Born In '88

A great artist doesn’t have fans, but brand evangelists. In “Direct Message From @JayElectronica: A Fan Engagement Case Study,” I explored digital brand engagement from the perspective of the fans. The above figure is a social media value chain model as executed by the artist. [Hi-Res]

Research in the economic impact of social media and direct-to-fan marketing is limited but artists like Lupe Fiasco, Nicki Minaj and Jay Electronica prove that strategic implementation of this marketing innovation will yield results. At a time where the record industry is in a severe decline, new and effective strategy is crucial to its turnaround.

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Jay Electronica’s fan engagement tactics are very unorthodox and completely worth it.

My first direct message was from Jay Electronica in 2008, days after Christmas. I had just joined twitter and made the premature decision to follow every rapper on the network and Jay followed me back. Soon after, he sent a direct message—no words, just this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGPhpvqtOc&feature=related

It was a YouTube link to a music video of “I Put a Spell on You” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins—I’ll leave delving into the implications of this message for my readers.

Later that year, I was unfollowed. But I wasn’t alone.  It was “The Great Unfollowing of 2009.” Jay Electronica unfollowed nearly all of his fans, truncating his follower list to less than 200.  A year later, high off the heels of announcing his signing to Roc Nation, he followed everyone back—sort of.

In the small hours of Nov. 15, Jay Electronica announced he would follow back anyone who hit him up. And they did. Jay Elect was the proud recipient of over 1500 mentions just an hour after the announcement. He has since followed about 1600 fans, a Dave Chappelle impersonator, Joe Budden, and me.

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On Jan. 11, Facebook crashed, or at least according to Kanye West. Around midnight, West tweeted a screen shot of an error page suggesting the famed social network had exceeded it’s bandwidth following the release of “H.A.M.”

Rap veterans Kanye West and Jay-Z had released the first track off of their forthcoming album, Watch the Throne, on Facebook but to lukewarm reviews and even more lackluster buzz.

Kanye West x Jay-Z - HAM by uristocrat

Days before the release, West and Jay-Z announced on their Facebook fan pages that “H.A.M.” would be a midnight release via a page dedicated to their joint album.

And soon after, the blogosphere was pregnant with anticipation of the duet single from the rap titans.

Facebook users rushed the Root Music powered “BandPage” for the first taste of Watch the Throne and in the hours following the release, the album page had garnered over 32k fans and hundreds of comments. “H.A.M.” was all the digital hip-hop community could talk about in the small hours of Jan. 11 but the question still remains:

Why Facebook?

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             Should artists keep their political views out of the public eye?

Hell hath no fury like a follower scorned. After a flurry of anti-Bush tweets from Chicago bred emcee, Lupe Fiasco, fan Robert Nalette (@detroitrobbie) unfollowed him.

In response, Lupe Fiasco retweeted the announcement and soon after, the post was nowhere to be found. Nalette deleted it.

Fiasco didn’t have to respond to Nalette’s attack, he knew several of his 250k+ followers would. And they did. Nalette was the recipient of over 100 opposing mentions that ranged from polite disagreements to racial insults. The twitter bullying presumably became too much for Nalette and he activated the private setting on his account.

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Jay-Z’s new website. Shiny? Yes. Social media masterpiece? Not quite.

To commemorate the release of Jay-Z’s The Hits Collection, volume one of the greatest hits collection drops Nov 22., the Island Def Jam camp has released a shiny new website. It’s sleek, clean, and flashy—literally, it requires Adobe Flash 10. Sorry mobile users, this site is not for you.

The site opens with a black and white photo montage of New York City scenes to, you guessed it, “Empire State of Mind,” as the content rich site loads. Content is organized into four epochs of Jay-Z’s career—”The Beginning” (1989-1998), “Marcy to Madison Square” (1999-2003), “Corporate Takeover” (2004-2007), and “I Run the Map” (2008-present). 

Each era includes videos, photos, a discography, and milestones. Expect some spectacular video transitions as you navigate through the Hov timeline.

And what about social media you say? The developers recognized that every rap fan with a twitter account has hashtagged a favorite lyric so twitter integration was inevitable. Users can browse Jay-Z related tweets in the twitter equalizer that lines the bottom of the page and contribute their own posts. Tweets (pop-up blocker considering) are sent to a user’s timeline complete with a link to the website and #Jayzhits tag. Unfortunately, the tweets on the site do not link back to twitter so RT’ing, replying and connecting with fellow Jay fans is for the birds.

The website was developed by Agency Net and like the Roc brand, the site is clean, design wise there are no complaints. Functionality and social media wise there were however, a few bugs and missed opportunities:

A music related site isn’t complete without well, music.

The Jay-Z Hits Collection site plays 30 second snippets of songs like “Hard Knock Life” and “Run This Town” according to which era you are browsing which is awesome…if you’re only on the site for 30 seconds. The #NSFW snippets are unfortunately looped and the volume controls don’t allow for muting, just a low setting—Jay was never one to be silenced. And even as snippets go, you cannot navigate between the limited soundbite collection.

Browsing the extensive discography accents the mammoth musician that is Jay-Z. His catalog is large and diverse but don’t expect to relive each album while skimming the track lists. Only songs to be included in the Hits Collection’s can be played for 30 seconds at a time. To my chagrin, “Diamond Is Forever” didn’t make the cut.

The twitter integration was a nice touch, but what about the other networks?

Users can tweet via the “Tweets is Watching” button but most other popular networks are gone from the site. Individual photos and videos featured on the site cannot be shared. The “share” button in the lower left hand corner of the website re-directs to Facebook but there are no options for say the 1.5 mil registered Jay-Z listeners on music social network Last.fm or social bookmarking sites like Digg. JayZHitsCollection.com is a content rich, flash music website, the geeks and journos will talk. Make it easier for them to fawn over.

What if I wanna buy one of Hov’s hit albums?

Please don’t bow in my presence how am I a legend? / I just got 10 number one albums, maybe now 11. / That is no reason to treat me like I’m somehow out of heaven

Jay’s discography is serious. So what is a casual listener to do when they discover his pre-mainstream crossover projects? The “buy now” button under each album links to Island Def Jam’s e-commerce page (sorry Apple, no Ping or iTunes integration here) dedicated to the forthcoming Hits LP but none of Jay-Z’s previous 11 hit albums are available for purchase.

This website isn’t about Jay-Z, it’s about the album.

Would a stream of Jay-Z’s twitter feed been a nice touch? Yes. A calendar of Jay-Z’s upcoming appearances and tour dates? Sure. YouTube connectivity in an attempt to bring Jay-Z’s videos back into the top 10 of the most played videos chart? Maybe. But the website wasn’t built for that. After five minutes on the website this much is clear, JayZHitsCollection.com is just that, a website promoting the LP to come and nothing further.

All in all, this website was a great example of how artists can connect their brand with listeners and strengthen the relationship. The sleu of “great job” tweets reviewing the site doesn’t do the project justice.

Do you people browse websites or do you just skim right through it?

—@SincerelyJane

Meet Dom Kennedy, a west coast rapper gigging nationally with considerable buzz. Although unsigned, his recent mixtape, From the Westside With Love, received favorable reviews, including some press from XXL, and just about anything with his name on it makes it’s way into the new music cartel’s RSS feeds.  A video for “The 4 Heartbeats” Ft. Overdoz off of FWWL was released on Oct. 1. It’s a guerilla style production on a L.A. beach that chronicles the search for the perfect video girl and Dom Kennedy wants nothing to do with it.

The artist took to twitter today announcing to his followers that if they are true fans, they won’t support the video. The seemingly “official” video is what Kennedy describes as an unapproved project produced by an “at-risk” student, Ezekiel Phillips, and was never supposed to make it onto the web.

Dom Kennedy is angry, and perhaps rightfully so, the video isn’t of professional quality and Kennedy claims to have been working on an official video with a similar angle but will likely have to scrap it due to Phillips’ release. Managing your brand is essential in any business but for an emerging artist, a hiccup like this can mean a side-eye from influential blogs and missed opportunity from listeners first discovering your music.

So what is an artist to do?

Issue a statement.

“The 4 Heartbeats…, I can’t call it a video, currently in circulation is a amateur video shot by a student who gave me his word that the footage he pieced together would be used for his student portfolio. At this point in my career when I have worked very hard to maintain quality and integrity of the highest standards in my work you could understand why I would not want a video of this poor taste to be seen by the world.

The video itself was not directed by the person you see give themselves credit for it but rather the footage was collected without my knowledge from the real director and then pieced together basically to what you see now. No money was paid… no final edit was approved… and no permission to exploit the talent of myself and others was given to release the video.”

Contact YouTube, but don’t expect any help getting it off the internet.

Kennedy said he first tried to get the video taken down from YouTube but they responded “we can’t keep him from re-posting it.” He also hit up video site, World Star Hip Hop but the owner said he was paid “$1000 to have the video posted on our site within 24 hours.”

When all else fails, talk about it on twitter.

But wait, did Dom really think it wasn’t going to leak?

Something about the situation appeared fishy.  Dom Kennedy allowed an “at-risk” student to film him performing a single off his latest mixtape strictly for a student portfolio but the student plays him for some e-stardom? After some light digging, it doesn’t appear to be that simple.

Did Dom unknowingly let somebody jeopardize his brand? Sure; By an “at-risk” student hoping for an “A” on their class project? Not quite.

Ezekiel Phillips is a student completing his final year at Morehouse and he says on facebook that he’s vying for a spot at NYU’s esteemed film school upon graduation. In a 2008 inaugural address at Morehouse, the new president described Phillips as “a freshman who negotiated the dangerous streets of South Central Los Angeles and survived a few regrettable decisions.”

While a 22 year-old student with graduation from one of the top HBCU’s at his grasp, no longer qualifies as “at-risk,” one can empathize with Dom Kennedy’s naiveté.

But here’s the first red flag.

A year ago, Phillips released a video for Overdoz’s “Creamie Says,” marked “official” and directed by none other than, himself. It’s likely that Overdoz—he provided vocals for “The 4 Heartbeats”—put Dom Kennedy and the student in touch so Phillip’s previous work should’ve tipped him off.

The second flag is the agreement for the video to be for Phillips’ portfolio. What aspiring filmmaker doesn’t put their work on YouTube? For many students, YouTube and Vimeo is their portfolio and often professors require student work be published to the web.

And the third flag, well, it’s early October and the school year has just begun. Morehouse is in Atlanta so the student probably shot the video during the summer while home in L.A., its unlikely a professor would have assigned a school project prior to the start of the fall semester. But I digress.

A school portfolio that isn’t on the internet isn’t much of a portfolio at all.

If you give someone access to your image on video, assume it is going to make it to the internet and see to it you get approval prior to release. In this case, Kennedy was quick to trust without considering the consequences of a good deed going horribly wrong. Had the video not made it to WSHH it seems as though the only thing Phillips did wrong was not make it clear that it was an unofficial student production, and if Kennedy’s statement is true, note that significant portions of the video were directed and shot by someone else. The latter is an inexcusable offense.

But at the end of the day, did anyone even see the video?

The video was uploaded to Oct. 1 and “as of press time” it has received 600 views and a handful of “great job” comments on Facebook.

On Oct. 3 the video made it’s way to WSHH and has received over 1200 views, not bad but, not great either. Kennedy said that WSHH was reportedly paid $1k to publish the video to their site within 24 hours. This doesn’t sound like the strategy of someone who is trying to get some internet fame, or at least isn’t a smart one. I’ve gotten some video and editorial interviews picked up by the new music cartel on emerging artists without spending a dime or having a particular contact. If it’s quality content, the blogs will cover it.

While a Friday release also isn’t a smart move for someone with viral aspirations, it still gives top tier blogs who have been following Dom Kennedy some time to post over the weekend. Since Friday, the music sites I follow have posted over 450 items, many on unsigned hype but none on Dom Kennedy’s video “scandal.”  It’s still too early to tell but perhaps Dom is right:

You can’t have a name like Kennedy and not anticipate a little drama.

-@SincerelyJane

An unofficial case study.

We all know that Cee-lo’s “F*ck You” is a low budget viral sensation, but how did it get there? An item’s rise to Internet fame can take a number of routes, and in the case of “F*ck You,” it didn’t necessarily start or flourish on YouTube.*

“F*ck You” was uploaded on Aug. 19 and to date, the official release of the video on Cee-lo’s YouTube account has received over 2.4 mil views and there are about a dozen unofficial versions with considerable page rank including a remix featuring 50 Cent that together have received over 579k views.

While YouTube’s metrics aren’t always the most accurate or detailed, their analytics reveal some landmarks in the timeline.

Who needs the new music cartel when you have twitter?

The new music cartel—an allegiance of the top hip-hop/urban blogs on the web—is usually the go-to tool for launching a piece of hip-hop related news, music, or video but in the case of “F*ck You,” two twitter handles proved to be more useful.**

On Aug. 20, the video garnered over 35k views from referrals from stand-up comedian @joerogan (Klout: 77 | “Celebrity”) and “actor/writer” @simonpegg  (Klout: 80 | “Persona”) —the first referral from YouTube got 26K.

A referral from YouTube’s music channel isn’t as helpful as you’d think.

After the video received referrals from Facebook (49k, and a second time 69k) and social bookmarking website Reddit (45k), “F*ck You” was picked up by YouTube’s music channel (50k) and then made the YouTube homepage (80k).

Outside referrals: 2; YouTube: 0

Real Facebook users don’t click links.

Facebook is the definition of over sharing. It links all the popular social networks and web tools and publishes their content on an already over populated feed of photos, comments and videos. So when Facebook users start posting links to a hilarious Cee-lo video, few even see it, let alone take the time to click on it. Thus enters the video embed.

YouTube videos can be easily embedded on Facebook and the first video embed got over 255K views, almost the equivalent of the 300k+ views gained from all the referrals combined. And they say Facebook won’t last.

If you build it, they will come.

All of the said events occurred on Aug. 20 and only marked the original referrals for the official release. The seeds were planted, and with time, the rest of the Internet caught on—additional digital marketing push from the Cee-lo camp would have been immaterial. As expected, the anti-gold digger anthem was the most popular with males aged 25-55—sorry kids, this grown folk business.

*An official music video for the song off of the upcoming LP, The Ladykiller, is scheduled for release later this week.

**The analytics for the remix video from 50 Cent’s YouTube account are no longer available but landmarks included referrals from Thisis50.com and members of the NMC.

Editor’s Note: Sometimes lyrics do sell. Cee-lo didn’t need a big budget crew make this viral video happen, just a designer (or really even a savvy intern) to input the lyrics into After Effects, sync the timeline and export the video to YouTube. Motion typography has long been a trend on YouTube and where creativity is concerned, Cee-lo’s video doesn’t hold a candle. The same animation was used for each composition and there were no additional effects unlike Jay-Z’s “Brooklyn” or personal favorite, Pulp Fiction video. The frank lyrics did the trick.

-@SincerelyJane