Thursday, October 24, 2013

GREATNESS : MUSIC BUSINESS: ESSAY : HIP HOP branding of America

Emmanuel Llamas


HipAmeraHop
A group of high school kids are wearing colorful Nike Jordan shoes, baseball fitted hats, and Sean John jeans at their prestige private school, a blonde cheerleader is wearing hoop earrings while working on a choreographed routine to a Beyonce song, a corporate executive is listening to a Jay-Z album in his Mercedes Maybach with shiny rims, Warren Buffet and Jay-Z sit down together for a Forbes interview, while veteran rapper Common is giving a live performance at the White House. This is hip-hop culture, this is pop culture, all rolled in one. Hip-hop as an art form and a sub culture has influenced mainstream American pop culture throughout Hip-hop’s young journey as a music genre. Hip-hop has come along way, gaining respect as a culture and art form while doing so. With a rich history, influences on style, attitude, and business, hip-hop has gone through different stages as an art form; ultimately further influencing pop-culture as it progresses through time.
                Hip-hop began in the mid 1970’s, the birthplace being in New York City, specifically in the Brooklyn burros. The term Hip-hop itself is widely agreed as being coined by pioneers of the genre such as Busy Bee Starski, DJ Hollywood, and DJ Afika Bambaataa.  Hip-hop started out as an organic music form, with no real boundaries, but simply meant to be a vein for expression of life in the inner city. “This genre began with…funky beats resonating at house parties, basement parties, and the streets of New York” (1) explains Dr. Reese Rendford in his study on hip-hop titled “From the Fringe: The Hip Hop Culture and Ethnic Relations”. It is at this time that youth urban black Americans began the sound and style that we today know as Hip-hop. As previous music art forms have developed from inner-city African American neighborhoods such as jazz in the 1930’s and crossing over into mainstream white America as “swing” music, Hip-hop too has in the early 1980’s transitioned into the mainstream spotlight.   
                Business savvy members of the founding community of hip-hop noticed that the culture was on to something bigger, and capable of penetrating culture past inner city souls. It was this realization that began hip-hops transition into a crossover appeal for mainstream America, and now only a matter of time until further investors would help bring hip-hop music to the forefront. The year is 1979 when the first commercial rap group exploded onto the mainstream music scenes. This original group from New York was called the Sugar Hill Gang, and was navigated to the top of the billboard charts with its smash single “Rappers Delight.”  The single was a 34# hit on the pop charts, and 4# hit on the RnB charts. A second big leap for the culture was when Russell Simmons (the first hip-hop mulitmillonaire entrepreneur) started a record company named Def Jam Records in the early 1990’s, being the home to the next wave of Hip-hop pop stars such as Run DMC and The Beastie Boyz. Russell Simmons in Dr. Reese Rendford’s study expresses “ Hip-hop has transcended beyond just music. It has become a lifestyle and/or a culture for people worldwide. Hip-hop is an attitude and hip-hop is a language in which a kid from Detroit can relate to a kid in Hong Kong. Seventy-five percent of our audience is nonblack kids. Now you have kids in Beverly Hills who are sensitive to situations in Compton" (2). This international connection is vital to why Hip-hop has had such commercial success. For example, according to Recording Industry Association of America by 1997 rock music accounted for 32.5 percent of the industry's $12.3 billion in sales during 1997; but this figure is down from 46.2 percent a decade ago, meanwhile rap music's share of sales has increased 150% over the last ten years and is still rising. This is strong evidence revealing Hip-hops position as the growing music giant it is now today.  With this trend continuing into the 21st century, it is no surprise to find Eminem as holder to the highest record sales album of 2010, and with 7 hip-hop artist attributing to the top 10 selling singles for 2010, as reported by Billboard. The escalating musical progression in Hip-hop has not contained itself simply within the recording industry’s playing field, but also influenced movies and sitcoms with their style and attitude, further progressing hip-hop’s seat in the limelight.
            Hip-hops cross over effect sparked influence amongst Hollywood movies and television network sitcoms.  Sitcoms such as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Martin depict characters dressing in 1990’s hip hop fashion, using African American comedy, with both shows being widely successful amongst a wide spread audience. Movies such as Boys In the Hood and Friday are another two highly successful endevours, both illustrating the rough life in the inner-cities.  However, when discussing Hip-hops leap into the mainstream American culture, Hip-hops “golden era” (as described by the majority of hip-hop artist) is the true innovator and path paver for the road to pop-culture.
            The “Golden Era” of Hip-hop, and the founding era that laid the foundation for what Hip-hop is today occurred during the 1990’s. Kevin Powell, a American poet, activist, writer, and entrepreneur stated in an interview for the Rolling Stoned “…simply this [was] a period in time when hip hop, or specifically rap music, was incrediably exciting, fresh, def, and diverse” (1).  It is at this time that hip-hops creativity was at an all time high, perhaps because corporate America had not fully exploited the genre yet, and had not started to influence hip-hop artist with means to increase company profits. During this span in the 1990’s the diversity was prolific, with gangsta rap group N.W.A and conciouse rappers Public Enemy both molding two distinctive sounds for the genre that are still two popular topics contemporary Hip-hop artist explore. It is also during this “golden era” that Hip-hop’s fashion sense caught on to the greater American culture, with big companies taking notice, and reaching out to the Hip-hop community further enhance Hip-hops influential forces.
American style and pop culture’s sense of dress have been influenced by Hip-hops swag. “The Hip-hop style as evolved through out the decades, but starting in the 1990’s baggy jeans, baseball caps, expensive sneakers, and jewelry were a fashion hit” (2), as author Marc Spiegler announces in his study “Making Street Culture: Bringing Hip Hop style to the Main Stream”. Starting in inner-cities and spreading into the suburbs, America had to acknowledge Hip-hops influential fashion. But why and how has Hip-hop been able to influence suburban America? Dr. Reese Rendford declares “young urban blacks have used the dress of upper crust whites as a manisfestation of their lack of power in American society. While actual material success maybe unattainable, the rationale for adorning expensive Polo shirts, blue jeans and sneakers is to present an image of success. Suburban white kids scoff at the material success of their parents and their parents' friends. One way to express this disdain, is by identifying with the renegade image of the street. Many white kids are cultural tourists who romanticize the very ghetto life that so many black kids want to escape. Instead of the terrible mortality rate for young black males, they see the glamour of violence. Instead of the frustration of people denied jobs and hope and respect, they see the verbal defiance of that frustration."(2) It is the rebellion in Hip-hop style that white American youth appreciate, and this translates to the funky sense of dress adorned by Hip-hop artist. Furthermore, Ivan Juzang of Motivational Educational Entertainment, a six-year-old Philadelphia firm specializing in targeting urban youth states  "All young people buy into rebellion in general, as part of rebelling against parental authority." Corporate companies such as Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, and Nautica have witnessed this influence on dress to the extent of working with Hip-hop artist on marketing campaigns. For example Tommy Hilfiger used hard core rappers Method Man and Treach a member of Naughty by Nature for a 1996 ad campaign. Following in Hilfigers footsteps, Ralph Lauren used Tyrese a R n B singer for a ad campaign the following year, and the list of high fashion companies and Hip-hop artist goes on and on. With Hip-hop artist known for entrepreneurial pursuits, it was not long until rappers realized this phenomenom then selves, and were in a postion in where they could start their own clothing companies. Sean “Diddy” Combs startd Sean John clothing in 1998, helping bring Diddy’s 2011 net worth to over 400 million dollars. Shawn “Jay Z” Carter got his piece of the pie by starting Roc-a-wear clothing, which he sold in 2005 to Iconix Brand Group for 200 million dollars. Hip-hops partnership with corporate America goes farther than merely fashion, due to its impact on culture, companies have worked with Hip-hop artist in an array of different industries.
 The collaboration amongst corporate companies and Hip-hop artist has been a continuing success throughout the past two decades. With many examples to share , let just a few selected following partnerships help give a better understanding of this marking marriage. Coca Cola works with Krs-One in the 1996 for an NBA commercial, Coca Cola works with Drake for a commercial in 2010, Reebok worked with Jay Z in the late 90’s and with 50 cent in the middle 2000’s, Ford just this year (2011) is using Nelly during a Grammy Awards commercial, Louis Vuitton has worked on a shoe design with Kanye West, Boost Mobile used The Game and Young Jeezy for a 2004 campaign, even technology giants such as Hewlett Packard teamed up with Jay Z in 2006, …etc. If Hip-hop were not influencing pop culture, then these previous marketing campaigns would not have manifested, and would not continue to exist.
In order to grasp how far Hip-hop artist have came and the potential of such artist careers, let Shawn “Jay Z” Carter’s career be a mirror for the journey of a enormously successful rapper. Like many rappers, Jay Z hails from a tough neighborhood, and was raised by a single mother in the Marcy projects of Brooklyn, New York. However, out of this rough up bringing and surrounding influences of the ghetto, Jay Z as emerged as one most successful recording artist of all time, and a half a billion dollar net worth entrepreneur. Jay Z has sold over 50 million records world wide, won 8 Grammy’s, has had 11 number one debuting albums (which is the most ever by any artist, just surpassing Elvis Presley, and with only The Beatles having more), and just this year at the age of 42 realized his most recent album, which was number one debuting album in 23 different countries. As for his entrepreneurial spirit, Jay Z owns the record label Roc Nation, sold his previous label Roc-a-Fella records, is a part owner of the New Jersey Nets, and part owner of up-scale sports bar chain restaurants names the 40/40 CLUB. These are all astronomical accomplishments considering Sean Carter was a drug dealer and did not release his first album until the age of 26. What is even more awe-inspiring by Jay Z is his longevity in a music genre that is predominately associated with a youth culture target market. With Jay Z’s career as an illustration of how Hip-hop has broken boundaries, became big business, the admiration for the craft, and the over all longevity as a high selling music genre (Jay has been releasing albums since 1996), it is evident Hip-hop is a juggernaut influence on America, and will continue to be as it continues to evolve in the future.



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