Contrary to popular perceptions of hip hop artists, I've always had an admiration for the intellect and business savvy of some of hip hop's biggest stars. Hip hop is a world full of branding. The most obvious sign of this are the consistent use of and heavy promotion of their "stage" names. Jay-Z, Diddy, Biggie, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Emimen, 50 cent, etc... Additionally, some of them are savvy enough to leverage their own brand names to help bring up other "new" brands under their umbrella, or to increase their marketshare through cross-promotions with other artists. As an example, Dr. Dre, the infamous and highly successful rapper/producer has brought to the music scene legendary artists such as Snoop Dogg and Eminem by introducing those artists as featured artists in his CDs, "Chronic" and "Chronic 2001", respectively. Many other hip hop stars have done the same thing. When one takes a closer look at the hip hop industry, one would be able to find many examples of cross-promotions through lyrical collaboration amongst various artists. Sometimes it's a colloboration between two rappers, or one rapper and one r&b (rythm and blues) singer, and sometimes it's with artists from a totally different music genre. As an example, in 2004, Jay-Z (rapper) and Linkin Park (rock band) have collaborated on their "Crash Collision" album. Their success closely mirrors the success that was achieved in 1986 in a collaboration between Run DMC (arguably the first hip hop super stars) and Aerosmith (a major rock band).
When one wants to find examples of branding, one needs to go no further than picking up or downloading a popular hip hop album.
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1 comment:
Interesting post.
Certainly true that known hip hop stars actively promote up-and-coming stars. I find it interesting that the endorsement usually recedes quickly as the new 'brand' takes off, so as not to overly dilute the master hip hop brand (for example Dr. Dre), and because the endorsement is no longer necessary for the sub-brand.
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