Hip-Hop- Subculture or Super Brand

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Hip-Hop: Subculture or Super Brand?

How understanding hip-hop culture can inform effective marketing communications

By Chris Arning and Ednyfed Tappy

of Flamingo International

We believe that a true understanding of the appeal of hip-hop can have valuable

implications for marketers seeking to connect with young people. Hip-hop

incorporates a number of key values which resonate powerfully with the youth

target. This paper seeks to describe and explore these values and how they

work, before articulating the interaction between hip-hop and the world of

brands an interaction which has rich potential if it can be properly harnessed.

Hip-Hop Version ix 03.10.2003 9559 2

I Introduction: The supposition made in the title of this project is that hip-hop is two things simultaneously: a pervasive and arguably hegemonic sub-culture and a multifarious mainstream entertainment source with mass appeal. We feel that hip-hop has, and continues to have, both directly and second hand, a major enriching influence on popular culture. Though it started as a fringe presence, it now has massive clout and influence. We suspect that this influence, to their ultimate detriment, remains unacknowledged by many marketers attempting to address the emerging hip-hop generation. We also believe that brand stakeholders, amongst others, have often failed to apprehend and acknowledge hip-hop in its own right as a cultural phenomenon. This has led marketers to some wrong-headed assumptions about what hip-hop means to young people. Hip-hop has often been ghettoised as esoterica or a black thing. Although the establishment is belatedly showing more interest, we feel that hip-hop still suffers ghettoisation as a self-contained entity existing at the margins. Consequently, it has historically been relegated to the periphery or misunderstood and misrepresented, not least in its portrayal in the media. Media channels have either regrettably fixated on the negative manifestations of hip-hop culture: violence, misogyny and profanity or have sought to parody hip-hop for comic effect. We would argue this presents a grossly distorted picture of hip-hop and dismisses failing to account for hip-hops ubiquity, enduring popularity and multi-facetedness. This can also lead to superficial treatments of hip-hop in communication which fail to resonate with the consumer. Marketers are now faced with a challenge - how to unlock the potential of hip-hop culture to speak relevantly to young people. How this paper can help We aim to demonstrate that hip-hop has a number of facets with deep cultural resonance. We follow with an expos of how understanding hip-hops values can feed into meaningful brand communications activity. We feel that there are three very compelling reasons to take a closer look at hip-hop. a) Its status as a global culture Hip-hop culture, the powerful, expressive medium of Americas urban black poor, has created a global youth movement of considerable significance Paul Gilroy The Black Atlantic


Over the past 3 decades and counting, hip-hop has evolved, proving its capacity to perpetually adapt and re-invent itself so as to remain fresh and relevant as times, contexts, locales, and indeed the hip-hop industry itself have moved on. Into the 21st century hip-hop has diversified from being an urban sub-culture particular to a specific place and group of people to a fully global culture both in terms of audience and participants. Hip-hop slang and what we might call a hip-hop aesthetic has been metabolised by millions of people. Beyond its geographical reach hip-hop has infiltrated, and to a large extent defines a whole generation of under 35s the hip-hop generation. b) Its status as a global business One stratum of hip-hop has peeled off and become a globalised, commercialised and in some respects more homogeneous form of entertainment. Tellingly, this monolithic stratum of hip-hop co-exists with what might be termed the underground stratum which remains a fragmented, localised art form with its own more parochial concerns. The more commercialised hip-hop music now outsells country and rock in its biggest market, America, and has become the biggest selling music genre there. Although hip-hop remains firmly anchored in music, broader lifestyle and consumer choices stem from it. Indeed, hip-hop is a massive revenue generating entity. Since the early to mid-nineties hip-hop has really come into its own as a vastly profitable business and continues its exponential growth. Hip-hops revenue streams are multiple, and interlocking1: music, television, cinema, clothing, fashion, sports apparel, drinks, console games and miscellaneous other products. Some estimate that it now represents a 1 billion $US industry in the US market alone. c) Its status as a powerful motor of brand growth Hip-hop has become a very potent vehicle for brands. Record mogul Russell Simmons of Def Jam records has called hip-hop the most powerful brand building community in the world. But what is unique about hip-hop, we would argue, is that this relationship is not purely exploitative but symbiotic. Brands have been quasi-endemic to hip-hop from its very beginnings, a time when the corporate world was indifferent - if not openly dismissive towards what it saw as a passing fad. To an unprecedented degree, hip-hop is a cultural movement that has fruitfully assimilated brands and actively made them part of its discourse - enabling reconciliation of its cultural and commercial facets without overly compromising on currency and appeal. We return to this theme and develop the hip-hop-brand parallel further by showing how hip-hop, in several different guises, can be viewed as a metaphor for a brand.

1 Hip-hop artists are brand savvy and from the beginning have been skilled self-propagandists. Cross-promotional opportunities abound for the hip-hop entrepreneur such as P Diddy (formerly Puff Daddy)


Whereas some strands of contemporary culture display growing antipathy to the power of brands, hip-hop and brands enjoy an often mutually adoring relationship. We believe this is germane to thinking on brand building and feeds into ongoing debates about the future of marketing communications. Before we move on to discussing these brand issues, we will anatomise hip-hop as a culture, and illuminate what we have identified as its most important dynamics. As qualitative researchers constantly working with youth brands, we have deliberately sought to focus on the demand side of the equation. We have concentrated on the consumers and practitioners rather than the producers of hip-hop culture.

II Methodologyi Our research methodology was designed to investigate what hip-hop means to those who feel themselves part of it or who buy into the culture at one level or another. One of the principal findings of this research is not only the pervasiveness of hip-hop but also its richness and multifariousness. Its a sub-culture of mostly youth and its a way of dress, its a way of living, its an attitude that you carry yourself living with, its not just music, it definitely affects a whole group of people. Hip-Hop Periphery The research employed a number of inter-related methodologies, and was conducted over the course of a year, enabling us to reassess our findings on an ongoing basis. The study ran from April 2002 to April 2003. Firstly, we called upon internal expertise for initial ideas on how to approach the project. This was followed by a round of desk research and review of the existing literature on the subject. Secondly, we conducted a combination of vox pops, expert interviews (DJs, cultural historians, journalists), friendship triads and mini-groups. In terms of our sample design, we deliberately spoke to people with differing levels of engagement with hip-hop: Core: We spoke to people who were very close to the culture, for whom hip-hop is a constitutive part of their life. In hip-hop slang they would be termed: hip-hop heads. We call them Hip-Hop Core. Periphery: We also spoke to a more mainstream audience, people who appreciate certain aspects of hip-hop but who do not necessarily define themselves by it. We call them Hip-Hop Periphery.


Mainstream: We also convened one mainstream group in the suburbs as a benchmark control. We also conducted numerous vox pops interviews in and around London in Chiswick, Hammersmith, Kensington, Brixton, Greenwich. The fieldwork was confined to the UK, though from our studies and observations there are similarities to be drawn in Europe, as well as the US and Asia. Consumer Groups Group Age Typology Location 1 16-18 Male Hip-Hop Core

Enfield

2 20-21 Male

Hip-Hop Periphery Stoke Newington

3 20-21 Female Hip-HopPeriphery

Stoke Newington

4 20-21 Male Hip-Hop Core

Hounslow

5 25-30 Male Hip-Hop Periphery

Covent Garden

6 20-21 Male

Hip-Hop Core

Camden Town

7 20-21 Mixed Mainstream

Epsom

Vox Pops Typology Location Mainstream x 10 Chiswick Mainstream x 10 Hammersmith Mainstream x 10 Hammersmith Mainstream x 10 Kensington Mainstream x 10 Kensington Mainstream x 10 Brixton Experts Name Occupation DJ 279 DJ Choice FM 97.9 fm

Friday Night Flavas Andy Cowan Editor of Hip-Hop

Connection Magazine Dan Greenpeace DJ Xfm 104.9 fm

All City Show Breakin Bread Hip-Hop DJs and

Producers Nathan Abrams Cultural Theorist with

Specialism in Hip-Hop


III. What is Hip-Hop? Its just talking over a beat Hip Hop Core Conventional Definition Firstly, how does one define hip-hop? Conventionally hip-hop is understood to be a predominantly musical movement emerging out of 1970s New York. Those closest to the culture will cite what are known as the four elements: rapping, DJ-ing, B-Boying and graffiti as the pillars of the hip-hop movement.2 In recent years rap to talk rhythmically over a beat - has become synonymous with the word hip-hop. The music - the beats and the rhymes - has always been the most prominent and pivotal element. Indeed, our research confirmed that the music remains the driving force behind hip-hop culture. However, hip-hop, and hip-hop music, is not merely a commodity. Rather, it denotes something larger, something intangible: a living and breathing creature - outside the control of the commercial establishment at work in the minds of young people. In many respects, hip-hop is a cultural phenomenon and experience that transcends its physical manifestations. Black Youth Culture It is impossible to ignore the fact that hip-hop is still seen as a black or African-American music form. Certainly, it was pioneered by black and Latino kids in New York. At its genesis, hip-hop was a hybrid music form stemming from Jamaican sound systems and incorporating elements of reggae, blues, disco and Afro-Cuban percussion. It has thrived in parallel with the steady ascendancy of black cultural forms that now are now such arbiters of what is considered cool. Basketball in the USA has exploded in popularity in parallel with hip-hop and arguably both feed off a generalised fascination with and deification of black male virility. Many sociologists have even rooted cool itself in African American culture. Certainly hip-hop manifests core elements of cool: for instance narcissism and ironic detachment. Putting hip-hop together with the new status of black sports starsCool has suddenly started to look like a black thing all over again Cool Rules, Pountain and Robins Cross-Cultural Migration Paul Gilroy situated hip-hop as a creation of the African diaspora he dubbed the Black Atlantic. However, hip-hop is arguably in the midst of a paradigm shift. The diaspora is increasingly global and multiracial. Eminem the famous white rapper - is emblematic of the extent to which hip-hop is felt and lived by young

2 Hip-hop encompasses all the senses: auditory, visual, mental and kinaesthetic. As we go on to argue, it is fundamentally an experience brand which goes some way to explain its motivational power.


people of all hues. We would argue that these characteristics are better described as hip-hop than black and that they transcend skin colour and class. There are recurrent values that emerged from our research, that playing a more significant role in explaining hip-hops popularity. Rather than attempt to capture or define what is a wide ranging, and enigmatic phenomenon, we found it more telling to ask a different question.

IV. What does Hip-Hop mean to people? It definitely has an attitude and a philosophy. Its a culture with a vast depth and meaning for many people DJ Greenpeace Hip-Hop Typologies and Values Certainly hip-hop music is a wide-ranging genre with many sub-sets.3 These can centre on provenance of the artist, subject matter, musical style etc. However, we found that what chiefly determined how people viewed hip-hop was not how it was ostensibly packaged, but what they, as people, got out of it. As the project unfolded, a sense of hip-hop as an ethos, beyond just the music, was vocally articulated. This ethos or attitude meant different things to different people and defied any rigid definition. Although intensely individual, we soon found recurring patterns in peoples responses: certain clusters of values emerged as salient and became associated with certain typologies. These were chiefly differentiated between those people who were at the core those with a high involvement in hip-hop; and those that were at the periphery those with a lesser involvement in hip-hop. It is important to note, however, that the difference between core and periphery is one of emphasis. This segmentation is not meant to be mutually exclusive. There is certainly a measure of overlap between the typologies. Hip-Hops Dual Character As we mentioned earlier, as hip-hop has evolved and become a more global and commercial entertainment phenomenon, it has simultaneously re-asserted itself as a grass-roots cultural movement. We would hypothesise that it is hip-hops dual character that allows it to offer a palette of experiences, allowing people to access it at different levels. Hip-hop is half image and other half is real reality as I say you can take from it what you want...you do not have to be into all aspects of hip-hop can be into certain aspects Hip-Hop Core

3East Coast, West Coast, Dirty South, Conscious, Gangsta, Spoken Word are foremost amongst these.


Shared and Desired Values Reflecting this duality, this papers suggests that hip-hop encompasses both shared and desired values depending on the individuals level of engagement. This is how hip-hop has managed to achieve mass appeal. For those at the periphery, hip-hop develops rapport through offering a set of desired values. These values are: - Voyeurism - Entertainment However, hip-hop also retains momentum as a participatory medium beyond just disposable/passive entertainment. For those at the core, hip-hop can become part of constructing ones identity. Hardcore fans show fervent adherence to hip-hop as a creative and cultural movement. To them hip-hop is a source of experiences they live through as they grow up. They derive manifold psychological benefits from hip-hop via a set of shared values. I feel this with a passion, everything I love and hate about life is bound up with this thing called hip-hop Hip Hop Core

Creativity

Belonging Intelligence

Voyeurism

Entertainment

Core Periphery


These values are: - Belonging - Creativity - Intelligence Authenticity: Hip-hop is underpinned by a sense of authenticity for both the core and the periphery. For the Core it is part of them and inherently authentic, for the periphery hip-hop offers a second hand authenticity. Hip-Hop Core - Shared Values: Belonging Those at the core viewed hip-hop as an imagined community - something to belong to, contribute to and defend. We identified a participatory strand in hip-hop. Indeed many of those we spoke to felt that they had a stake in hip-hop as a shared venture. This has always been reflected in the identity-forming capacity of hip-hop. Originally, disenfranchised populations were able to articulate and voice their alienation and otherness in a way that was not previously possible on their own terms, using their own medium and language, and even via their adherence to certain dress codes. Hip-hop privileges a kind of agency or activity rather than passivity; not being passive consumers, but being part of it and being involved in it Cultural Theorist We would argue that this remains the case even today: hip-hop still affirms identities by chronicling peoples lives and their individual experiences, however commercial a form it has taken on. A crucial aspect of this identity-affirming process resides in the importance of territoriality in hip-hop. Hip-hop has a pronounced sense of place. Where youre from, and being a representative voice from your hood is central. This strong sense of locality and place reflects and simultaneously feeds into the audiences sense of community.4 Our research showed that even where the subject matter did not allude to its audience a sense of locality engenders a sense of closeness with the artist. The friendship triads we spoke to revealed how hip-hop can bring people together through a shared pursuit. Beyond privileging the local, hip-hop also functions as a vast imagined community of devotees who share a love for the game, drawing on a common heritage. This heritage consists of many possible signifiers: using language of a certain coinage, knowledge of the hip-hop canon and a healthy respect and sort of nostalgia for earlier eras of hip-hop.

4 Hip-hop has proven to be a versatile cultural vehicle for many ethnic groups in the US and elsewhere to express themselves and assert their own minority voices versus the establishment. As Patrick Neate discusses in Where Youre At: Notes from a Hip-Hop Planet. This shows how hip-hop cannot be reduced to a monolithic noise and is rather a medium that caters for any number of messages.


One of the reasons we became such good friends is because you are finding other people into hip-hopso you hooked onto people who were into it Hip-Hop Core In sum, Hip-hop acts as a wide-ranging support network: first and foremost, it acts as a common currency amongst people and their immediate circles, you and your crew, as well as providing people with a broader frame of reference you are part of a global movement. Uniquely then, the Hip-Hop Nation welds together the local and global, consequently also accommodating the individual and the collective. Everyones from different places but you are putting your contribution into a bigger formulaalmost like you are sharing the sound waves or something Hip Hop Core

Creativity That is probably the best way to describe ithip-hop is about being creative and putting your input on the world. Hip-Hop Core The idea of creativity, and indeed its pursuit, have undergone redefinition over I recent years. Creativity is no longer the preserve of artistic genius: a do it yourself ethos prevails amongst todays youth. Hip-hop is very much in line with this. Hip-hop art or graffiti uses the public landscape as its canvas. Hip-hop dance started off being practised in the street or urban parks. Beat boxing illustrates the talent for improvisation and ability to create unaided. Hip-hop is not uniquely creative, but because little equipment and no qualifications are needed it democratises creativity. This results in considerable equality between practitioner and consumer: all, to a certain degree, share and admire the same qualities. All can participate creatively in a shared creative space. Because hip-hop derives inspiration from its wider milieu, there is infinite uncharted white space to exploit. It is the creativity that hip-hop gives as a cultureI am always looking for someone to do something amazing in music a new style thats not been done before Hip-Hop Core Consequently, hip-hop advocates an informal type of creativity: it affirms that the individuals contribution is valid without qualification or protocol. It validates the importance of self-expression and thrives on experimentation. Graffiti writers experiment with new styles, rappers make their name by establishing new rhyme patterns and broaching new topics. DJs invent new scratch techniques using musical notation. Hip-hop offers a platform and a medium but does not circumscribe content unpredictability and spontaneity are cardinal


virtues for hip-hop heads. This emphasis on creativity, outside of formal structures, is a pivotal factor for many young people who in other ways feel that their potential for self-expression is circumscribed by the world they live in.

Intelligence I like hip-hop cause it makes me think. Hip Hop Core Those most engaged in the culture identified an intelligent point of view as the hallmark of the best hip-hop. Just like in creativity, hip-hop privileges an informal, instinctive, unschooled brand of intelligence. Part of the fun of hip-hop is in the decoding of the lyrics. Hip-hop tracks are usually laden with puns, hidden meanings, riddles and outrageous metaphors and similes. Many of these rely on either previous knowledge of the artists work, knowledge of the hip-hop canon, or being au fait with an assortment of popular cultural references. There is satisfaction in being able to interpret what may seem like unfathomable gibberish to the uninitiated. I suddenly realised that my writing style improved and my vocabulary has increased and Im sure its because of hip-hop Hip-Hop Core5 Like I can hear a tune ten times and catch a lyric the first time but not figure it out until the 10th time to appreciate it in its full depth. Hip Hop Core Furthermore, hip-hop also offers a form of wisdom in content. We refer later to the power of the hip-hop spoken word. Many hip-hop artists deal with issues in a down to earth way with which young people can engage. Much of hip-hop touches on issues of pain, struggle and overcoming adversity. Hip-hop addresses its audience on equal terms: it is a voice that speaks on their level and flatters their intellect by broaching topics of gravity. There is a lot of wisdom in hip-hop, the sort you can like listen to and maybe integrate into your life to become a better person. Hip-Hop Core For many we spoke with, hip-hops emphasis on intelligence, introspection, and even wisdom is very appealing against a backdrop of so much manufactured and unreflective popular culture to be found elsewhere.

Hip-Hop Periphery Desired Values

5 We might even go so far as to say that hip-hop is giving educationally challenged young people permission to be intelligent again mythologising the new. In New Marketing Manifesto, John Grant argues that the future role of brands is precisely this as the new traditions new ideas to live by.


Being into hip-hop can signify a lot about you: street credibility, being in tune with the latest thing. For those peripherally involved in hip-hop it is something to dip into and does not define them as people. Everyone of our age is going to have some of the hip-hop attitude in them.it is just being clued-up, streetwise and knowing what is going on Hip-Hop Periphery

Authenticity My life is a soundtrack I compose to the beat. Dr. Dre, Still Dre (Dre 2001) Hip-hop has a close relationship with truth and authenticity. On the supply side, hip-hop artists can seem obsessed with a form of authenticity. Protestations of truth6 seem to go hand in hand with lyrical prowess. Many artists indeed have built careers on accusing others of fakery. Personal authenticity is being true to oneself, not imitating others to ingratiate yourself. Hip-hop songs touch upon intimate stories of wrongdoing, human failure or overcoming adversity. A central watchword in hip-hop has passed into popular parlance: keep it real. But keeping it real to what? In many ways this amorphous authenticity representing your own personal truth - is the glue that binds the values of hip-hop together. If you want truth, you get it in hip-hop, you want falsehoods you get it in hip-hop, but its all reality its just life Hip-Hop Core Core Those at the core take authenticity for granted it is experienced first hand. Hip-hop is literally part of them a formative influence on their life and outlook. What do you mean what does the culture mean to me? The culture is me, so what does me mean to me? That is what you are saying Hip Hop Core Periphery To those at the periphery, more distant from the world of hip-hop, the remoteness of the experiences alluded to in the texts of hip-hop mean the authenticity is second hand. It is symbolic, but still feeds their appetite for the real. Even when artists embellish the truth hip-hops values seem girded by a deeper authenticity - if not of objective truth, then that of individual authorship and expression.

6 This link between sincerity and hip-hop was picked up by Hollywood in the 1998 film Bulworth in which a jaded US senator (played by Warren Beatty) has a crisis of conscience and adopts the trappings of hip-hop culture. He chooses to tell the truth by delivering his speeches in rhyme.


Most pop artists just talk about love, but hip-hop artists speak about real life issues Mainstream Within hip-hop, different performers freely play around with notions of truth and falsehood. To the core sensitive to the nuances and irony in hip-hop they enjoy interpreting this mix of artifice and genuineness. Playing around with notions of truth seems very contemporary and seductive. They could be rapping complete lies of coursebut all the same you are being taken along for that ride Andy Cowan, Editor Hip-Hop Connection Furthermore, our research picked up on the growing disillusionment with the mainstream pop industry. Young people increasingly see through the trite formulas and superficiality of much chart-topping music. There is palpable dismay at artists being marketed as commodities rather than expressing what they feel. Hip-hop is seen very much as an important counterpoint to this, serving to fill the gap of this authenticity deficit. Pop music has been dead since I have been born, it is shitit is just people making money repeating themselves and going yeah baby. Hip-Hop Core With Gareth Gates and Popstars it is not what they want to sing, it is what they get told to sing.it is mainly for young girlsEveryone is in it to make money Mainstream In both cases, authenticity as sincerity of intent is an extremely motivating philosophy for the target we spoke to.

Voyeurism I suppose there is a slightly voyeuristic peak into a life you never had in hip-hopso it is sort of vicariously exciting I suppose Editor Hip-Hop Connection Very much in line with the need for authenticity and un-mediated experiences which we refer to above, there seems to be a real hunger for getting beneath the surface of things. We are all becoming increasingly voyeuristic in how we satisfy this urge - the popularity of reality TV shows, tabloid journalism and biography sales are all reflections of this. The same can be said about music. Hip-hop has been dubbed the art form of the first person singular. Often raps are based on an inner monologue or stream of consciousness. These give an intimate emotional insight into another world, revealing the artists personality and recorded life experiences. They often touch upon intimate stories of


struggle, loss and redemption. This heightened level of disclosure allows a high degree of identification between artist and listener. Enigmatic or dysfunctional personalities such as Tupac Shakur and Eminem have had whole mythologies built up around them. For core hip-hop fans a strong rapport is established with the artist on the basis of shared experiences and values. They will say something and I will relate to ithe is going through the same shit I am going through so it makes you feel better about yourself Hip-Hop Core However, for those at the periphery, it is the exoticism, danger, and in some cases, glamour depicted that attracts. Sexual escapades, gunplay and criminal activity hip-hop has always explored and documented such controversial topics, where the listener is invited to live through these experiences. For those further away from these experiences, this window into another world is thrilling and captivating, where empathy towards the artist is based on perceptually shared experiences and desired values. Tupac - when I listen to his words there is always a lot of pain involved in a lot of the songs that he has made and I am sure that is why people listen to him. DJ 279 The way hip-hop music is constructed accentuates the voyeurism for the listener. Listening to a hip-hop album is often an immersive experience involving active listening. Hip-hop producers have a knack for vivid reconstruction of everyday sounds (cicadas, traffic noise, sirens, screams, laughter etc). This sonic layering imbues tracks with realism and adds an acute sense of place. This makes for a broad band streaming of information - conjuring up a cascade of mental pictures in the minds eye of the listener. As such hip-hop shares as much with cinematic escapism as it does with music. It is like video games and playing Gran Turismo 3, I play it, but I wouldnt actually do it, hip-hop is about liking the crazy lyrics and thinking wow, without doing it Hip Hop Periphery Entertainment Hip-hop has been the most influential music of the last 20 years, its in the charts, its the new rock and roll! Hip-Hop Periphery As we stressed briefly earlier on, entertainment is part of hip-hops DNA and a whole industry of great breadth has spun off around hip-hop.


Music Firstly there is the music industry itself. Hip-hop has spawned massive pop stars such as Jay Z, Jah Rule, Missy Elliott and Eminem. Hip-hop producers and impresarios have also been the brains behind a slew of what so-called R and B artists. The biggest names in music today have had flirtations with hip-hop: Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey to name but a few. The Neptunes Pharrell Williams has become one of popular musics hottest properties with Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake both soliciting him for production credits. Music Videos Music videos (for instance MTV bass) primarily a selling tool, have endowed hip-hop with a visual grammar to match its trademark sounds. An accompanying video is now seen as standard for major label hip-hop releases. These videos display a fetish for the excesses of a certain hip-hop lifestyle: conspicuous consumption, sexual titillation. We would argue that these videos largely play to the entertainment and voyeuristic values to which many young people are susceptible. Stories, sometimes animated by videoalways very engaging mini-dramas about the street, love, politics, so they are mini-movies of a sort DJ Greenpeace Film Hip-hop stars have also graced the world of Hollywood: Will Smith, Ice Cube, Mos Def, Eminem and the late Tupac Shakur - to name but a few. Will Smith is a great example as he can not only play the leading man but can record the title track in an era of horizontal integration Cultural Theorist Miscellaneous Recently the makers of Barbie released a range of multi-cultural barbie dolls called Flavas. A Mattel spokesperson stated that they recognised hip-hop had gained sufficient ground in the mainstream to have its own toy line.7 Hip-Hop has also moved into gaming consoles with ventures such as Def Jam vendetta. Entertainment is part of hip-hops DNA and further to this, a whole entertainment industry has now spun off around hip-hop music. Publications such as The Source, XXL, Vibe devote their pages to covering the latest happenings in the hip-hop nation.

7 The Flavas come in boxes splashed with black-and-white photos of urban scenes shot around Venice Beach. When arranged together, the boxes create a "graffiti" mural that reads: "FA SIZZLE." It is a play on the hip-hop expression "Fa' shizzle," which means "For sure." Marketing director Lisa Tauber explains that it is also an acronym that stands for "Fashion, Attitude and Sizzlin' Style." The dolls, aimed at 9- to 11-year-olds, are "all about fearless self-expression," she says.


V Hip-Hop, contemporary culture and brands Hip-hop is not merely musicit is a cultural recycling centre. Russell Potter, Spectacular Vernaculars Having looked into the ways in which hip-hop functions as a culture, and presenting the set of strong values that underpin its popularity, we want to now turn to the world of hip-hop in relation to brands. In doing so, our thinking leads us to look at the bigger picture what is the nature of the interaction between hip-hop and broader contemporary culture, of which brands are an integral part? This entailed looking at how hip-hop operates as a cultural phenomenon. We identified an uncanny parallel between certain key features of hip-hop culture and prevailing cultural norms. We would argue that hip-hops coincidence with these norms has perhaps allowed it to flourish more readily. These norms could be said to be post-modern. I think hip-hop is the ultimate post modern art form.if you were going to write a dictionary definition on hip-hop then you would put c.f. postmodernism Cultural Theorist There are two important facets which illustrate this: collage and intertextuality. We would argue that these features, collage and intertextuality, make hip-hop particularly fluid and open as a culture. This means that there is a discursive relationship between hip-hop and broader popular culture. This is what is meant by the aforementioned term recycling centre: it is constantly fostering an inter-change of ideas and issues. Collage Hip-hop has a penchant for eclecticism, synthesis and collage. Hip-hop tracks are notorious for drawing heavily on samples for their musical backbone. Hip-hop not only resurrects old genres of music, but it reintroduces them in unexpected new ways, reconciling the old and the new. This cut and paste ethos, recycling past elements and fusing them with contemporary ones, is one of the ways that hip-hop renews and updates itself. Hip-hop will always be around because there will be something new to chat aboutit is about current affairs. Hip-Hop Core IntertextualityIntertextuality is the theory that all cultural life is a series of intersecting texts and that nothing is absolutely autonomous. Intertextuality operates within hip-hop on a number of different levels. On the one hand, hip-hop draws on a vast variety of sources and references within its own cultural heritage, and on the other hand it feeds from broader contemporary events and tropes that lie outside its immediate remit.


I dunno, the use of philosophical quotes, references to comic books, random everyday things, comparing this to that Hip-Hop Core As such, there is constant interaction within and outside hip-hop. Inwardly, hip-hop is cannibalistic and gains momentum through feeding off its own material. Within hip-hop MCs sample each others music, name check one another and make guest appearances on each others tracks. Debates and exchanges of opinion take place on record, in several dedicated magazines and on a plethora of websites. Hip-hop is outwardly interactive too, picking up on events in the world. In sum, therefore, hip-hop can be seen as a series of dialogues. I think it facilitates expression of ideasand forces a dialogue with the media, with youth, with popular culture that is channelled to us through television, the Internet, and popular culture. Hip-Hop Periphery As such, hip-hop is one vast conversation, or rather a network of interconnecting conversations constantly cross-referencing themselves and endlessly leading to further conversations. A given artists album may contain a number of texts articulating different and sometimes conflicting messages. Hip-hop presupposes the subjectivity of the listener. This respects notions of the primacy of the text, the death of the author and the notion of multiple truths notions with which postmodernists are so enamoured. What does this all amount to? The fact that hip-hop displays collage and intertextuality as part of its nature means that as a culture it is permeable and in touch with other cultural influences. It is able to interact with other cultures, take on board, borrow and integrate these elements without necessarily compromising its own integrity. This has led to it constantly metamorphosing and adjusting to the dominant cultural climate. Hip-hop made today is therefore unmistakably of its time whilst as a medium transcending it. This is what has also led to it having an impact and influence on a wide range of issues and areas in mainstream culture. In prcis, hip-hop operates as an extremely fluid and constantly evolving cultural phenomenon, taking mainstream influences on and in turn also influencing mainstream culture. Another area where this dialectic works is in relation to the world of brands, to which we now turn.

VI The Hip-Hop / Brand Interface


Brands (sometimes unwittingly) have been key interlocutors in hip-hops dialectic with popular culture. As mental constructs and monikers they have played an integral role in the evolution of hip-hop. We have identified 3 broad trends to this development: There have been three main ways in which brands interface with hip-hop: - brands that have been appropriated by hip-hop and become symbolic

of hip-hop - brands that have emerged out of hip-hop and can therefore be seen

as hip-hop brands - brands that are trying to capitalise on hip-hops success or turning to

it for inspiration

Hip-Hop Appropriating Brands Ever since it first emerged, hip-hop has been bound up with certain appearances and styles. Typically eccentric headgear, baggy jeans, hooded sweatshirts, gold chains, fat shoe laces. In the beginning the appropriation of certain products and brands by the hip-hop fraternity was part and parcel of the movement. Brands enabled members of the hip-hop nation to express their unique individuality, whilst creating a set of collective codes that signified a shared currency. In the 21st century music has substantively outstripped the other original elements of hip-hop. Brands in hip-hop are words to rhyme with as well as physical artefacts.8 Automobiles, Beverages and Apparel are the most popularly name dropped product categories. Some of the most commonly mentioned names at time of writing are: Mercedes, Bentley, Cristal, Bacardi, Lexus, Gucci, Timberland Brand names often seem to be included almost incidentally (often abbreviated and colloquialised i.e. Lexus = Lex, Cristal = Cris), and randomly as part of the MCs verbiage. However, this does not mean brands dont play an instrumental role in the hip-hop discourse. Brands when used as metaphors - are given legitimacy in hip-hop as part of the furniture of our world not something to be screened out but something to be invited in. Listeners engrossed in a song may associate the brand (however tangentially) with a favourite artist. This debate over deliberate product placement has been a hot topic in recent months which we deal with more fully below in the Hip-Hop as Brand Medium section. Here are the most obvious examples of hip-hop driven marketing:

8 Lucian James, a brand strategist based in San Francisco, has been monitoring the Billboard Top 20 for brand name mentions and ranking them on his website. These are the most listened to songs in the USA, many of them hip-hop.


- 1986 Adidas: My Adidas by RUN DMC. This track was a eulogy to the

Adidas trainer and prompted crowds at a RUN DMC concert to remove their shoes in tribute to the brand.

- 1992 Tommy Hilfiger: Grand Puba of Brand Nubian name checked Tommy Hilfiger, thereby endorsing the brand and opening up the brand offering to a previously untapped audience.

- 2002 Courvoisier: Busta Rhymes and Puff Daddy collaborated on an infectious ode to the Cognac brand which caused a 20 per cent jump in sales.

Hip-Hop Brands The nineties witnessed the emergence of hip-hop fashion brands: brands conceived and aimed at hip-hop aficionados. Foremost amongst these would be included Karl Kani, FUBU and Cross Colours. Name-checking these brands in music tracks, adorning themselves in music videos and photo shoots has proved to be a perfect promotional mix. It has provided hip-hop brands unmediated access to their target. As hip-hop music sales continued to rise, so did those of these brands, and the sheer number of such brands now reflects this success: Mecca, Triple 5 Soul, Ecko, K-Swiss. The hip-hop community is now savvy to the commercial potential of their culture. The following artists have launched their own fashion brands: Phat Farm (Russell Simmons) RocaWear (Jay-Z) Sean John (P Diddy) Vokal (Nelly) Wu Wear (Wu-Tang Clan) Shady Clothing (Eminem)

Brands Appropriating Hip-Hop One telling indicator of a shift in public perception towards hip-hop is the alacrity with which brands now associate themselves with the subculture. Brands, particularly in the USA, are realising that affiliating themselves with hip-hop allows them to connect with a lucrative and growing franchise. The power of hip-hop lies in that it acts as a lifestyle brand potentially encompassing all areas of a consumers life. Brands such as Sprite, GAP and Nike have famously used hip-hop imagery in their advertising campaigns. Reebok recently reaped the rewards of using a cast


of hip-hop artists in launching the RBK range. In addition to co-promoting hip-hop talent spots with The Source magazine, Reebok has decided to launch a signature footwear line under the name of Sean Carter Collection multi-platinum selling artist Jay-Z. Car manufacturers such as Ford are starting to understand that urban marketing is the only way to stay in touch with their consumers. Sean P Diddy Combs has been invited to brand a limited edition Oldsmobile. Fashionistas Dolce and Gabbana drew on hip-hop for inspiration for their latest track suit range.9 McDonalds latest global campaign Im Lovin It turns to local hip-hop artists to provide a soundtrack and a slice of the hip-hop lifestyle. (In the Appendix, we look at advertising for 3 brands, which have run in the UK and which show varying degrees of success in leveraging the values of hip-hop). In the USA, a racially stratified nation, hip-hop fast becoming a modern American vernacular - has mercurially crossed the boundaries. We believe that hip-hop continues to perform an incredibly important role in bridging racial and class divides all over the world. This means that markets can increasingly be segmented psychographically rather than demographically. This enables what is now dubbed: urban marketing targeting a massive cohort of young people estimated to exceed 45 million in the US alone the hip-hop generation.

VII Hip-Hops Brand Metaphors The marketing discipline employs mental models to look at brands. We have used various such models to illustrate how hip-hop might be compared to a brand. Taken together, we feel they demonstrate that hip-hop is, as our title suggests, a superbrand.

Hip-Hop as Superbrand? Brand X? What brand owner would not kill to have unassailable kudos amongst youth, consistently high brand equity and an effortless ability to recruit fresh franchise? To have a brand which appeals to a broad constituency of people, satisfying several need states simultaneously, and acting as a focus for shared and desired values? To have an experience10 brand that operates in sexy territory, satisfying the highest order needs for identity construction and self-actualisation. What brand owner would not be green with envy at a brand that now enjoys mass market status but retains its vanguardist credentials? Yet this is what hip-hop has done for the last 20 years. Hip-hop launched as a niche brand. It has since become a mass-market brand whilst retaining its original momentum and freshness. Hip-hop provides clues to the conundrum: how do I

9 Some brands such as Motorola see co-branding as the most effective way to tap into the $6 million of urban spending power. Motorola launched a mobile phone pager in conjunction with hip-hop fashion label Phat Farm owned by Russell Simmons Def Jam. 10 John Grant in New Marketing Manifesto argues that the future of brands is not as necessarily a reflection of consumer values but as a tool for creative possibility and source of experiences. Our research demonstrated how hip-hop has become important as a key imaginative resource for young people and leads to rich experiences.


pursue volume with fickle consumers whilst remaining authentic? Hip-hop has squared the circle by making a form of authenticity part of its brand DNA. Brand X-tension? Extending the analogy, hip-hop has undergone what one might call a passive brand extension. On what basis has it performed this extension? In a sense by largely flouting all the rules of brand extension those that cite product differentiation within the destination category as paramount. By leveraging the brand elasticity of the hip-hop brand it has shown a knack for diversification. As we have seen hip-hop incarnates values of creativity. It also brings an in-built authenticity to whatever it does. Hip-hops infiltration into the mainstream has been as much through co-option by other genres/scenes as through conscious strategic manoeuvring.

Hip-Hop: Big Fish or Challenger Brand? There is always a sort of peer pressure to like certain things at certain times and people liking hip-hop has gone against that. Cultural Theorist Challenger Brand? Hip-hop started off as the quintessential challenger brand. Most obviously, hip-hop remains in part an underground movement with a die-hard franchise, namely those at the core who revel in their separateness. Its success has been predicated on being the alternative, never the orthodoxy. However, as we have shown, hip-hop has also entered the mainstream: as it has evolved it has come to represent a set of meaningful values to a broader audience, namely those who are situated more at the periphery. Adam Morgans book Eating the Big Fish advocated a rethink of how second-tier brands operate to gain advantage against predominant brand leaders. Hip-hops development and growth over the past two decades has involved rehearsing (whether inadvertently) challenger brand principles. According to Morgans definition, hip-hop would be a challenger brand in terms of: its state of market, state of mind and rate of success. Morgans book goes on to enumerate a brand model of Eight Credos which he suggests spearhead challenger success. Three of these credos are particularly instructive in dealing with hip-hop. Firstly, hip-hop built a lighthouse identity by being a consistently thrusting and vibrant presence. It burst onto the scene almost as the unmusic; distinctive, dissonant, almost antagonistic in composition and content to any other pop music form. From the start, hip-hop has been seen as an alien, brooding and sometimes unwelcome presence. It has, until recently, been vilified as the predilection of a black/urban underclass. This has enabled hip-hop to carve out a rebel position in counterpoint to the mainstream. Hip-hops


strength consists of this luminosity - an ability to cut through at the expense of less clearly defined brands. Secondly, Morgan argues that the currency of Challenger momentum is a constant stream of ideas - ideas that keep the brand high up on consumer agendas. He argues that Challenger brands are innately Idea-Centred rather than Consumer-Centred. Hip-hop is an extremely fast moving milieu pulsating with fresh ideas. At times it seems locked in a cycle of perpetual idea modification: ideas being challenged, critiqued, transcended or recycled. 11 Different versions, remixes, instrumentals, freestyles, acapellas multiply the output of every artist. Dialogue and indeed competition between artists has always been an imperative, the driving force behind the creativity. Much of the spur to creativity comes from the urge to have the final word, supersede the last release. In that sense, hip-hop is as much about artists communicating with each other much of it can seem indifferent to popularity with a mass audience. Consequently, the best hip-hop feels Ideas Centred, rather than being transparently aimed at consumers and anticipating their expectations. In this way, hip-hop manages to always be a step ahead of consumers, continuously able to delight and surprise its audience. Thirdly, hip-hop has arguably also assumed thought leadership in many areas of popular culture. Hip-hop associated ventures now account for billions of dollars. It is established as an important reference point to be emulated in the music industry. From being an iconoclastic upstart to being a creative alloy to be plundered for ideas. Hip-hop is increasingly credited as creative inspiration in such areas as thematic structure, music production, choreography and aesthetics. A further illustration of this leadership can be found in fashion: the popularisation of casual leisure wear as fashion statement; the adoption of what can be termed a hip-hop aesthetic by mainstream brands looser and baggier cuts. More recent has been the vogue for what is termed ghetto fabulous: where designer brands amalgamating their styles with hip-hop chic to capitalise on the broad trends towards mass affluence.12 So is hip-hop now a Big Fish? Well, in terms of influence yes; in monetary terms certainly. Has hip-hop managed to gain hegemonic status by sacrificing its core values? We would argue that hip-hop remains vital and retains it authenticity in the eyes of young people. It has done this by negotiating a midway position. Hip-hop is neither exclusively niche or exclusively mass market it is both simultaneously.

Hip-Hop Artists as Brand Archetypes 11 Hip-hop thrives on its very disposability of its products. The speed at which tracks are made, remixed, and alacrity with which new styles, trends are taken up etc allows hip-hop to perpetually refresh itself. More so than other music hip-hop endures almost by making obsolescence part of its modus operandi. 12 Allied Domecq have hired Russell Simmons advertising agency D-rush, to handle the cross media launch of their new communication for their portfolio of cognacs under the umbrella name House of Courvoisier.


Our research brought out a strong nexus between artist and fan built on the charisma of the personalities in hip-hop. What is striking from our research was how keen consumers are to puzzle out these complex characters. Most of these figures are black males - hip-hop certainly represents a strident expression of masculinity. But the masculinity at work in hip-hop is malleable and multifarious - not simply a rigid monolithic machismo. Figures such as Tupac Shakur and Eminem combine their outrageous boasts with a confessional tenderness. It is this element of disclosure the sense of sharing themselves with the listener; and the intimate way it is rendered that sets hip-hop artists apart. Colourful and notorious personalities are hip-hops lifeblood. Hip-hop is more than just a musical production line and recording industry. It is also a theatre with characters acting out various roles. There is the jester, the thug, the philosopher, the prophet, the political firebrand, the dandy, the regular guy, the pimp, the lothario, the entrepreneur. They are all present in the hip-hop pantheon and may be found in different hip-hop artists, or indeed in the same artist playing different roles in different circumstances. Carl Jung believed that human beings are in hock to recurring mental characters and narrative patterns buried deep in our psyches: We come into life instinctually resonating to these archetypal stories because of the very ways in which our minds are configuredArchetypes are the software of the soul13 Mark and Pearsons The Hero and the Outlaw, shows how shrewd brands achieve resonance by aligning themselves with these archetypes. Indeed, on one level, hip-hop is predicated upon the interplay of archetypal figures. We would argue in this paper that the miscellaneous jumble of characters in hip-hop are themselves underpinned by an overarching archetype (or a category essence in Mark and Pearsons language). We have noted elsewhere that hip-hop is the culture of the first person singular. Unsurprisingly therefore, hip-hop is besotted and bound up with the archetype of the Explorer. This is its fundamental category essence. It therefore holds precious values of independence, endeavour and self-discovery. Unsurprisingly, a wish for self-determination, a fear of being hemmed in and continual self-discovery are common to youth everywhere. Hip-hop continually echoes and plays to this need. Hip-hop is about interesting icons, the comedians and the gangsters, people that you want to read about Hip-Hop Periphery

13 Carl Jung Man and his Symbols


The Explorer platform supports subsidiary archetypes within it. We have identified a few of the more obvious exemplars with examples of their subject matter: Sage = Nas (social commentary, chronicler, imparter of knowledge = philosophical) Jester = Eminem (scatological humour, satire, revenge fantasies = turmoil) Outlaw = 50 Cent (thug life, criminal activity = defiance) Ruler = Jay-Z (entrepreneurial success, business dominance = order) These artists differ in their subject matter and emphasis but all incarnate the fierce individualism and yearning of the Explorer. All are similarly on personal odysseys (whether of self-aggrandisement or otherwise) but in subtly different ways. We would argue that (inadvertently?) leveraging archetypal imagery is an immense source of hip-hop strength. The stories these artists tell allow them to act as recognisable brand archetypes without losing their humanity. Archetypes give hip-hop an atavistic resonance semi-mythical figures in a world where many celebrities seem to lack depth. As a category hip-hops Explorer archetype essence gives it the credentials to innovate and extend its brand outside music.

Brand as Medium While hip-hops values are by and large fixedit is also an incredibly flexible tool of communication, quite adaptable to any number of messages Nelson, Hip-Hop America Proprietary Media Above and beyond hip-hop proving itself to be incredibly receptive to brands, it displays yet another unique characteristic in that it also acts as its own media. Most global brands use media instrumentally as a means to transmit a message. It is rare for brands to have media organically linked to, or as an integral part of, the brand itself. One of the perennial challenges for brand owners is how to meaningfully align brand proposition with media placement. Younger audiences are deserting traditional broadcast media formats. Brands are coming to terms with an increasingly fragmented media landscape. Brands are struggling to eke out the most comprehensive coverage from a given media spend. At the same time marketers want to brand content working in synergy with the right media. Chuck D called hip-hop the black CNN. In a sense, hip-hop communicates through its own proprietary media. The musical medium uses technology creatively in the service of the lyrical messages transmitted through it. Graffiti works through the visual medium of public space. Arguably, the community of hip-hop fans and brand evangelism is a further manifestation of hip-hop media that of word of mouth. The hip-hop fraternity have always understood that message is medium and medium is message.


Product Placement By acting as its own media, hip-hop is its own best promotional vehicle. It can uniquely rely on itself to promote itself. To take the example of music again, the number of brands that get name-checked in the US Billboard Top 20 in any given week is astounding. Lucian James American Brandstand14 bears witness to this. But what it illustrates is hip-hop acting as a potent advertising medium a form of product placement which benefits from an already captive audience, wherein brands benefit from a meaningful context and are imbued with hip-hops values, not least authenticity. Brand owners are seriously considering utilising the hip-hop paid for media format as a promotional vehicle. Hewlett Packard was recently reported to be in talks with the Def Jam label to promote a new line of personal computers via brand name dropping. A Viral Medium? Another interesting insight derived from the brand-as-medium analogy concerns hip-hops mode of propagation how has it spread so far and fast? We would argue that the dramatic spread of hip-hop has been an organic process disproportionate to any quantification of conscious initiatives. We have alluded to the stickiness (or catchiness) of hip-hop the beats, rhymes and the cultural codes that go with them. Our focus on the grass roots reception of hip-hop culture has revealed an important factor the outspoken agency of the hip-hop head. Certainly, we would posit that the propagation process has been viral spreading from person to person15 and that the hip-hop head is a prime mode of propagation the vector if you like. By the way they talk, dress, act and evangelise the genre. The meme, unit of cultural replication, is a term coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins to describe ideas and mental models that gain currency and achieve longevity. They are passed down generations like genetic codes. We think you could apply the meme concept to hip-hop. As a first order meme hip-hop has spawned a world movement that has inspired millions. It has replicated itself as a mental model through the minds of young people. As a cluster of viral ideas it has not been imposed by top-down saturation of broadcast media but through personal contact, individual endorsement and self-discovery. Arguably, the ordinary hip-hop fan is a special player in this process.

Brand as Conversation not Broadcast Furthermore, above and beyond hip-hop acting as its own most potent media, the nature of the way in which it delivers its messages or stories is noteworthy.

14 http://www.lucjam.com/brand.html 15 Underground hip-hop has a historical parallel in the Russian samizdat or self-published tracts and literary works published and distributed outside the control of official channels during the years of authoritarianism in the Soviet Union. Samizdat was also an underground medium transmitting non-establishment expression.


People are suffering from communication saturation. There is a sense of being engulfed with unsolicited e-mails and sms, junk mail. This is allied to a growing distrust of big corporations. Part of the general disenchantment stems from a fatigue with broadcast messages. Unvariegated messages beamed to a homogenous audience. Certainly, brands that talk in an arch, insensitive way to the consumer quickly become unpopular. Empathy and honesty are two highly coveted values in the brand world. Brands that tune themselves into the values of their audience tend to win a willing audience. Brands are having to accustom themselves to a shift in mindset from we want your money to we share your interests to we have become part of your life. But how to consistently anticipate or intuit those values? Brands are increasingly finding the answer to this is to build a meaningful dialogue with their consumers. As we have already noted, hip-hop is a series of conversations, or rather a network of interconnecting conversations constantly cross-referencing themselves and endlessly leading to further conversations. Also, we highlighted that people are attracted to the culture because of its authenticity. This authenticity consists of ordinary people telling stories, admitting their failings, reflecting on life. Hip-hop often speaks with uncontrived and unspun candour - it is telling it like it is. It establishes a conversation with its audience. This is in marked contrast with the overwhelming communications context.16

Conclusions Hip-hop now has a huge influence on youth culture an influence it is now impossible to ignore. It resonates with the value systems and aspirations of young people in a number of important ways. Indeed, it offers a plurality of brand experiences that shape young peoples lives and outlook. And it demonstrates many of the attributes of a highly successful brand which draws in fresh franchise without compromising its brand equities. Understanding hip-hops appeal and how it works in the minds and lives of young people offers potentially rich rewards for brands seeking to make deep connections with consumers. Failing to understand hip-hop can lead at best to missed opportunities, and at worst to damaged credibility and lack of relevance. We hope that the insights and implications put forward in this paper will help all those involved in the study or marketing of brands in contemporary culture have a better understanding of these issues.

16 There are many parallels between hip-hop and the internet. Also a uncensored medium, through its fluid infrastructure the internet hosts a seething network of conversations.


Bibliography

Hip-Hop Culture

Will Eric Perkins Droppin Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture Tricia Rose Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America Russell A Potter Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism Nelson George Hip-Hop America Paul Gilroy The Black Atlantic: African Diaspora and Double Consciousness Patrick Neate Where Youre At: Notes from the Front Line of a Hip-Hop Planet Chuck D with Yusuf Jah Fight the Power: Rap, Race and Reality Brands, Psychology and Marketing

Carl Jung Man and his Symbols Margaret Mark & Carol Pearson The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brand through the Power of Archetypes Levine, Locke, Searls, Weinberger The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual Giep Franzen & Margot Bouwman The Mental World of Brands John Grant New Marketing Manifesto John Grant After Image Adam Morgan Eating the Big Fish


Acknowledgements

We would like to thank David Burrows of Flamingo for his help and guidance in

the development of this paper.


Appendix Examples of brands seeking to use hip-hop values

1. Nike In recent years Nike has been attempting to humanise itself by getting closer to its consumer. From depictions of sporting excellence, Nike has shifted focus to show players off duty fooling around and enjoying the fun of football. In this freestyle spot Nike takes basketball and leverages hip-hop to create powerful advertising. The spot ostensibly recreates a version of the impromptu three-on-three competitions happening in parks all over the world. However, on closer analysis, the freestyle ad adds resonance by tapping into hip-hop values whilst nimbly avoiding heavy-handed allusion to the genre. This deepens identification with the target audience who buy trainers as much for fashion as sporting reasons. It also sets up a powerful synergy between expressionism in music and sport. To highlight the way in which the hi-hop values are represented: For the periphery: Entertainment: as a visual spectacle shows the breathtaking skills of the cream of the NBA professionals to a hip-hop beat. The cocky, nonchalant air of the performers is familiar to those watching hip-hop music videos. Voyeurism: there is no attempt directly to play to the viewer, we are purely spectators given a short window on the private world of great NBA players off duty and performing the stunts that millions of young people want to emulate. For those inside the culture, at the core, the ad is pure hip-hop. It also references the values of: Belonging: the rawness of the black backdrop, the outrageous displays of skill, the jitterbugging and play faking are all signifiers of hip-hops emphasis on performance and competition. They signify a hip-hop ethos and atmosphere. Creativity: the ad implies an association between athletic prowess and verbal dexterity. The ball is a metaphor for the microphone and each player takes his turn to show his skills and show sporting creativity. Intelligence: the ad shows intelligence in the creative device it employs. The participants in the ad have turned the ball into beat box rather than a scoring


implement. The scuff of the shoes becomes a scratch: subverting the original task for which the ball and trainers were made. There is a cheek and freshness to this very much in tune with hip-hops focus on unfussy intelligence.


2. Radio Five Live This spot spoofs the closing battle scene of Eminems film Eight Mile. In the film Eminem dismisses his rivals with a devastating display of honesty, wit and outrageous verbal attacks. But the idea does not depend on having seen the film, although identification is deepened. The main creative device centres upon drawing parallels between the MCs power to move a crowd and the commentators power to electrify football fans who hang on their every word. Both are performers whose appeal is built on their verbal dexterity: not only what they say but how they say it. Both rappers and commentators vocalise what they see, both give their opinions and both are skilled at conjuring up mental pictures in the minds eye of their listener. Their descriptive accounts are conduits for the voyeurism of their audience. Radio Five Live ultimately leverages the power of hip-hop to communicate, to inform and to bring people together to dramatise the passion and emotional hysteria of a football match. In doing so they shrewdly tap into a massive audience of hip-hop fans who are also avid followers of the English Premiership. This is a spot we believe that succeeds by referencing all the values of hip-hop. - Entertainment: a dramatic event with a lot of energy and excitement - a

battle between two well known commentators - Authenticity: the authenticity is in well known commentators taking their

art to the stage, in the passion of the delivery (and in the presence of the two Arsenal players on the turntables!)

- Voyeurism: shows these commentators doing what they do best in a pressured surrounding

- Belonging: emphasises the tribal nature of football by combining a celebration of the euphoria of being a football fan with the fun and excitement of the hip-hop concert this acknowledges that hip-hop is as big a part of the lives of young people as football building complicity

- Creative: the idea of merging football commentary with a hip-hop beat the unlikely juxtaposition of balding 40 year olds and a bombastic hip-hop crowd

- Intelligence: the fact that so much information is conveyed with such speed and elegance of expression does justice to the hip-hop medium


3. Virgin Mobile The following print advert is an example of how some marketers superficially latch onto hip-hop as subject matter without grasping its deeper significance. It is the result of badly misjudging the current climate of opinion towards hip-hop and how it has developed. This spot plays to the residual values we would argue have now been superseded by the periphery values we have spoken of throughout the paper. - a confrontational attitude - conspicuous display: bling bling - crassness, vulgarity and misogyny Rather than celebrating the positive values in hip-hop, it attempts to parody elements of hip-hop: perverting the notion of respect. Fundamentally, it reduces hip-hop culture to a one-dimensional caricature foregrounding its negative values. Underlying this is an attack on the very authenticity of hip-hop culture. Also, the preferred reading is that these white teenagers are wannabes and thus inauthentic. This implies that hip-hop culture is still only for the elect, whereas we have shown how powerfully it has percolated into young peoples lives. The execution lacks intelligence by making an easy target of unaspirational looking individuals. When we researched this ad, most recognised it as being a caricature of the negative aspects of hip-hop culture. This is the dumbest ad ever, taking the pissjust a stereotype 18, Hip-Hop Periphery Only the least progressive elements of our mainstream saw it as an accurate reflection of hip-hop. We would argue that there is increasingly less capital to be derived from ridiculing hip-hop. There is far more mileage in harnessing its positive values.

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Hip-Hop- Subculture or Super Brand