Making Hip-Hop Stars into Status Symbols

A few months ago while working on my Company Leadership Research Presentation, I came across the name Steve Stoute.  Upon further investigation I learned that Steve Stoute was a former music executive who has become a matchmaker between music and corporate America. I recently just finished reading his book “Tanning of American: How Hip-Hop Created A Culture That Re-wrote The Rules of The New Economy”.

Hip-Hop is being used to sell products to people who aren’t necessarily fans but they know cool when they see it. A concept I’m personally trying to understand as I work with up and coming producers, songwriters and artists’. How do I expand their brand beyond music? Hip-Hop artist are now expanding their brans in the club by marketing self-branded drinks.

For years Hip-Hop artists have endorsed beverages, in 2006 Anheusuer-Bush, Inc. teamed up with Jay-Z, making him co-brand director of Budweiser Select. In 2007, 50 Cent made $100 million after Coca-Cola bought his Vitamin Water drink, Formula 50. The soft drink giant paid $4.1 billion to drinks company Glaceau, which 50 bought in as a shareholder in 2004. In exchange for his share in the company's profits, Glaceau named a Vitamin Water drink, Formula 50, after the artist.

Sean “P. Diddy” Combs signed a partnership with spirit maker Diago PLC to promote the company’s Ciroc Vodka in the U.S., in return for 50% of the profits from the brand. The arrangement could be worth more than $100 million to Sean Combs Enterprises, depending on the performance of the Ciroc brand. 

Multi-faceted hip-hop moguls like Diddy and Jay-Z have always combined street cred with street-meets-Madison-Avenue business savvy to sell products such as clothing and fragrance lines in a way that few genres outside of hip-hop have the power, or cache, to pull off.

Business Storytelling: Trusting the ensemble

“Where there is trust, there is music by extension life. Where this is no trust, music quite simply withers away.”

Conductor Charles Hazelwood talks about the role of trust in musical leadership. For those who may have never had the opportunity to experience being apart of a performance ensemble, whether it may have been a choir, band, or orchestra, a conductor is the person who leads the ensemble.

The conductor makes sure that the music piece is interpreted properly by acting as the guide to the ensemble. He chooses and studies the music score, making certain adjustments to it and relays his ideas to the ensemble so that when the music is played, there is unity and harmony. A good conductor is one that is comfortable leading a group, a great motivator and communicator, and is organized as well. He is able to build a connection with the musicians and uses hand gestures that the musicians clearly understands.

I learned the following from watching Hazelwood’s video.

Lesson One:

“ There has to be, between me and the orchestra, an unshakable bond of trust, born out of mutual respect, through which we can spin a musical narrative that we all believe in.”

What I have learned from this passage is that in order for to separate groups of people to reach a common goal, they have to achieve a level of mutual respect and trust. Without those two key components, the two separate groups will not reach their common goal.

My company TIMiD Music Group relies on the interaction of both respect and trust. When a client comes to TIMiD Music Group they are expecting that we are able to deliver on the services that we provide. We are playing an intricate part in the development of these artists; they trust us with their dreams, hopes and aspirations.

Lesson Two:

“When you’re in a position of not trusting, what do you do? You overcompensate. And in my game, that means you overgesticualte.”

Through gesture and body language a conductor relays is ideas to the ensemble. Hazelwood implies that when he doesn’t trust in himself, he overcompensates. And as the conductor when he overcompensates the consequence is that his gestures become more ill defined, blurry and useless to the orchestra. With no trust, there is only ridicule.

Lesson Three:

“Through music making can come deep levels of fundamental life-giving trust.”

Hazelwood spoke about his experience in South Africa and how he had the ability to form a new opera company. He auditioned about 2,000 singers and created a company of 40 of the most amazing young performers, the majority of whom were black, but there were a handful of white performers.

In his first rehearsal, he discovered that one of the white performers had been a member of the South African police force. And in the last years of the old regime, he would routinely be detailed to go into the township to aggress the community. He went on to explain what such knowledge did to the rehearsal atmosphere.

Though it might sound easy, but they overcame this obstacle through singing. It showed that making music and other forms of creativity can often go to places where words cannot.