Hip-hop culture and commerce have always had a special relationship. Successful realisation follows its own rules. We explain how brands can benefit from collaborations with rappers and what you need to do to win at live dealers.
Hip-hop culture and commerce have always had a special relationship. Rap music is one of the most successful genres in the world today, but music marketing and collaborations with hip-hop artists follow their own rules. This also applies to German rap, where a special dynamic can be observed between music culture and marketing.
The first rappers to achieve fame in the USA in the 1980s grew up in difficult circumstances. From the very beginning, hip-hop culture reflected the hard ‘ghetto’ life. From which the artists and listeners wanted to escape, at least briefly, through music and dance. In the USA, alcohol and soft drink brands were quick to advertise with rappers. To profit from the (unhealthy) consumer behaviour in African-American communities. Within a very short time, rebellious rappers also became idols for young white target groups. Who belonged to the middle and upper classes. As a result, hip-hop as a ‘ghetto’ phenomenon conquered commercial parts of mainstream society. Which continued to marginalise the African-American population.
Cool lifestyle brands, realness and sell-out
In the USA in the 1990s, more and more lifestyle brands, especially in the food and fashion sectors, began to incorporate hip-hop elements. To present themselves as more youthful, cool and bold. However, many companies did not cooperate directly with rappers who regularly offended with racy lyrics or actions. But appropriated marketing aspects of hip-hop without honouring the underlying philosophy. To this day, rappers whose authority is based on ‘realness’, i.e. their credibility in the scene, avoid collaborations. That could be interpreted as a sell-out to large companies or the mainstream audience. However, this does not mean that US rappers are not allowed to earn money. On the contrary, the narrative of the steep rise from poverty in the sense of ‘get rich or die tryin’’ is highly recognised. As long as the artists do not become sell-out rappers in the process.
In Germany, hip-hop is not quite as culturally rooted and even the biggest rappers are less present in the media than in the USA. Nevertheless, the genre is commercially respectable in this country. Accounting for around a fifth of the music industry’s turnover, and hip-hop collaborations have also become more numerous in the last decade. The first wave of rap success in the USA was already characterised by African-American artists and social content. Commercially successful German rap has only been dominated by socio-critical themes and life experiences. Influenced by migrants since the turn of the millennium. Similar to the USA, people from all income brackets in Germany are now enthusiastic about local street and gang rap. They dominate the charts and streams here with artists such as Capital Bra and Shirin David. Even though some of the lyrics in German rap are not very family-friendly, hip-hop collaborations lend themselves to broad marketing. The most successful German rappers not only have enormous social media reach and great influence as role models. Unlike the usual influencers, they contribute the soundtrack for an entire generation of consumers. And characterise a young and authentic attitude to life via music videos, headphones or concerts.
There is no doubt that hip-hop stands for trendy coolness in today’s Germany and rappers are among the biggest stars in the music industry. However, local advertising co-operations are not yet exploiting this considerable advertising potential. On the one hand, the number of campaigns with active artist participation is comparatively low. Which is also due to a lack of hip-hop expertise in many marketing departments. Secondly there are always unfortunate marketing endeavours with hip-hop elements. Which in turn are likely to deter successful rappers from collaborations. But how can successful marketing be realised in collaboration with hip-hop artists?
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