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Posted by dreamteam44 on November 13, 2008
Photo: J Records
Does anybody remember the days when one actually had to be a talented musician or MC to get his or her music played on MTV? It really wasn’t that long ago, now days one can control the opinion of an entire generation simply by executing the right marketing tactic. According to Gill Kauffman of MTV.com, being mentioned in the right song can spell big profits for shoes, cars and liquor. It seems that you cant put in a CD of your favorite rapper these days without hearing about his Nike Air Force Ones, or the brand diamond encrusted rims he put on his hummer. Hip-hop has always been filled with shout outs to ones favorite sneakers and drinks, and not always for the sheer sake of boosting profits of the companies whom manufacture them. However, since this genre of music has become so popular in America, this notion has been greatly taken advantage of. For example, in the new hit song performed by Busta Rhymes, entitled “pass the Courvoisier”, which helped Courvoisier’s parent company achieve a promotional deal with Busta Rhymes, as well as boosting their profits exponentially. Many other popular rap artists have signed contracts with shoe companies ect. in order to place their name on a product, and many of them have proven to sell extremely well. For example Jay-Z’s S.Carter shoe which was the first time Reebok signed a contract with a celebrity other than an athlete that sold quicker than any other shoe in Reebok’s history. Is this attitude selling out? Many would say its simply buying into what is an incredibly successful marketing tactic. If the people that are meant to be envied by all who watch television are doing it, then it must be the cool thing to do. MTV has morphed into a network that is solely for advertisement, weather its on a commercial (which is probably the least effective form since now we can buy tivo and fast forward through them), or in the next big music video that premiers.
source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1472393/20030606/p_diddy.jhtml?headlines=true
