An insightful article submitted by Natalia J. @RapTV

How Marketing and Hip Hop Work Together?

In the past, RapTV has reported and illustrated the financial elements of rap and hip hop. While other types of music certainly talk about the good life and financial pleasures. Rap, especially focus on these themes. Why? Because the struggle to reach financial success is a fundamental part of Rap and Hip Hop in a way that it simply isn’t in other types of music. You will probably never hear a Country music song about how cool it is to ride around in a new Ferrari, just like you will probably never hear a Rap sound about how cool it is to drive around in a muddy track. There is a romanticizing of the so-called “simple life” in Country music that does not, and probably will never, exist in Rap of Hip Hop

Hip Hop and Marketing

It should come as no surprise that rappers and hip hop artists are some of the best marketers and self-promoters in the music industry. This has largely to do with the fact that many of these musicians see themselves not only as artists but also as businesspeople. As such, they have taken steps to market themselves in new and unique ways.

Hip Hop Musicians Embrace Video Marketing 

Hip Hop and Rap music were perhaps the first genres to fully embrace music videos. While many of these videos were primitive by today’s standards, Rap and Hip Hop artists showed the rest of the music industry what could be done in terms of marketing with elaborate music videos. Prior to many of the Hip Hop artists who were inspired by the video, there was Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” The music video for
“Thriller” was more like a mini-movie than anything like what audiences were used to seeing at the time, and it was enormously successful. Young Rap and Hip Hop artists took note, and the results are what we see today: Many creative and high-quality music videos that actually improve the overall aesthetic of songs. 

Hip Hop Understands Brand Recognition

One of the unique results of Rappers and Hip Hop artists thinking of themselves not only as musicians but also as entrepreneurs is that they understand the value of brand recognition. Unlike Rock and Roll groups, which would never (or almost never) dream of saying the name of their band or group within a song, the practice is quite common among rap and hip hop songs. Just think, for example, of Mike Jones whose catchphrase that he uttered many times in his songs was, quite literally, his name. “Mike Jones, Mike Jones.” You’ve probably heard it because it probably stuck with you. Also popular is having DJ voice-overs announce briefly announce who is featured on the track. This was especially important during a time when so much new Rap and Hip Hop was being created that consumers were having a hard time keeping track of everything. 

Hip Hop Uses Marketing for Unique Distribution

Rappers and Hip Hop artists were among the first to embrace direct-to-consumers styles of distribution. Now artists as big as Beyoncé have taken to doing their own digital releases. Many musicians favor this style of distribution because it enables them to have more control of the end product as they no longer need to rely on the input of music executives.

Now that you know how marketing and Hip Hop work together, you will start to notice all of the interesting ways that Hip Hop artists use marketing to reach new and old fans. Open your eyes and ears, and you will see all types of subtle content marketing that you may never have noticed before.