Music Industry: Hip-Hop

1011 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Globalisation of hip hop

Within the music industry and hip-hop genre in particular, lucrative endorsement deals and fat royalty checks have long been commonplace. However very rarely does an artist smash through the demographic boundaries of rap to become a cross-cultural, multi-categorical, living brand, and consumer icon. That is exactly what Shawn Corey Carter, more commonly known by his alias “Jay-Z”, has done.

As a brand and a leading cultural intermediary, Jay-Z has accumulated an extensive portfolio of entrepreneurial interests and has been highly influential in mainstream culture. He is one of the few hip-hop artists whose lyrics regularly contain references outside the standard hip-hop vocabulary of sex, drugs, and violence. Instead he prefers to tactfully utilize his music as a platform to grow his empire of a personal brand and create a cult-like following. Jay-Z describes himself as a mogul and a business, “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man” (Rice 2013). His consistent mentioning of brands and various collaborations with them indicate “his legitimacy as a self-made businessman” (Bereznak 2013). While its true Jay-Z came from relatively humble beginnings, growing up hustling and selling drugs on the streets of Brooklyn; his story remains more than one of rags to riches (Sanneh 2006). He had a vision that extended well beyond rapping and skillfully built his business by exemplifying his lifestyle as a conscious choice, “My brands are an extension of me” (Sonny 2013).

Jay-Z’s brand equity is clearly a derivative of his musical abilities and his overriding success as a hip-hop artist. Selling upwards of 75 million copies of his albums worldwide and being handed 17 Grammy Awards in the process, as well as numerous more nominations. Jay...

... middle of paper ...

...ns of a Hustler”, New York Times accessed on the 26th of March, 14

Sonny, J. (2013), “The 15 Reasons Why Jay-Z is The Quintessential Businessman”, Elite Daily accessed on the 23rd of March, 14

Sonny-Early, N. (2013), “Complete List of Every Product Endorsed by Jay-Z”, Vulture accessed on the 26th of March, 14

Taube, A. (2013), “Jay Z’s Brand Is Suffering Because People Don’t Trust Him Anymore”, Business Insider accessed on the 26th of March, 14

Uncles, M. (2011), “Perspectives on Brand Management”, Tilde University Press, Prahran, Victoria, Australia

Show More
Related

  • Lupe Fiasco: Expragic Trickster In Hip-Hop Music

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every hip-hop/rap generation a lot new fresh upcoming aspiring rappers who wishes to go down in hip-hop culture as one of the greatest. Some of them are merely one hit wonders; others go on to silicify their mark in the Hip-Hop culture becoming great artists. In the year 2006 the hip-hop world was introduced to a future superstar by the named of Lupe Fiasco. Lupe Fiasco has become one of hip-hop fastest rising superstar ever since releasing his first album. Although many listeners find some of his music very controversial, yet Fiasco is one of the few artists whose music teaches people about current events that the world has turned the blind eye to, and Lupe lyrical trickster, story teller.

    Read More

  • Jay-Z Bio

    369 Words  | 1 Pages

    Soon after doing this he began looking for a record deal as a solo artist. But Shawn just wasn’t getting lucky. It wasn't until a friend, Roc-A-Fella CEO Damon Dash, convinced him to form a record company with him that Jay-Z's career finally got off the ground. Jay-Z released his first single through Roc-A-Fella in 1995, "In My Lifetime." It was a hit in New York, and helped Dash secure a distribution deal for Jay-Z’s first album, “Reasonable Doubt.”

    Read More

  • Lil Wayne: Theories of Personality

    2833 Words  | 6 Pages

    Raised as an only child, Dwayne Micheal Carter Jr or more commonly referred to as Lil Wayne, was born September 27th, 1982, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Carter’s mother was only 19 years old when he was first born. He was being raised by both his mother and father until his father abandoned them while Dwayne Jr. was only two years old. After being abandoned by his biological father, his mother was forced to take care of him on her own and survive in the crime infested community of Holly grove, New Orleans. Even though he divorced his mother and remarried, his father forced the two live with his own mother and came by to abuse Lil Wayne’s mother on a consistent basis.This situation went on for three years until Lil Wayne’s mother eventually remarried and relocated to a different part of town. Growing up he did very well in school. He was actually enrolled in his school’s gifted program at a point and received top grades. He got into music at a very young age and wrote his first rap song at the age of eight. Lil Wayne had the drive to be the best and successful at his craft since he first began. At the age of nine he was challenging others twice his age and older at rapping. He would consistently go to neighborhood parties or events to rap and most of the time he was better then whatever adult he was going against. As a testament to this, at the age of nine he start receiving attention from one of the two co-founders of his future label, Slim Williams. From Slim, he then received other co-founder, Bryan Williams, phone number and what he did with it after that was truly caught the Bryan’s attention. He continuously called the number over and over leaving rap songs on the voicemail of Williams until he agreed to meet him in person...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Gospel Rap And Civility: Chance The Rappe

    2407 Words  | 5 Pages

    People from many generations may think that today’s music shows virtually nothing. This generations rap music mainly circles around how much money you receive from rapping, how much women you receive from rapping, and how much drugs you receive from rapping. There is rare few times where rap artist come out of this circle, to talk about real life experiences, issues within the world, and how this affects certain diversities. Baruti N. Kopano, an assistant professor of Mass Communications at Delaware State University, does a study on the rhetorical legacy of rap music. He starts off in this article how rap music to him is a legacy with rich history, “For rappers, ‘keepin it real’ means being

    Read More

  • Hip-Hop and To Kill a Mockingbird

    705 Words  | 2 Pages

    Those with access to traditional sources of power can affect society by utilizing their status to influence the perspective of a stereotype. Jay-Z, with his prestigious empire of wealth and international impact, is a perfect example of this sort of power brokering. Jay-Z has become a cultural icon to the black and minority masses, having seen him grow from a young hip hop rapper to a music and film producer, actor and extremely successful entrepreneur. Through lyrics, both his own and of other rappers he produces, he manipulates his massive fanbase to support his movement to stop the racist stereotypes put in place against blacks and other minorities by the (typically white) elitist leaders of business and politics. For example, Jay-Z blames his childhood experience on Ronald Reagan, who was President from 1981-1989, which was during the crack epidemic. Through the following lyrics from the rap Blue Magic, “Blame Reagan for makin’ me into a monster” (“Blue Magic”), Jay-Z highlights to his listeners the oppressive actions of the elitist leadership. His use of “...

    Read More

  • Gangsta Rappers: Nihilistic Villains?

    911 Words  | 2 Pages

    As the hip-hop battle rages on in the background somewhere between the black literati, consumers and observers, I stand objectively nodding religiously to Lupe Fiasco as he creates a narrative surrounding personified life of a housing complex each component, the legs, the chest, a different facet of living in the hood. Some would pose Lupe as a Hip-Hop alternative, glorifying his intellectualism and political consciousness, at the expense of demonizing other less academically articulate rap artists. Maybe they deserve it. Maybe they are ill educated and uncultured. But does that delegitimize their message? Understanding the messages of many gangsta rap artists is a complex task for those whose lived experiences don’t relate. We need to find an alternative way to comprehend and critique the music that we dismiss as garbage. What are rappers really saying? Michal P. Jefferies’ work Thug Life, provides us with alternative tools to answer this question. I seek to further explore Jefferies “complex cool” and how it allows for a thug masculinity to include love and other emotional sentiments.

    Read More

  • Hip-Hop as a Cultural Movement

    1580 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...olka, Petr Bc., and Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel. “Black or White: Commercial Rap Music and Authenticity.” Masaryk University Faculty of Arts, Department of

    Read More

  • Hip Hop as an Industry

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    Light, Alan. "About a Salary or Reality? – Rap’s Recurrent Conflict." Rpt. in That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Ed. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. 137-146. Print.

    Read More

  • Hip Hop and the Recording Industry

    693 Words  | 2 Pages

    Negus, Keith. "The Business of Rap: Between the Street and the Executive Suite." Rpt. in That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Ed. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. 525-540. Print.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of 'Kanye West'

    2063 Words  | 5 Pages

    I was so interested in the truth that I suspended my assumptions about West as I pursued more information through research, giving me an objective lens. It truly rattled me to have been so wrong in my assumptions, it felt weird to know that because of something I didn’t know, I had believed something. It genuinely shook my self-confidence. I really prided myself on my knowledge of Hip-Hop, I thought I knew all the classic albums, how could I have overlooked this one for so long? So, jolted by this sting of self embarrassment, I searched further, I wanted to know what else I had been oblivious to. It became increasingly clearer to me that there were two completely opposite views about Kanye, the more popular view: he’s a worthless egotistical pop star, who’s created nothing of value, and, as I was shocked to learn over time, the informed view, and the truth, that he was and is one the most influential artists of the 21’st

    Read More

  • Essay About Rap Music

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rap music from the 1990’s to the year 2000 is known in hip hop as “the golden era”. This era is all about individuality and innovation of creating music in one of the newest musical art forms. Rap music started out as the expression of young black youths in the inner city of New York. Rap music is rhymed storytelling accompanied by highly rhythmic, electronically based music. It began in the mid-1970s in the South Bronx in New York City as a part of hip hop, composed of graffiti, breakdancing, and rap music. From the outset, rap music has articulated the pleasures and problems of black urban life in contemporary America. Rappers speak with the voice of personal experience, taking on the identity of the observer or narrator. Rap music has lost a lot of it purity and essence due to the multimillion dollar business. Rap music is always critizied because of it’s violent and sexual nature but its just reporting what is views in this cold world.(Rose, 1994)

    Read More

  • Hip Hop's Effect on American Culture

    3349 Words  | 7 Pages

    Hip hop has permeated popular culture in an unprecedented fashion. Because of its crossover appeal, it is a great unifier of diverse populations. Although created by black youth on the streets, hip hop's influence has become well received by a number of different races in this country. A large number of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. It has gone from the fringes, to the suburbs, and into the corporate boardrooms. Because it has become the fastest growing music genre in the U.S., companies and corporate giants have used its appeal to capitalize on it. Although critics of rap music and hip hop seem to be fixated on the messages of sex, violence, and harsh language, this genre offers a new paradigm of what can be (Lewis, 1998.) The potential of this art form to mend ethnic relations is substantial. Hip hop has challenged the system in ways that have unified individuals across a rich ethnic spectrum. This art form was once considered a fad has kept going strong for more than three decades. Generations consisting of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians have grown up immersed in hip-hop. Hip hop represents a realignment of America?s cultural aesthetics. Rap songs deliver a message, again and again, to keep it real. It has influenced young people of all races to search for excitement, artistic fulfillment, and a sense of identity by exploring the black underclass (Foreman, 2002). Though it is music, many people do not realize that it is much more than that. Hip hop is a form of art and culture, style, and language, and extension of commerce, and for many, a natural means of living. The purpose of this paper is to examine hip hop and its effect on American culture. Different aspects of hip hop will also be examined to shed some light that helps readers to what hip hop actually is. In order to see hip hop as a cultural influence we need to take a look at its history.

    Read More

  • Th Future of Hip Hop

    1612 Words  | 4 Pages

    From its conception in the 1970's and throughout the 1980's, hip hop was a self-contained entity within the community that created it. This means that all the parameters set for the expression came from within the community and that it was meant for consumption by the community. Today, the audience is from outside of the community and doesn’t share the same experiences that drive the music. An artists’ success hinges on pleasing consumers, not the community. In today's world, it isn’t about music that rings true for those who share the artists' experiences, but instead, music that provides a dramatic illusion for those who will never share the experiences conveyed. This has radically changed the creative process of artists and the diversity of available music. Most notably, it has called in to question the future of hip hop.

    Read More

  • Essay On Hip Hop

    1326 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hip-hop was a cultural movement. It emerged in the early 1970s from the South Bronx. Hip-hop came from the “ghetto” and it became a cultural force of social protest and creativity. But from the 1990s and onward hip-hop changed from a cultural creative production to one of mass consumption. Hip-hop began to grow and through mass marketing targeting larger and whiter audiences hip-hop evolved in to relying on the images of crime and sex. Hip-hop has changed from a tool of social change to cars, women, and drugs. There is a gap between the civil rights movement and the newer hip-hop generation. This is not to say that there are not artists in the hip-hop community that talk about things that need to change such as racism, exploitation of the poor, police brutality, and the lack of education for the black and the poor. But the mainstream music on the radio is mostly about female body parts shaking and grinding, having sex, getting really drunk, high, and/or violent. It is not entirely the fault of hip-hop artists there are people who do not know Malcom X, Susan B. Anthony, or Thurgood Marshall but most people will know overrated artists with trash lyrics such as Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Soulja Boy, and 2 Chainz.What once was a helpful tool for creating social change is now hurtful. Hip-hop has created a lot of powerful African Americans with a lot of money and influence but it has ceased to have its power reflect and reveal social awareness to inspire culture change because not many rap about the need for change. By exploring the change of hip-hop from the civil rights movement to the modern day hip-hop this paper will attempt to show that hip-hop has been grown from a powerful tool of social awareness in to a monster of mass consumpt...

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay About Rap Music

    1040 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rap is becoming more popular than ever, soon most of the world will have some type of knowledge of rap music. Rachel Sullivan from the University of Connecticut stated “White respondents in this survey had difficulty naming three rap artists, which indicated that they did not have a high level of commitment to the music.” This statement was produced in 2003, also seemed to be very one dimensional. Recently, rap music has been surging through the masses no matter the race. Furthermore, rap is becoming very prevalent especially in the youth of this era. Many trends, commercials, social media, etc. are revolving around rap music.

    Read More

More about Music Industry: Hip-Hop

Open Document