translate a text or audio clip, add subtitles, or even add an intro/outro to a paper.

One piece of technology that he showed that particularly interested me is the Magic Leap 1. It is a pair of AR glasses that creators can use to make art that interacts with the actual space that the wearer is in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5246156rcQ

As far as how these new technologies can be used in hip-hop, I have a few ideas. For one, when I saw the video of the Magic Leap 1, I instantly was brought back to high school. Specifically, I was reminded of a music video that I saw growing up, “Only That Real” by Iamsu, Sage The Gemini, and 2 Chainz.

I realized that this device could turn any music video into a whole new world, made completely from the artist. Since the lenses have the ability to record what they see, it could even be used to make extra videos that play during the artists’ performance. The same technology could also be used to enhance the concert experience. In smaller venue settings, where attendants have the glasses, artists could add an AR experience to the live shows. If they are all connected to the same network, they would then be able to fully interact with the AR art that the artist already created. Obviously the technology must be advanced a little further first, but I believe this could be a new path for not only hip-hop music, but for any genre.

 

How Hip-Hop Journalism Uses Social Media

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In Hip-Hop news and journalism, social media is the main outlet for getting the message out to the masses. One example of this is the yearly XXL Freshman Class list. Although officially announced through the magazine’s website, the link is instantly tweeted out with a few of the names on the list.

The magazine also frequently uses twitter to share its newest interviews and breaking news. They aren’t the only ones to do this though. Another popular news outlet for Hip-Hop and popular culture, HotNewHipHop, also takes to twitter to drop its newest stories and share new music videos.

https://twitter.com/HotNewHipHop/status/1056841823161868289?s=20

One of Hip-Hop’s most iconic radio stations, New York’s Hot 97, even uses twitter to get its platform out. However, Twitter isn’t the only network that Hip-Hop journalists use to receive and publish information. Instagram is also a very big contributor to the breaking news of the Hip-Hop community. This is partially due to the popularity of the Instagram live feature. Many Hip-Hop artists will go on Instagram live to announce news about their music, to follow up on public events, and even possible altercations with other artists. One example of this is with the artist Desiigner. Mostly known for his hit song “Panda”, which has just south of half a billion plays on YouTube, Desiigner took to Instagram live to officially release his song “Outlet” back in 2017.

In recent weeks, no song has gotten more hype and build up around it than Kodak Black’s new song which features Travis Scott and Offset from Migos. First, a video was released that showed Kodak and Travis dancing with some other people to a beat in the studio. It quickly became a viral meme and gained a lot of popularity.

After the popularity of the snipet of the song and beat, Kodak took to Instagram to release a longer video of the beat and him dancing. This made the song even more popular, weeks before its release, and even before anyone knew what the lyrics would sound like. Many Hip-Hop journalists used these video clips to report and investigate who might be on the song and when the song might potentially make its debut.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyVu29iK4Ys

The social network blog that is probably most well known in the Hip-Hop community is WorldStarHipHop. Started in 2005, the site regularly has fights, music videos, and other youth related content daily. In 2012, BET voted WorldStar as the top Hip-Hop and urban culture website, for the third year in a row.

With social networks growing by the day, and ever connecting our world, it is only right that Hip-Hop journalists are utilizing them to spread Hip-Hop videos, news stories, and tragedies to all corners of the globe.

Holograms in Hip-Hop

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Holograms of artists at live concerts is quickly becoming a trend in multiple genres of music, especially Hip-Hop. The history of holograms in Hip-Hop goes back to 2005, when the virtual members of alternative rock/hip-hop band Gorillaz came to life on stage. During their scheduled performance at the 2005 Grammy’s, holograms of the virtual members appeared on stage, joined by Madonna in hologram form, being shortly followed by the live musicians and the real Madonna.

The next time a hologram was used in a live Hip-Hop performance, was in 2012 at Coachella music festival, where Tupac Shakur was brought back to life to perform with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. Tupac was killed in September, 1996, after a boxing match in Las Vegas, NV. The performance at Coachella was made possible by Digital Domain, due to a request from Dr. Dre for a virtual Pac to join him on stage. Although technically not a “hologram”, due to the fact that is was actually a 2-D image that was presented to look 3-D, it was the first time in nearly 16 years that anyone had seen the late Tupac on stage.

To follow up, one year later, two late Hip-Hop artists were brought back to life to grace the stage again. Both happened at the 2013 Rock the Bells concert in Los Angeles, CA. The first was Ol’ Dirty Bastard, of the Wu Tang Clan. The late rapper died of an accidental drug overdose in late 2004.

The other rapper who was brought back to life at the Rock the Bells concert, was Eazy-E, member of N.W.A. and founder of Ruthless Records. Eazy-E was one of the first gangster rappers in LA, and founded legendary group N.W.A. alongside Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella. Eazy-E was brought on stage during Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s set.

Another Hip-Hop legend who may have a return in the works is Notorious B.I.G. Biggie’s estate stated in 2016 that a hologram was soon to be in the works to keep his legacy alive. However, two and a half years later, and there has been no word on whether or not this project will ever be brought to life.There have been a few rumors of a newer artist who is said to become a hologram, XXXTentacion. The 20 year old was killed early this summer after visiting a motorcycle shop. Although news on this topic is slim, a short video has been leaked of this hologram.

https://youtu.be/snOexV8g2ks

With advancing technology, there is no limit to which artists will be brought to life next with holograms.

How Social Media Changed Hip-Hop

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As of 2018, Hip-Hop has become the most popular genre in the U.S., thanks to social media. To see this journey, we must go back to the “first” viral Hip-Hop song, “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” by Soulja Boy Tell’em.

This debut single was originally uploaded to YouTube in 2007 and gained a lot of traction, eventually peaking at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. The success of “Crank That” would open the door for other artists to utilize the internet and social media to gain fans and exposure with their music. One artist who would utilize this is Wiz Khalifa. Although having a good following and getting radio time, in 2009, Wiz Khalifa was still a relatively new rapper in the mainstream. Utilizing Twitter, he would interact with fans and collaborate by having producers send him beats. Some of them even made it onto one of his most iconic mixtapes “Kush and Orange Juice”.

Since then, many artists have used social media to collaborate with other artists, communicate with fans, and release new music, so much so that it is almost the norm. One platform that had a big hand in making that switch is SoundCloud. Founded in 2007, it is a platform that allows any artist to independently release their own music without the need for a label. The site is set up in such a way that artists with large followings, and artists with small followings, have the same exposure to those users who have not heard of them. This fair chance makes it so anyone can have a song “blow up” and suddenly their lives are changed forever. One example of an artist who was able to go from unknown, to doing shows internationally, Post Malone.

Post Malone uploaded the song “White Iverson” to SoundCloud in February of 2015, and went to bed. He awoke the next morning a sensation, being mentioned on Twitter by names such as Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller. From this, was able he to secure a record deal and both of his albums released are multi-platinum.

From left to right, Metro Boomin, Post Malone, and Quavo of Migos, pose with their platinum plaque for the single “Congratulations”

With so many different social media platforms, music can reach people from all over the U.S. and even the world. It has made it so any artist can reach listeners from all over, whether they are a rapper from Philadelphia with an Atlanta sound, or a 16 year old from South Florida. The easily accessible music and the ability to self-promote themselves through social media has launched artists to new heights, and made Hip-Hop the top genre in the U.S.