Jay-Z, Jigga, HOV, Shawn Carter, Mr. CEO - the man and the brand
A few weeks ago both the Sunday NY Times and the Sunday Globe ran a feature on Jay-Z. To those of you living under a rock, Jay-Z is one of the most successful rappers of the last decade. Jay-Z has just come out with his 14th commercial release, "Kingdom Come." Over that span he also has six independent movies. But I'm not here to tell you what a great rapper Jay-Z is. I want to talk about his success as a brand.
This is arguable, but I believe that Jay-Z is the first rapper to become a brand. There were others before him that came out with their own clothing lines or sneakers, but he was the first to establish himself as a brand.
As the rap game has changed, so has he. He has changed his style several times and found a level where he appeals to true rap lovers as well as kids in the suburbs that can hear him on mtv and pop music stations.
Many companies have used his music to create an association with him over the years. But now they are using him as the person. Recently he signed a deal with Anheuser-Busch to become the "co-brand" to Budweiser Select. It's not his music that they want, but his brand. They want it to be associated with the coolness that Jay-Z portrays. It's because he has worked his ass off to move from the streets to penthouses. And when he reached his peak in the rap game he moved to other industries, and has succeeded in all those other industries as well.
Along with Budweiser, he's also a spokesman for HP computers, among other deals. He has also worked with MLB, NBA, and the NFL to promote them. It has worked well too. He has also recently hooked up with both NASCAR and Formula One. They want to gain a new crowd as does Jay-Z. He keeps challenging himself like this.
And on top of everything else, his girl is the best looking girl in the industry. He's giving people lots of reasons to hate him. He's a CEO, has everything a person could ever want, and he is dating Beyonce. But, no one hates him. In fact, everyone wants to be associated with him.
Daniil
posted by Brand007 @ 3:40 PM
1 Comments:
I 100% agree with the fact that Jay-Z has turned himself into one of the most recognized brands in hip-hop community, however, I definitely don't think that he's the only one. I think P. Diddy (aka Sean Combs), one of the most successful hip-hop entrepeneurs of this generation, has turned himself into an extremely successful brand. He began as an independent rapper but then slowly evolved into owning his own record label (Bad Boy Records), starting his own clothing line (Sean John), and so much as has his own line of cars (Ford Explorer Sean John Limited Edition). In this day ad age, rap mogels have the opportunity to eat up so much power, they can extend their brand in all directions.
-Samantha Bichler
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